Day Eighty-Five

6/25

The Book: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

ISBN: 978-0-441-79034-0

Suggested By: Te Norman

Where: Home

When: 6-6:30P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 168-223 (55)

The Lead In: There is this point when reading a book that you decide what you think of the book. It’s not that you can’t change your mind by the end, but at some point you decide this book is good, bad, sucks, awesome, etc. This book is terribly boring. And dated. Not sure how this won a Hugo Award.

The 411 on the 55: The meeting with the Secretary of the Federation is a public event, to guarantee that everyone is safe from political persecution. Through some wrangling, Ben Caxton (the reporter who disappeared earlier in the book) is released and appears as part of the Martian's crew. There is a big sit down and during the meeting, Michael offers all of his wealth to be cared for by the Secretary of the Federation. According to his lawyer, Jubal, argues later that it would be better to be without money. God, are these characters cut out with cookie cutters?

The meeting adjourns for the Secretary to consider Michael’s offer. In the interim, Jubal and the crew from the ship that discovered Michael on Mars get drunk? What the hell? Is the argument that Jubal is so quick-witted that even drunk he could out-duel the government? ung.

Line of the Day: “It was not the figure-eight in which her pert fanny moved when she walked, nor the lush view from the other direction-he was not the infantile type, interested solely in the size of mammary glands! No, it was herself he loved.” pg 183 (written by someone who sounds like he never saw a woman naked if it wasn’t in a magazine)

Fact on the Fiction: Apparently Heinlein’s work is divided into three periods. A Stranger was written in the 2nd. “From about 1961 (Stranger in a Strange Land) to 1973 (Time Enough for Love), Heinlein wrote some of his more libertarian novels. His work during this period explored his most important themes, such as individualism, libertarianism, and free expression of physical and emotional love.” Wikipedia