Science Fiction Discussion: Stranger in a Strange Land - Original Version

Our SF discussion group read Robert Heinlein's classic work, Stranger in a Strange Land this month. Actually, we read a newly-released version of the book that included a huge amount of material that was edited out of the original in order to meet the publisher's requirements.

I have to say, while this version was aided by the extra material, I didn't grok it. Just like a director's cut of a movie, this version of Stranger felt to me like it included what Heinlein wanted us to see about our society. However, the extra exposition sometimes felt too heavy-handed. Maybe I just didn't quite get it. I remembered liking it when I read it 20+years ago, but that was the shortened version. Re-reading it, I found much that was familiar but I somehow didn't totally get into it. This might have been because I was distracted trying to remember if this or that was in the version I'd read before. Or, as one of our members pointed out, if it was because I am at a different place in my own life and could relate less to the themes.

There were mixed feelings about it around our table. I think the final thought was that this is a book that would very much appeal to the rebellious, limit-pushing younger age reader. Not the 14-year-old necessarily, but the senior in high school or the college student. I still believe this book is a classic. It had great influence on other SF authors and on the genre as a whole.