Stranger In A Strange Land – Robert A Heinlein (1961)

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Heinlein’s novel of the subversion of American values was received with such popular acclaim in its time that – a rare occurrence for SF novels – it went into the best-seller lists in the US. With fame came notoriety as its tenets were taken literally by some devoted fans and claimed as an influence by – amongst others – Charles Manson.
Hope is abandoned when contact is lost with the eight members of the first expedition to Mars.
Twenty years later a further mission finds only one survivor, Valentine Michael Smith, the illegitimate son of two of the dead scientists. The child has been brought up among the truly strange Martians and is, to all intents and purposes, culturally Martian.
His return to earth prompts a political crisis and later, a sociosexual revolution.
Heinlein’s aim allegedly was to challenge every sacred code of American culture. Smith, in teaching humans Martian – and thereby the Martian philosophy, exposes the dysfunctional social flaws which permeate society. Jealousy, for example, is shown to be merely a socially conditioned response to restrictive marital practices. Smith’s polygamous (and anti-capitalist) system allows those chosen to be within ‘The Nest’ to express love with each other without embarrassment or jealousy.
Sadly, Heinlein’s attempted liberalism does not cover up some of his more entrenched attitudes, particularly to women and gay men.
Homosexuality is a subject on which Heinlein always seems to exhibit a large amount of ignorance.

(Jill wasn’t sure how far this went; she had explained homosexuality, after Mike had read about it and failed to grok – and had given him rules for avoiding passes; she knew that Mike, pretty as he was, would attract such. He had followed her advice and had made his face more masculine, instead of the androgynous beauty he had had. But Jill was not sure that Mike would refuse a pass, say, from Duke – fortunately Mike’s water-brothers were decidedly masculine, just as his others were very female women. Jill suspected that Mike would grok a “wrongness” to the poor in-betweeners anyhow – they would never be offered water)

Unusually for Heinlein, the science in this novel is confined to details of the original journey to Mars. Once there, he abandons all scientific credibility by providing Mars with not only intelligent life but an oxygen atmosphere and a climate in which humanity can apparently live comfortably. Of course, Mars is merely a device by which Heinlein can introduce his alien philosophy, but it is a shame that an SF author with such credential should skimp on the basics.
Similarly in extrapolating early sixties society he succeeds terrifyingly well in anticipating the dominance of Fundamentalist Religious sects and although his future America has flying taxis which are controlled by a central computer system, secretaries are still all female and use typewriters and tape-recorders. Women are allowed to work in Heinlein’s future but only in minor and subservient roles.
Paradoxically, the female characters, who outnumber the males are far more interesting than the men. Mrs Douglas, wife of the Secretary general (a figure in this future USA who wields more power than the President) is the real power behind the figurehead. She is a shrewd and able politician despite her over-reliance on advice from an astrologer.
There are obvious echoes of the story of Christ and indeed there are some very obvious and deliberate parallels, from the initial ‘miracles’; the gathering of disciples, one of whom is an ex-stripper, through the ‘Last Supper’ and the martyrdom, resurrection and ritual cannibalism.
One of the flaws of the novel is the sudden presence of Archangel Foster (founder of the post-Christian Fosterite sect) and his successor, Digby. Both are dead but appear ‘in spirit’ in what appears to be intended to be a set of comic interludes.
This not only spoils the flow and tone of the novel but seems to be completely contradictory to Jill’s later belief – via Smith – that souls are reincarnated and do not ‘hang around’.
It’s not quite clear what their function within the novel is, since were these sections excised, the novel would lose nothing and in fact would be improved by their absence.
For its time it was a great novel, capturing the spirit of the age. Heinlein presented a very plausible future in which a kind of Paradise could be achieved through philosophical enlightenment. Today however, with Manson’s ‘Family’ and Waco behind us, Smith’s mental and physical seduction of his all-too-willing followers seems just a little too disturbing.