Stranger in a Strange Land is a book written by Robert A. Heinlein that completely throws away the social mores of the late fifties/ early sixties society. The book opens with a ship returning from a trip to Mars with an interesting passenger, a man, Michael Valentine Smith who was the son of a previous voyage to Mars that was believed to be entirely dead. This was a human raised by Martians, who are an ancient race that has various powers that are discovered later in the book to be possessed by
Humanity in Science Fiction The human experience can be well characterized by certain parts of the media we create. We reflect what we feel and face in our lives, in what we create, especially in our music and writing. The science fiction we create is especially reflective of these things, because it is often written in a way that explores the human condition as it is and as it may be in the future. These pieces of media do more than demonstrate the ideas of those who create them, they provide us
the equivalent to “Old Ones” in Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. They are the ones the Martians trust to guide them, and rightfully so as their creditability is built upon the fact the use the idea of grok, or fully understand situation, before acting or passing judgement on it. These reputable figureheads lead the Martian society, teach religion, philosophy and all the other fundamentals of life. Valentine Michael Smith raised by these Old Ones, a human completely immersed into Maritain
routinely rejected and not until the late 1940's did he breakthrough with the publication of his horror and fantasy stories in "pulp" magazines. Bradbury's real breakthrough to a mainstream audience came in 1950 with the publishing of his book "The Martian Chronicles", a series of short stories which describe the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize