Exile/Journey/Sense of Place/global voices - Essay Example

.” Science fiction has often been used to illustrate themes of knowledge and of desire, and Heinlein has continued this long tradition in his novel, which has been called one of the most influential science fiction novels ever written. Stranger in a Strange Land, although it did not catch on with audiences immediately, certainly became Heinlein’s most important novels. As David Clayton (2011) has said, “…Once the book finally found its readers, it achieved a resonance hardly paralleled by Heinlein’s other successes” (123).

Another way to say it is that readers did not grok the novel at first, but it eventually had great influence on American culture. In this novel, Heinlein anticipated aspects of American culture like no science fiction author had done for decades. It anticipated many Americans’ (like Nancy Reagan) reliance on astrology. It described the water bed years before it was actually invented. Its description of religion, communalism, and free love was embraced by the hippies and members of countercultural communities of the 1960s and 1970s.

A new church was created, the Church of All Worlds, based upon the religion formed by the novel’s main protagonist. There were even rumors that Charles Manson was inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land. According to Stranger in a Strange Land, to grok someone is to know them as well as anyone can be known. I would submit that knowledge of a person and desire of him or her, and not just sexually, cannot be separated. All humans have a need and a desire for intimacy—to know someone else deeply and to be known in the same way.

Perhaps Heinlein’s novel resonates with our society so deeply because it effectively taps into that need and desire, and for all of our need and desire to love and to be loved. This is probably why Michael Smith, the novel’s main protagonist, comes to understand that sexual relationships, the ultimate form of closeness humans can experience, is the best way to