Flawed yet Insightful: Heinlein's Response to his Era in Stranger in a Strange Land Stephanie Perez College

Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land is heralded as a science fiction classic. The winner of several science fiction awards, Heinlein’s novel explores the spiritual journey of Valentine Michael Smith, a Martian who is brought to Earth and taught the ways of humans. Through his journey, Mike, as he is endearingly called, learns about sex, religion, and politics, among many other social institutions, and notices the flaws in the human way of thinking. He introduces humans to the Martian set of beliefs, a set of beliefs that seem to align the 1960’s counterculture movement. That is a testament to Heinlein’s brilliance, and yet, despite being described as an award-winning masterpiece, there are a lot of flaws to Strange in a Strange Land, most noticeably in its plot structure. While Heinlein’s novel ends up exploring Mike’s spirituality and maturity, it starts off as a novel of political intrigue and conspiracy, and these two plotlines are never joined in a fluid manner. To wit, Strange in a Strange Land is a classic for its masterful embodiment of the 1960’s counterculture, from its glorification of sex and sin to its criticism of politics and traditional religious institutions, yet it is flawed in its disjointed plot,...