Great video! I've never seen this youtube channel before, but I gather her schtick is over-the-top cynicism. In that context it's an excellent, and perfectly accurate summary. Heinlen's works are...
Great video! I've never seen this youtube channel before, but I gather her schtick is over-the-top cynicism. In that context it's an excellent, and perfectly accurate summary. Heinlen's works are super problematic when you look at them through a modern lens, and were never really that deep or meaningful to begin with. That said, I'm not sure she actually groks the book. If you can get over how much a fucking creepy old man Heinlen was, it's really worth a read.
The book was definitely a product of its time - and, as this video keeps hinting, of its author's dirty mind. However, within the framework of a "sex cult", it does manage to question and/or...
The book was definitely a product of its time - and, as this video keeps hinting, of its author's dirty mind.
However, within the framework of a "sex cult", it does manage to question and/or challenge most social concepts that 1950s Americans took for granted: religion, sex, monogamy, capitalism, even cannibalism. With his "sex cult", Heinlein holds a mirror up to the norms of 1950s America, and tries to show people that the morality they all accept as the only true morality is anything but. It's just a series of social conventions, rather than objective moral rules.
It's sociological science fiction, rather than hard science fiction.
However, it doesn't stand up well to the test of time. Most of the concepts it discusses have fallen by the wayside. The "free love" movement of the late 1960s (which took 'Stranger' as one of its guiding books) and the "easy sex" culture of the late 1970s, both put the kibosh on the strict religious sexual morality which had dominated the USA and which 'Stranger' was written about. The world is different now, 60 years after the book was written. The book hasn't aged well. But it was very powerful at the time.
I guess when we think “eww, this work is a product of its time,” we need to go beyond using the work as a vehicle for comparing social norms (esp. if the comparison boils down to “people back then...
I guess when we think “eww, this work is a product of its time,” we need to go beyond using the work as a vehicle for comparing social norms (esp. if the comparison boils down to “people back then were messed up“), and remember to consider the work in the context of its period and the work’s effect on the period.
I wish I could read the originally published version. Heilen himself prefer it and the extended one is too wordy IMHO. But it’s impossible to find an electronic version. Shipping to Brazil is too...
I wish I could read the originally published version. Heilen himself prefer it and the extended one is too wordy IMHO. But it’s impossible to find an electronic version. Shipping to Brazil is too expensive.
Great video! I've never seen this youtube channel before, but I gather her schtick is over-the-top cynicism. In that context it's an excellent, and perfectly accurate summary. Heinlen's works are super problematic when you look at them through a modern lens, and were never really that deep or meaningful to begin with. That said, I'm not sure she actually groks the book. If you can get over how much a fucking creepy old man Heinlen was, it's really worth a read.
Seconded. You practically took the words out of my
mouthfingers.Can someone who actually likes this book explain the appeal? I think this was the worse book I've read this year, possibly ever.
The book was definitely a product of its time - and, as this video keeps hinting, of its author's dirty mind.
However, within the framework of a "sex cult", it does manage to question and/or challenge most social concepts that 1950s Americans took for granted: religion, sex, monogamy, capitalism, even cannibalism. With his "sex cult", Heinlein holds a mirror up to the norms of 1950s America, and tries to show people that the morality they all accept as the only true morality is anything but. It's just a series of social conventions, rather than objective moral rules.
It's sociological science fiction, rather than hard science fiction.
However, it doesn't stand up well to the test of time. Most of the concepts it discusses have fallen by the wayside. The "free love" movement of the late 1960s (which took 'Stranger' as one of its guiding books) and the "easy sex" culture of the late 1970s, both put the kibosh on the strict religious sexual morality which had dominated the USA and which 'Stranger' was written about. The world is different now, 60 years after the book was written. The book hasn't aged well. But it was very powerful at the time.
I guess when we think “eww, this work is a product of its time,” we need to go beyond using the work as a vehicle for comparing social norms (esp. if the comparison boils down to “people back then were messed up“), and remember to consider the work in the context of its period and the work’s effect on the period.
I wish I could read the originally published version. Heilen himself prefer it and the extended one is too wordy IMHO. But it’s impossible to find an electronic version. Shipping to Brazil is too expensive.