The classic science fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land started pretty good, moved partly into a cheap soft porn mini-novel of the 70’s and in between provided interesting views on religion, life and may other things.
While the book shows many ideas that may bother the reader, like free sex, lots of sexism and stuff like that (many comments about this in the reviews in goodreads), there is a lot very interesting material in the views displayed by Jubal, one of the two main characters of the book (the second one being the man from mars, Mike). But what made the most impact in me was the way Mike understood why we laugh. Just one day after finishing the book I happened to go to a stand-up comedy show and was impressed on how correct he was. Mike says (SPOILER ALERT): “I’ve found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much… because it’s the only thing that’ll make it stop hurting.”. How fascinatingly true, and how incredibly sad.
Anyway, makes for good bedtime reading or listening while driving. And as always, you can buy this book from amazon
