Stranger in a Strange Land

[matgb]

So, having been regularly getting books out from the local library^[1], I was tempted to try the "classic" Heinlein that I'd never read. It's recommended in the Guardian's 1000 books list, the only one of his works, and as I've enjoyed^[2] many of his other books, even those dated, I finally got around to taking it out and trying to read it.

It's the revised 'preferred' version, so it's long for a Heinlein and, apart from the obvious not aged very well problem, it seems to suffer in some way. I'm not, actually, enjoying it. I'm about 1/3rd of the way in for those interested. So I thought I'd ask you guys what you think of him and the book.
[Poll #1340941]
[1] The only books by autopope that I haven't yet read are currently waiting for me to go pick them up. If you're not sure, let Crooked Timber explain Why you should read Charles Stross as part of their Stross book event which I linked to earlier in the week but perhaps didn't push enough. I've not had time to read all of it yet, but what I have read is cool. Especially the Nobel Laureate geeking about the parallel worlds fantasy books...

[2] I read Citizen of the Galaxy and I think a couple others as a teen, and enjoyed what I can remember, I mean to reread at some point. I've read Starship Troopers both as a teen and an adult, and find it a great fun entertaining book with some dodgy politics; I'm one of those rare beasts that prefers the film because of the politics, even if Verhoeven did mess that up quite a bit. Farnham's Freehold is, however, a bit of pulpy trash best consigned to the dustbin of outdated books.

Comments

[paulatpingu.livejournal.com]

I like Heinlein, I just to tend to find myself reading his books very slowly as I have to roll his ideas around in my head a lot to figure out precisely why I often don't agree with them. There's a lot to like in Heinlein's ideas, but, and the obviously example here is Starship Troopers, I can't help but feel that there's a touch too much militarism and general anti-socialist sentiment going on in a lot of his work.

That said, I've certainly not read his whole back catalogue and his article on wikipedia is keen to point out that he offers widely different ideas in different works. So maybe other people's experience is different.

I'm currently up to date with Charlie apart from the Laundry books, which for some strange reason I couldn't stomach. I think Cthulhu, MI5 and the approaching Singularity just came out all a bit twee when you mix it together. That said, most everything Mythos related not actually written by Lovecraft missed the mark by a fair margin - guess I'm just a purist :-P

[andrewducker]

His politics changed from wife to wife. He clearly changed from being a left-wing type to being a libertarian type over time.

Compare "Beyond This Horizon", which posits a happy world where everyone gets food for free, and the world is run by a genetic board, and his later novels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_This_Horizon#Literary_significance_.26_criticism
is worth taking a quick look at.

The only constant thread is believing that personal liberty is important - it seems that he gave up on the idea of government being able to help with that over time.

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

You left off "Have heard the Iron Maiden song". :P

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

I wanted to say that I liked stranger in a strange land when I was an impressionable early teen, but find it patronising and ridiculous now. The idea of a community based on openness and love is wonderful, but he's not the first to think of that, and other people have discussed it in a much more appealling and enjoyable way.

The sexism in it drives me crazy now, too.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

Early Heinlein is great, but Stranger is about the point when he just started writing about incredibly old right-wing libertarian writers who are much wiser and better than everyone around them and who have incest fetishes...
His politics were OK early on (he was a reform Democrat) but the COMMUNIST MENACE turned him into a complete madman...

[fridgemagnet.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Heinlein's politics are embarrassing. I haven't read much of his later stuff, but the earlier is all awful, and it really _does_ get in the way of the story.

In fact it isn't just the politics - Heinlein is "old school SF" in the sense that he really doesn't seem to understand people (particularly women) very well at all, yet insists on writing about them. Worse than Niven. This is I think what informs his politics; it's student stuff, naive libertarian and then naive hippy.

[doccy.livejournal.com]

I may have read his books? But I read books like I eat burgers - I savour them while they're there, but I don't dawdle around lovingly licking each fried onion, and once they're gone I'm left with a pleasantly full sensation and a dim memory of burgers gone by.

...the one exception being Dune. And I may have ruined that for my delicious headmeats by reading the second Dune book.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

I just looked at the version I have and it said nothing about being revised, so I guess it was the original.

Read it, but can't remember much about it at all, so your poll was flawed, it not having a 'forgettable' box.

I like the Starship Troopers movie, though have never read the book. Me thinks the director was being a trifle subversive with Heinlein's politics there...

[orbitaldiamonds.livejournal.com]

My first Heinlein book was Space Cadet, in middle school, because I liked the name, and after that I read most of his other junior novels, then I went into the rest. I haven't read all of his books but I've read most of them. If I could afford to, I'd hunt down first editions. :)

(Also, um, hi. *waves* I'm a blog-hopper. ^_^)