Stranger in a Strange Land

[Apocalypse Dude]

Discordian or no?

I think it masquerades as Discordian but ultimately plays into the hands of the orderly.

[seanfish]

It's got a lot of Bhuddist influences methinks... ultimately about self-direction (which is of course discordian) but Heinlein always has that play-along-with the team kind of mentality borne of military days.

[EvilPoet]

Do you grok fnord?

[riff]

See Fnord.
See Fnord grok.
Grok, Fnord, grok.

[SMFabal]

Stranger is the first "Great Work" by RAH, and it touches on alot of his own philosophy and wish fulfillment (I think he missed the summer of love and was making up for it in print)

But for a truly discordian theme, try The Number of the Beast, his first cross-dimensional story.





















You Gork Fnord, but do you grok "grok"? :P

[riff]

I read The Cat Who Walked Through Walls recently, but it kinda felt like I was missing some of the jokes/references, since while I've read The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and SiaSL, I've never read any of the Lazarus Long stuff.  Is The Number of the Beast one of those?

I also read I Will Fear No Evil recently, which was... odd.  

Heinlein's portrayal of women always makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable, but not being one, I don't feel I've got much basis to argue about it...

[SMFabal]

Well, Number was, as I call it "the book written after he shit a gold brick". written shortly after the first Mars flyby, he neeeded to explain how there could be life on Mars when Mars was totally lifeless. It incorporated not only LazLong, but Podunkyne of Mars, Friday, and Valintine Michael Smith. (If you don't know who they are, read some Hienlien from 80-85). It also incoprporates the Gaurdsmen, a few other popular scifi writers.

Hienlien needed all of his book to take place in the same universe tio retain his "credibility" as a serious scifi writer. Number of the Beast did that.

[StDoodle]

One of my favorite aspects of Heinlein's philosophy as expressed in his works is that you never know what to expect. One moment he sounds conservative enough to make Rush Limbaugh blush, the next he makes the anarchist in you go "well that might be taking things too far." I don't totally agree with his philosophy at any point, really, but I admire the fact that he didn't seem to hesitate to change his mind and his worldview as time went on. He seemed willing to think for himself, and continue doing so, which I find very admirable even when the thinking doesn't mirror my own.

That being said, I've enjoyed all of his works (at least what I've read: Stranger in a Strange Land, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Methusselah's Children, Friday, Podkayne of Mars, Between Planets, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, JOB: A Comedy of Justice, Time Enough for Love, Starship Troopers, The Man Who Sold the Moon, The Number of the Beast, Expanded Universe, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and whatever else of his I've read that I can't remember the title of offhand).

Okay, enough with the showing off how much I read, as it probably seems a lot less impressive to this crowd than to my co-workers...

[SMFabal]

I would also recomend Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, his first "Bestseller". He wrote the book to be "bad" (meaning he didn't stop in the middle of the story to climb onto his soapbox(read his "juvililes", you'll understand")) and it outsold all his previous works. It also earned a spot in Barlow's Guide to Extraterrestrials which is how I discovered Hienlien's fine line of novels.

[Lord_Caramac]

See Fnord.
See Fnord grok.
Grok, Fnord, grok.

C:\DOS
C:\DOS\RUN
RUN\DOS\RUN

C:\FNORD
C:\FNORD\GROK
GROK\FNORD\GROK

I can't tell which one is the original.

[Donkeyotay]

My friend wants us to eat him when he dies!

[gnimbley]

Heinlein was a libertarian fascist. He would have fit in well with the Gary
North crowd.

Most of his novels after Moon is a Harsh Mistress were self-indulgent and
badly in need of re-writes. The worse was probably To Sail Beyond the
Sunset, although Time Enough for Love where everyone in the universe
wants to have heterosexual sex with his alter ego, Lazarus Long, is pretty
bad. (A computer becomes flesh is order to have his baby, his children
have his baby, a guy changes sex to have his baby, hell, I think he even
clones himself in order to have his own baby, puleeze).

Near the end he had this idea for a super plot which would span several
books. He only wrote two (The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who
Walks Through Walls) and died without leaving anyone a clue as to what
he was up to. Good luck figuring it all out.

[Donkeyotay]

Whats the book where the dude is in a womans body? I only got half way thru that piece of shit before I couldn't take it anymore.

[Bob the Mediocre]

That's I Will Fear No Evil. No plot whatsoever.
I think my favorite of his is probably Job. But I could argue with myself about that a bit

[gnimbley]

His best were the Hugo winning novels: Stranger in a Strange Land,
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Glory Road. His "juveniles" were
quite good as were the "Future History" short stories. Job was okay but
it was just an anti-Christian rant. Friday wasn't bad for a old fashioned
sf thriller.