Stranger in a Strange Land, and also, CASUAL HIPPIE SEX
I'm a few dozen pages away from finishing Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, and I've got to admit, it's only the fourth or fifth real sci-fi book I've read. Which may be why it's so baffling to me that I hadn't read it before; after all, I've been told that even if you never read a science fiction book in your life, you still have to read this one.
It's the weirdest fucking novel I've read in a while. The sci-fi aspect is actually pretty subdued. It's the themes of free love, fanatical religiosity and "grokking", and the frequent little sexist remarks made by the main characters that really surprised me.
Just about every female character fucks the Man from Mars, who then goes on to found a new religion. That's about the gist of the novel, with lots of dialogue and some really funny one-liners.
I'm reading the 650 page unabridged version, which was the only version I could find. Maybe the other version is good too, I don't know. But I do recommend it, if only for the humor in the story and Heinlein's imagination.
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
I hadn't heard that about Manson, but it wouldn't surprise me. Both he and Heinlein SHOULD BE BANNED FROM THE WORLD FOR THEIR UNUSUAL TASTES.
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
I read the book a long time ago, I remember liking it a lot. It's quite well known for it's ideas about language. The martian language alters the way that people think, giving them the unusual talents and abilities of the martians.
There's a short story by Heinlein called 'Gulf' that has a similar idea. A secret society of intellectuals has created a new language called Speedtalk. They boiled the amount of words down to the bare minimum needed to express thoughts and each word was pronounced as a single syllable. This meant that a single word of speedtalk would translate to a traditional english sentence. Because the language was so fast, the thoughts of it's speakers were much faster so they experienced time as being much slower. Essentially acheiving a kind of longevity.
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I dont know is it an Urban Myth but apparently Chrles Manson has read this book about twnty times and when he was arrested he was carrying it.