Dear Internet,
That is
another third of ""Stranger in a Strange Land" finished being
listened to. I have to say that this
third of the novel is leaning heavily towards the same problems that I found in
"Starship Troopers." That
novel attempted to delve deeply into psychological discussions without remembering
that it was telling a story. The final
product was a pile of author direct soap-box preaching. In some ways, "Stanger in a Strange
Land" has some similarities with that book, and in many ways it shares the
exact same aspects. This should not be
surprising to me considering that "Stranger" was written just two
years after "Troopers," but then again, I sometimes forget to
pre-research these items before reviewing.
Other times I completely forego research to allow myself from knowing anything
about the work so I can judge it on its own merits, or simply because I want to
prevent the story from being spoiled for me.
I still remember one case where I decided to read the introduction for
"A Tale of Two Cities" before reading the book. Within the first four lines of the
introduction, the ending was presented to me and caused much of the suspense of
the story to go straight out the window.
To this day, I do not read introductions to books because of this, or at
least not until I finish the book.
But let
me get back to "Stranger." So
far, the novel spends a large amount of time picking things apart. This is partly due to the way that the
situations in the book are ones that are not encountered in day to day
life. One does not usually come across a
telekinetic man raised by Martians. The
nature of the existence of the protagonist is one that brings up plenty of
questions. Can he ever get used to
living on Earth? Can a superman or Übermensch
exist within a society lacking in his peers?
Does his otherworldly ability mask his humanity? Does
he ever see past the philosophy of his Martian foster parents for being a hive
mentality where the queen figure is replaced by Confucian ancestral worship
that has been reduced to general elder worship through the lack of a family
unit? Only that last one has yet to be
touched upon so far, but I suspect the book will in due time. With the other questions the book has
addressed and in a manner that comes off as far too direct. There is a difference between creating a
situation and then allowing it to play out and the alternative of letting a
scene play out and then take as much time to sit back and examine the
situation. The book makes me sometimes
think that it thinks very little of its readership from the way that everything
has to be explained. Sure, there are
times that the situation needs to be presented to the audience slowly for them
to get a better understanding of what is occurring, but I find that the book
does this a bit too much. The shift
between the plot progressing and these standstills happen frequently, too. One moment things begin to pick up with the
story and the next it comes to a screeching halt.
Then
there is the character of Valentine Michael Smith. In the first third of the novel, I liked him
plainly enough, but that was probably because there was not much there to
like. He was a naive man unaware of the
truths of the world, or had half-truths behind him. He really did not have much of a personality
to begin with considering that he does not make a choice for himself for much
of the novel. Smith sits and ponders
things. Occasionally, he will make up
his mind concerning his understanding of a situation, but he takes quite a
while to make a decision for himself.
The times that he makes men completely disappear whenever his "water-brothers"
are threatened are indeed times when he takes action, but one could argue that
those moments are instinctual. They are
split second decisions made from quick assess of situations. If anything, they can be traced more directly
to Smith's moral code than choices of his own will. I am not saying that actions made from a
moral code are not a reflection of an individual's choice. No, actions stemming from a moral code are
great indicators of an individual's character.
What I am talking about are decisions that are thought out fully to the
point where the individual must resort to reason and then follows through with
their choice. It is the difference
between killing a bug with the bottom of your foot because it appears suddenly
when you are sitting on a toilet or going to the store to pick up a bug
bomb.
When
Smith finally makes a decision for himself, it is to go out into the world of
humans so he can better understand them.
After he makes this choice, his personality seems to make a 180 degree
turn. His beliefs in how to use his
abilities become casual rather than following the strictly adherent rules of
before. The way he talks about people makes
them seem like food, and not the reverently manner that he uses before. Perhaps the flippant nature of Smith having
ventured out into the world is a reflection of the fall of man having eaten of
the fruit of knowledge, but did it have to make Smith as some sort of Mary Sue
character beforehand? A Mary Sue is a
character who is a perfect being that has no faults and requires no character
growth since everything comes naturally to them. It has its origin as a term part of fan-fiction
lexicon, and it was more defined as a self-insert character, but its meaning
has grown. The reason I bring this up is
the kissing scene with Smith. The book
not only has one woman faint from kissing Smith, but afterwards has the rest of
the women line up wanting to experience Smith's world shattering lips. If the book just left it to one character, I
could understand what it was trying to get at, that Smith's one track mind
causes him to focus on his action completely without distraction. However, the book makes a sideshow out of him,
even before he does make a sideshow act, by having all available women swoon at
his feet once they learn he is some sort of master locking lips. It just all in all puts me off of the idea
that Smith is supposed to be a character we are supposed to both sympathize with
and adore. He is too far away from
Christ to be a Christ figure.
There
are a few other things I want to cover, especially concerning the book's use of
straw men, but I will save that for tomorrow when I rap this book up.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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