Dear Internet,
I
finished listening to "Stranger in a Strange Land." I have to say that I will not be going back
to it again anytime soon or for that matter ever. The book is another one of Heinlein's
preaching books where he hopes to change all of society while poorly attempting
to masquerade itself as a science fiction novel. True by definition, it is a science fiction
book. The main character is a man born
on Mars that has psychic abilities that would put him as some sort of super
human. The fact that he defines those
who will gain his abilities as "Homo superior" in the end is proof of
his self definition of being different than man and being better than him. There are some sort of super elevators, water
beds, hypnotic techniques, and a bunch of other inventions that were not
present when the book was made. But all
of these are secondary in the novel. The
main focus is clearly the philosophical discussions that the characters have
rather than the novel's plot and setting.
It is a construct of Nietzsche philosophy and eastern religious
constructs that emphasizes the lack of individualism while being wrapped up in
escapism fantasy without the whimsicalness of reality.
I can
only get a little into this, but I will try.
I should start off with what I said I was going to do yesterday. I mentioned the book's use of strawmen arguments. The most obvious form of this is its
discussions about religion. The book
creates a fake church for its use. The
Church of the New Revelation, or Fosterite, is so far removed of any sort of motion
of religion that it is a joke. "Stranger"
acknowledges this, and it is supposed to a joke religion. People wantonly commit nearly every sin under
the sun under the protection of being told that as long as it is done under the
blessing of the church it is not an act against nature or God. It is such a joke of a church that Smith
creates his own church as a reaction towards it and also in regards to the
other world religions. However, the fact
that the book makes use of this joke religion as the ultimate and central foil to
Smith is a failure of creating an argument for itself. It is almost the definition of a strawman fallacy. It concocts its own enemy from its own mind so
that it can bolster the alternative.
Instead of addressing the whole arguments that real religions put forth
as their dogma and doctrine, Heinlein centers his proposal of a new religion against
the backdrop of a cartoon faith. There
are times that he goes off into a tandem about how real religions treat certain
aspects of life, but he does it half heartedly, never really delving deeply
into one religion or the other to analyze the core philosophy. He only scratches the surface and is always
shy of ever actually stating outright the incorrectness of a particular
dogma. In the end it feels more like he
is too afraid to ever actually step on anyone's toes lest he actually upset
anyone. It is more cowardice than carefulness. Maybe that is why he has Smith refuse to
decide if his "Church of All World" is indeed a church with a
religion or a sort of philosophy, despite them being one and the same.
Do I
need to talk again about how Smith is some sort of superman? Some sort of Übermensch? Smith is some sort of great being that has
got every sort of mental power at his fingertips. Astral projection, invincibility, telekinesis,
teleportation, levitation, telepathy, body
regulation, and the ability to make things immaterialize, which probably already
has a name in some database. The only
thing that it seems he cannot do is materialize matter. And this is a major factor. Smith can destroy, but what can he
create? The only thing he makes in the
entirely of the novel from his own self is a child, and he does not really acknowledge
it in the sense of fatherhood. In fact,
under Smith's church there is no parenthood.
Everything is communal. But this
is a falsehood within humanity for a mother will identify her child as her own
even if the father cannot or will not.
To make the children as a part of this communal society would require a replacement
of the process of birth. The book treats
children as accessories rather than individuals with the dignity of human
life. But I am supposed to be talking
about Smith. His wealth comes not from
his own efforts. It is inherited, so he knows
not the value of a man's sweat. Even to
the end, he refers to those outside his fold or those lower to him as "marks,"
a derogatory term used by carnival workers to those they swindle. Until they share with his experiences, they
are beneath them. At the end of the book,
it has the gall of placing Smith as a Christ figure. He is supposed to be sacrificing himself to
the mob and becoming a martyr for his beliefs in the process. Afterwards, his friends perform a
cannibalistic ritual which is supposed to mirror the Christian sacrament of
Eucharist, albeit done rather tasteless manner.
The greatest problem with this is that throughout the book, Smith is
never once displayed as being subject to the human condition or even ever
really being a man at all. Even Christ
was tempted in the desert and cried over the death of his friend Lazarus, but
Smith never knows pain nor ever says he loves anyone because he says he cannot
understand love. He says that if Jill
says he loves someone he will agree with her because she understands love. Smith's death as a Christ figure is broken
when one sees that his death was not to prove anything or even done for the benefit
of those around him. It is done for
showmanship rather than love for his fellow man. If anything it could have been done selfishly
because he wanted to ascend to a higher plane.
Christ's death was done to allow the chance for the ascension of the
soul of man to heaven because only once God has known death can a flawed man
sit at the same table as God. You can
disagree with me on this, but having Smith as a representation of Christ is
more a slap in the face of Christianity than a straightforward analogy. Then again, this whole book is supposed to be
a slap in the face of most world religions.
The
book want to erase the importance of individuality more than it wants to
admit. It pushes the hive mentality even
when Smith makes an altered version of it for his church made of humans. The word god is thrown around like a
baseball. Smith says that all living things
are god with oneness, that every person is god and that god is all. He says that it is a poor translation of what
he is saying, but that does not stop him and all the rest of the characters
from interjecting "grok" as much as they can, which is supposed to be
a mixture of think, understand, and drinking.
All it ends up being is a sort of pantheism with a new set of cloths. Throw in a little Buddhism, Hinduism, and a
bit of sideshow theatrics and you get Smith's quasi-religion. Individualism definitely goes out the door
once everyone starts sharing each other's experiences through some sort of constant
mental link. The book tries to say that
this is not the case with how it tries to keep individuals from retaining their
personalities once becoming a part of Smith's collective mind, but this is a
joke considering that the point of the religion is to melt everyone's minds
together.
"Stranger"
tries its hardest to remove itself from reality that it finally succeeds. It removes itself from the manner that people
behave. It removes itself from how people
think. It removes itself from the
troubles of man that someone reading it forgets his own troubles. This is escapism plain and simple, but not all
escapism is a bad thing. It is like
jumping up into the air to feel the effect of weightlessness when falling. It is when one jumps off the Burj Khalifa to
maximize the time of euphoria that a bystander should intervene. That is what makes "Stranger" such
a pile of drivel. It goes so far out of
reality that it forgets that it is a fictitious work. It spreads a con, and worse than that,
believes its own con. The escapism that
"Stranger" puts forth is the kind that makes a person lose touch with
reality because they believe the unreality that is clearly being put forth
before them.
"Stranger
in a Strange Land" is a terrible work.
At first I thought I was going to like it because of its premise. A man returns home to Earth after being
raised by Martians. In the end, the book
is a soap box sermon from Heinlein that again forgets to tell an enjoyable
story. After that it delves scantly into
religion and philosophy while pretending it is deep. The majority of the characters are unlikable
to the point that if they in the least point step outside of the book's
philosophy they are ironed out to fit the book's mold or are catapulted into a
joke character. Everything becomes so
matter-of-factly in the way that the characters react to the important things
of life that nothing, not even life or death, has any sort of
significance. The character of Smith
fails as a prophet, a self insert, a sacrificial lamb, or even as a
protagonist. In the end, the book is a
waste of time that does more as an antithesis of reason and reality.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Tomorrow is the "Genocyber" OVA.
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