Summary:
A review of Robert Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land, about the experiences of a human born on Mars who is brought to Earth by a manned spacecraft.
Stranger from a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
This book is about a man named Valentine Michael Smith who is a human, but he was born on Mars. He faces great struggles and does not "grok" or understand a lot of things about the Terran civilization but tries to learn and is eventually taught by his friends or water brothers.
The setting is in the distant future shortly after World War III, a manned spacecraft the Champion is sent to Mars searching for its predecessor the Envoy, which lost contact shortly after landing on Mars. The crew of the Champion finds Valentine Michael Smith, and they also make the first known contact with an intelligent life, the Martians, who agreed to let Valentine Michael Smith go to Earth to live among his actual people.
Once Valentine Michael Smith lands back on Earth with the Champion and its crew he is celebrated greatly but the United States Government were already figuring out how to acquire all of the money and assets left to him by his parents who were part of the lost Envoy. This causes a chain of events leading up to Valentine Michael Smith's freedom as a human being as a pose to a scientific investigation, which led up to his water brother (a person he shared a glass of water with, it's very serious in Martian culture) "kidnapping" him and taking him away from the hospital.
The biggest problem Valentine Michael Smith has is he does not know most of the world and how humans work, he has no concept of property, no concept of windows and no idea what the difference between a poisonous solution used for photography and iced tea, rather then "had a flavour he was not sure he liked" (pg. 231). So you can understand how mixed up Earth is to him, truly a Stranger in a Strange Land.
Eventually all the political, financial, and government issues are dealt with in a huge conference open to press and Valentine Michael Smith is able to lead his life in freedom. Which leads to his water brothers learning about his strange powers, the ability to make wrongness, anything bad that could cause harm to his water brothers, go away or discorporate and lift objects without even coming close to them let alone making physical contact with them. And becomes not the Man from Mars, but the man who taught humans how to live to their fullest.
This is the complete article, containing 405 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
