Now I know where ‘grok’ comes from. Valentine Michael Smith is a human who was raised as a Martian, and he’s been ‘returned’ to Earth. His naïveté and deep wisdom bring confusion, chaos, and ecstasy to those around him.

Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land was an interesting read, mainly because it was so anachronistic. I did not find the plainly misogynistic bits offensive — they were pretty funny because they are so out of chime with what’s acceptable these days. I don’t know this, but was Heinlein an early Flower Power dude? He should’ve been.

I can see why this has been considered a science fiction classic. It’s got aliens, space travel, and a different moral system. It was published at a time of great change (I’m presuming, since I wasn’t there), and the best science fiction puts ideas and belief systems into different contexts to show them for what they really are (sort of), all the while telling a really good yarn.