Critical Essay | Critical Essay by R. A. Jelliffe

Critical Essay by R. A. Jelliffe

[Heinlein's] own statement of his intent in writing [Stranger in a Strange Land] may well be noted; but it is not necessarily the reader's best guide in his perusal of it. "My purpose in this book," the author says, "was to examine every major axiom of the western culture, to question each axiom, throw doubt on it—and, if possible, to make the antithesis of each axiom appear a possible and perhaps desirable thing—rather than unthinkable."

An ambitious and comprehensive undertaking, surely, "Western culture," even tho restricted to its major axioms—and who is to determine which they are?—is a complex of multiple concepts and behavior patterns. To stand each one of them upside down, with the avowed objective of discovering whether they may thereby appear more acceptable, is to subject each axiom to the warped mirror of ruthless reflection. Such a quixotic venture might well seem foredoomed to disaster.

But the...
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