Day Eighty-Three

6/22

The Book: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

ISBN: 978-0-441-79034-0

Suggested By: Te Norman

Where: Home

When: 8-8:30P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 56-111 (55)

The Lead In: Today, my Moby-Dick article ran in the paper and I received very little response. The worst part of that is the article itself was a labor of love. I was thrilled with the way it turned out. Almost like a mini-term paper. But on to Heinlein and his alien, with a little sadness.

The 411 on the 55: Ben has dropped off the grid and Jill has no way to reach him. In a panic, she sneaks into the hospital and steals Michael (the martian). She disguises him as a woman and bundles him out of the hospital. Later, during their escape two men attempt to stop them, and Michael makes them disappear, describing it later as “something that was wrong”, and making it right.

She flees with the martian to a man Ben had mentioned before, Jubal Harshaw (the half doctor, half lawyer guy). There, Michael begins to read and learn about life, while they attempt to decide what to do next.

Line of the Day: “Don’t be difficult, sweetheart. Behave yourself and they might go easy on you.” pg 66 (who talks like this?!)

Fact on the Fiction: Found this on another site, critical of Heinlein’s dialogue. “The narration is not so bad, but the dialogue is atrocious. To an extent this goes back to character — no one has a unique voice except for the Man from Mars, who doesn't start sounding like everyone else until midway though the book. The others' dialogue sounds as if they're reading off note cards the author scribbled down watching a bad hard-boiled detective movie. "I've been a worthless, no-good parasite." "Everybody knows that." "Never mind the flattery." Virtually every page is like this.” Adamcadre