Friday is Book Day on the blog, when we take a look at books – old and new — that I highly recommend you not miss. This week’s recommended reading: Stranger in a Strange Land
There are many, many books that I have read in my life, but few have affected me as deeply as Robert Heinlein’s extraordinary science-fiction story of Valentine Michael Smith, an Earthling who was born and educated on Mars, and who arrives on our planet under the most unusual of circumstances–creating the most unusual of circumstances.
This story says more about humanity, love, religion, how we might all finally create peace together, what is stopping us, and the state of the human mind that any five other books you might read. It is, of course, a classic of science-fiction (and, in some circles, spiritual) literature, addressing Earth’s morals from the unique standpoint of someone who arrives here without knowing anything about them…and is compassionately trying to understand the logic and love in them.
Because it is such a long-standing classic there is a good chance that you have already read this remarkable book. But if you have not, I really, really encourage you to do so. And if you have, but it has been a number of years now since that time, I invite to the wonderful enjoyment of reading it again. Also, this just-plain-terrific novel would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for just about anyone this Christmas.
The editorial description of Stranger in a Strange Land on Amazon.com speaks of the story’s main character, who arrives on Earth “with psi powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man.
“After his tutelage under a surrogate-father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a messiah figure. His introduction into Earth society, together with his exceptional abilities, lead Valentine to become many things to many people: freak, scam artist, media commodity, searcher, free-love pioneer, neon evangelist, and martyr.
“Heinlein won his second Hugo award for this novel, sometimes called Heinlein’s earthly ‘divine comedy’.”
To me, Robert Heinlein’s book addresses, in the main, the subject of love–human love and divine love, and the difference between the two, and what it would take for those differences to disappear, and what would happen if they did.
That is why Stranger is considered by some people within spiritual communities a ‘must read’ book, even after all of this time (the book has been out for many, many years). Whatever you think of this text, I promise you, you will never be bored reading it. It offers something to ponder, and to agree with or disagree with, on virtually every page.