Reflections on Stranger in a Strange Land

I first encountered this book at the tail end of my Heinlein phase, in 1994. This was also the beginning of my first stab at becoming a science fiction novelist, and, I realize now, that terrible book that I wrote was more than a little influenced by this work. I also realize that Heinlein uses some tricky narrative styles that probably confused me. For example, he switches tenses and person a time or two. It works for him, but as a very new, not very good writer, it was not something I should have been fooling with.

As science fiction, it holds up in many ways; in other ways, less so. The hard science is not very interesting. There’s nothing terribly innovative about the one world government, the flying, automated cars, or the video and audio tapes that appear occasionally. On the other hand, Mars and its inhabitants are fairly interesting. Good thing too, since the relationship between human and Martian drives the entire novel.

What I found to be most interesting and most disappointing was the social commentary. The book makes it clear that Heinlein enjoys and has great affection for women. It also strongly suggests a line of deep sexism in his thinking. Even the more central women are cast as purely supporting characters. They are intelligent, attractive and varied; yet all the really important actions and decisions are left to the male characters.

I deeply appreciate the concept of Water Brother as portrayed here. Of course, it reflects an idealized circle of friends. Since I don’t live in an idealized world, it breaks down when applied to my reality. For example, in this novel’s concept, the circle of water brothers is ever inclusive, and water brothers are always trusted to be wise in their inclusion of new members. In my life, I surely have close friends analogous to Michael Smith (The Man from Mars)’s water brothers; yet, these friends occasionally have close friends who I would not choose to associate with, let along ‘share water’ with.

Heinlein’s view of human sexuality is also compelling. These characters are polyamorous (though the word hadn’t been invented yet), have multiple partners, and yet, they are not at all licentious. All of their sex is a means for ‘growing closer.’ In some ways this makes it simultaneously more and less casual than sex is commonly experienced in our culture.

There’s also a nice bit about good kissing. The best kisses are those in which those involved are focused on the experience itself, and are not concerned about the before and after.

Mage Game... RIP?

The gaming group is still in pretty good shape, though we don't play as often as we'd like, and we could probably use another member. However, we're rebooting our system again and starting new characters.

The last time we did this, we stayed in the World of Darkness setting, playing as magi, but hacked the rules notably.

I was growing tired of urban fantasy, and had lost my love for my transvestite Ayn Randian artist character. Other members of the group also have some itch for variety.

My new character concept is of a semi-retired businessman, probably not human, who has piles of money, contacts and charm. He just bought (or had constructed) his dream spaceship. While he knows how to operate everything on the ship on the level of an accomplished amateur, he's no professional captain, navigator, pilot, engineer, etc...

I'm playing with the idea of giving him low level telepathy and/or some racial semi-monstrous body transformation abilities.

This concept is influenced by the Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, that red squid guy form Futurama, and the Jurassic Park owner, John Hammond.

I need to figure out his race, so it can be worked into the game setting.

Below I'll paste in some of our other discussions:

***********

If what makes the modern earth setting world 'special' is simply a widget that protects it from invasion, I'm cool with that. In that sense, every world probably has something 'special' about them. For example, perhaps there is a ley line conjunction on Earth, which allows some limited magic use. From there, a cabal of mages might cast some spells of protection to keep the baddies away. Perhaps the science fiction world has vast dilithium deposits which powers their ships and allows advanced weaponry and shielding. Another has a large werewolf population, and everyone who lands there gets converted or eaten.

My thought too is that the modern Earth would be similar to WOD, but the vampires and werewolves would probably originate elsewhere.

I'd like to keep the 'awakened' vs 'sleeper' concept non-central to the overall universe. While it may be important in some realities, for others, it's a very slim line between civilian and hero. It makes sense for Force users, Mages and Superheroes, but for lower powered characters I don't see the advantage.

Maybe we should also start a discussion on power levels for our PC's. I think there's room for a broad range (ROTJ Luke Skywalker and C-3P0 in the same group, Thor and Captain America working together) within reason.

-Chad

Things I know I think and things I want to remember.

----- Original Message ----
From: jumpup7jam
To: emeraldeye@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:40:27 AM
Subject: [emeraldeye] Re: SETTING: Meta-setting discussion

Oooh, Craig, I like it! That is, save for a couple of points. I
think it ought to be unspecified as to whether or not the number of
realities are infinite. Perhaps there is a finite number of known or
easily reached realities, thus making them effectively finite, but I
don't think there's any reason for that door to remain permanently
closed. Plus, it's more fun not knowing. That way there can be
philosophers.
Personally, I'd rather "our" reality weren't special. In so much
fiction and thought, there's a sort of blown-up (in terms of scale)
self-importance. Humans are so great. Earth is a wondrous place.
America. Yah-da-da. Don't get me wrong, I do like earth and humans
and The United States of America, but in a setting with lots of other
worlds, I don't see why they need to be special, unless it's to
prevent us from taking our flight of fancy so far as to lead us to
disparage our own lives. We witness fantastic realms and events and
find our own lives wanting if we don't include the caveat that our
place is special, even though we don't have super powers.
I'm babbling.
Anyway, I love the rest of it. Are you thinking of a way to systemize
the mixing of realities, or are the characters so unaffected that such
a thing would be superfluous?
All have great days!

--- In emeraldeye@yahoogro ups.com, "james craig" wrote:
>
> Let's start off the setting discussion by talking about the multi-genre
> setting as a whole. As we get into specific realities we might
spawn more
> threads. Here's what I'm thinking about the multi-verse (much
borrowed from
> Torg, Mage, Rifts and other places):
>
>
> - There are multiple realities (but not infinite) that are
effectively
> different dimensions/universe s, in that getting from one world to
another is
> more than just traveling distance (but it may be part of the
journey). Each
> reality has it's own theme/genre and own laws of physics. For
example, in
> Etherspace people can breath in space (either it is filled with
air or each
> person's personal gravitational field keeps a personal atmosphere
around
> them), in Fairy-tale land magic can alter reality if done within
the proper
> ritual/spell format, in space wars universe the theory of
relativity doesn't
> apply, so ships can rocket through interstellar space at absurd
speeds
> (giving Einstein the finger).
> - I like Torg's idea that each reality has some sort of overlord
(but not
> necessarily evil or good), and this being's will/belief is what
sets the
> genre of that reality. This is in turn supplemented by the
collective
> belief of the inhabitants. The realm's overlord may need their
belief to
> empower him/her/it.
> - Everyone from each reality keeps some of it with them if they
go to a
> different reality (like a personal aura). The more powerful the
character,
> the bigger/stronger the aura. Over time it would degrade.
Awakened beings
> (like the PCs) have enough energy in their auras to do cool crazy
stuff
> (like magic in a non-magic world, epic action stunts, super
powers, etc.).
> - Our earth/WoD is of some special significance, probably because
of an
> abundance of metaphysical energy, like Possibility energy from Torg,
> Quintessence, Ether, Chi, Mana; either way the fundamental energy of
> reality/life. This same abundance of energy makes it a great
target as well
> as prevents the bad guys from invading en masse.
>
> more later

Game Design Notes

The game master of my game group recently passed around an interesting article abotu game design. This article emphasizes how the mechanic of the game should encourage fun play (to put it very simply).

I then started thinking about the type of science fiction game I might like to play. I've had a desire to design a science fiction rpg since high school, and I doubt I'll ever flesh it out. Still, here are a few ideas I had:

Ship combat that isn’t too complicated, but rewards quick decision making and tactical play

Niche jobs for everyone: for example pilot/helm, engineer, captain, security, science/medic specialist.

This does work somewhat for large scale, Star Trek / Battlestar Galactica activities, but would be best suited on a medium scale, Millenium Falcon, Serenity, Starship Defiant sized crew.

Exploration of planet surfaces and space stations in a way that everyone gets to go along. It’s no fun if the captain has to stay on the ship.

Studies in Leadership, as Shown in Science Fiction, Part I: Paul Muad'dib Atreides

While Paul Muad'dib Atreides's leadership rests heavily on its fantastic elements, at its core is a real world lesson of how a group's energy dictates its actions, even over the decisions of the group's beloved leader. In the first novel of Frank Herbert's Dune series Paul becomes recognized as the messiah of the Fremen. He manages to unite the powerful desert people into the most powerful military force in the known universe.

What happens after his ascension to the imperial throne is especially notable: Paul realizes that he can't stop the Fremen jihad, and his vision of the future is filled with terrible alternatives. This illustrates a reality faced by leaders every day: those being led are often beyond control. Consider for a moment the humorous t-shirt or coffee cup, "Have you seen them? Which way did they go? I must find them because I am their LEADER!!" While this shows the extreme, it also illustrates that no leader can direct a group somewhere they don't want to go. Along the same vein, a leader also cannot prevent a group from doing something they are determined to do.

This does assume that the group has great potential energy with a pre-determined direction. In the Fremen example, this civilization had evolved for generations into a homogeneous group of survivors. Prior to Paul's appearance, they lacked the cohesion to express their energies beyond their cultural survival based taboos. Once united, these energies exploded upon the universe in the form of jihad.

Tolstoy illustrates similar concepts throughout his great novel, War and Peace. When the Russian Army stops Napoleon's invading force, no power on the planet could have stopped that desperate retreat. No Russian leader could have stopped the Russians from driving out the invaders, and no French leader could have reformed the French forces.

Podcasts

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?

I am: Isaac Asimov One of the most prolific writers in history, on any imaginable subject. Cared little for art but created lasting and memorable tales.

Which science fiction writer are you?