Have you read "Stranger in a strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein?

Question

If yes, tell me what you liked or disliked about this book.
Thanks.

....got grok?

No need to describe what happens or to give details about the book.... I am only interested in personal views on the story.

Answer 1

It's been a while since I read it, but I remember I didn't like it. It wasn't the characters I didn't like, just how they interacted, I suppose. In the book, the minor characters cluster around the main one and it struck me as really cultist. Like some guy out in the middle of nowhere gathering together people for his own personal religion. Sure, he introduced the idea of grok and down to the bones understanding, but I don't think any of them understood anything, including the main character. There are times when I think that the Stranger in the strange land is the main character is himself and the strange land is his mind. Who knows.

Answer 2

Although the book was written over four decades ago, the social commentary is as valid as if it had been published yesterday. The description of how an "alien" learns to understand and partake in another culture (Earth) can be applied to the way foreigners who leave their native country for another cope with problems that "natives" don't even realize exist. The surprise ending makes one think of what would happen in the event a superior being should come down to Earth and live among us.

Answer 3

Yes, Yes I have! Many years ago I grokked that book; about thirty or more years ago. It still makes me ponder......

Answer 4

I didn't like the way the book ended. I did like the characters.

Answer 5

I loved it. I really like Heinlein's sense of humour.

Answer 6

Read on,my answer did not fit here so i wrote it in sources instead
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on Mars, as he returns to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with — and eventual transformation of — Earth culture. The novel's title refers to the Biblical Book of Exodus.[1] Its working title was The Heretic.

The book was a breakthrough best-seller and eventual cult classic, attracting many readers who would not ordinarily have read a work of science fiction. Late-1960s counterculture was influenced by its themes of sexual freedom and liberation.[2] Several editions promote the book as "The most famous Science Fiction Novel of all time."[3]

When Heinlein first wrote Stranger, his editors required him to cut it from its original 220,000-word length, and to remove some scenes that might have been considered too shocking at the time. The final result was near 160,000 words, and this version, published in 1961, received a Hugo Award. After Heinlein's death in 1988, his wife Virginia found a market for the original edition, which was published in 1991. As with Podkayne of Mars, critics disagree whether Heinlein's preferred version, published later, is in fact better than the one originally published.

The story portrays Valentine Michael Smith's adaptation to, and understanding of, humans and their culture, which is portrayed as an amplified version of consumerist and media-driven 20th-century America. Smith is the son of two genius astronauts, raised by Martians on Mars until he is taken "home" to Earth, where he is effectively imprisoned in a hospital by the government, which wishes him to transfer any rights he may have to ownership of Mars to itself, specifically the "Federation of Free States", a world government whose Secretary-General happens to be American. Smith is also something of a political pawn in factional struggles within the Federation, and to make matters worse he is heir to the fortunes of the entire exploration party, not just his parents. In short, he is a man besieged on all sides by those who wish to use him to further their own ends.

Nurse Gillian Boardman, who regards men as a hobby, works at (some futuristic evolution of) Bethesda Naval Hospital, where, by the orders of the Champion's ship physician Sven Nelson, Smith has been a patient since his arrival on Earth. Since Smith is physically weak and oppressed by the heavy atmosphere he is confined to a "hydraulic bed"[4], and further since Smith has not yet ever seen a female human (all the crew members of the Champion were/are male), Nelson has ordered that Smith be attended by male staff only, including nurses. Regarding this as a challenge, Gillian slips past the guards to get a peek at Smith, and in doing so inadvertently becomes his first female "water brother" by sharing a glass of water with him. To him this is a holy relationship based on the customs of arid Mars. Later on when a doctor meets him and attempts to converse, strange effects of custom and mistranslation ensue, including apparently catalepsy. Obviously Smith is not ready for mainstream attention quite yet.

After her watch, Gillian prepares for a date with her boyfriend, investigative journalist Ben Caxton. He sends a robocab to take her to another place, where they catch a second cab and eventually go to his place. Ben informs her that the cloak-and-dagger act is necessary because being associated with him is dangerous.

However, Jill tells Ben about her strange and wonderful experience, and Ben explains to her some of the bizarre interplanetary politics swirling around Smith, and finally she agrees to place a bug to monitor Smith. Later, when she and Ben watch a "stereovision" telecast of the "Man from Mars", she knows instantly that he is a fraud (since the real Smith doesn't really understand English or even more basic human customs). Ben sees the subsitution as political and not scientific: he wonders if the real Smith will ever be allowed out in the world. Ben attempts to see and unmask the phony Smith, but disappears. Meanwhile, Gillian tries to persuade Smith to leave the hospital with her. He is willing to go anywhere with a water brother, but they only get as far as Ben's apartment before agents attempt to kidnap them. Smith causes the agents to disappear, and is so shocked by Gillian's terrified reaction that he enters what seems to be a catatonic state. She has to carry him away in a large trunk.

They reach the enclave owned by Ben's friend and fellow gadfly, Jubal Harshaw, an eccentric millionaire writer of fiction, TV scripts and other kinds of mass-market pablum, who also happens to be a qualified medical doctor, a lawyer, and an advisor to certain public figures. Harshaw's five employees include three beautiful women who act as secretaries, walking dictation machines and cooks, as well as restraints on his excesses, along with technical helpers Duke and Larry. With Gillian, they teach Smith human customs and behavior, including sexual behavior.

Smith demonstrates psychic abilities and superhuman intelligence, which are coupled with a childlike naïveté. When Jubal is trying to explain religion to him, Smith understands the concept of God only as "one who groks", which includes every living person, plant, and animal. This leads him to express the Martian concept of the oneness of Life as the phrase "Thou art God". Due to his education on a different planet, many human concepts, such as war, clothing, and jealousy are strange to him, while the idea of an afterlife is something he takes as a given because the government on Mars is composed of "Old Ones", the spirits of Martians who have died. It is also customary for loved ones and friends to eat the bodies of the dead, in a spirit of Holy Communion.

Harshaw realizes he cannot keep the young man concealed forever, and after an attempt by government forces to reclaim Smith is frustrated by the young man's Martian-taught abilities, Harshaw brokers a deal under which the Secretary-General, in his individual capacity, will act as trustee for Smith's immense wealth. Harshaw is able to make his implication stick that human law, which would have granted ownership of Mars to Smith, has no applicability to a planet already inhabited by intelligent aliens.

Once accustomed to the human race, Smith moves out with Gillian and joins a traveling circus as a magician. Although his "magic" is real — levitation and teleportation — he is a failure as an entertainer because of his inability to understand people. He eventually learns to understand humanity ("Jill, I grok people!") when he comprehends how painful and unjust life is by watching monkeys mistreat each other in a zoo.

Smith realizes there's no need for so much misery, and asks Jill what he needs to do to be ordained. He then starts a Martian influenced "Church of All Worlds" which teaches its members how to rise above suffering such as "pain and sickness and hunger and fighting." However, parts of the religion such as group sex and communal living make Smith's church a target.