Re: [UUPoly-L] Stranger In A Strange Land

[Bitsy <darthbitsy@yahoo.com>]

I read SiSL in the summer of 2000, when I was 15,* so I'm afraid I don't remember it well.  What I
do remember is that all the ideas made so much sense to me that they clicked well enough that I
didn't find them odd or different.  So what I noticed was the homophobia, and how shallow the
women were.  I almost couldn't read it because it bothered me so much.  The shallow women I could
write off as being a product of the authors time (though I shouldn?t have), but the idea that
someone could be so positive about sex and yet so homophobic really got to me.

There is more then one criticism to make of this book.  That doesn't make it not worth reading.

Bitsy

*Indecently I was also just starting my first (and still primary) relationship that summer.  It
was an interesting time to read it ? when I was trying to figure relationships out in general.

--- Ned Sudborough <sudborough@cybermesa.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> A few months back, enough discussion of "Stranger"  brought me to  
> read the book.
> As I was once told, it was "a founding document" for polys.   
> Considered separately
> from that importance, I found the book  longer than necessary,  
> tedious to read,  stylistically
> coarse,  with frequently mentioned characters uncharacterized and  
> with several chapters
>   interpolated as humor that undermine the seriousness with which
> we might consider the book's separate ideas and his whole thesis as  
> well.
> Encouraging people to read the book calls for some warnings, also.
> 
> Ned
> 
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