Fascism and Free Love (Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land)

Welcome to the first episode of Consider the Ray Gun. That's right, another day, another podcast thread. In a development that has been a long time coming, Daniel has decided to take a break from watching movies and television and is actually going to force himself to read books. This will be a catch-as-catch can kind of podcast, with a rotating series of guests, but in this one he's joined by friend of the show James Murphy of Pex Lives and City of the Dead, and together they chat about Robert Heinlein's controversial 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land.  Main Topic: Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Personal. Starship Troopers. Juveniles. Counterculture. "Grokked a wrongness." Clever enough. Heinlein's sexism. Introduction to Jill. Changing books. "What a shithead I used to be." A man named Stinky. Racism between editions. James's experience of reading. Changes in tone. Hugh Hefner. Mike the carney. Learning how to laugh. Stock characters. Cantankerous. Stag party. Manifestations of homophobia. Shipping male-male love. Amorphous secretaries. Fair Witness. Inventing Nancy Reagan. Astrology. Defining hippie culture. Tame. Playboy centerfolds 1961. Heinlein and Hubbard. Fosterites and Scientology. Suing the podcast. Southern California. The changing author. Futurism. Birchers. Leftist but anti-Communist. Libraries. Valentine Micheal Smith and the military. Referencing Star Trek. Heinlein and the UN. "I love nuclear war." Incest. Awakening of sexuality. Redheads, pregnant women, and female tears. The great triumph of the book. Death of the author. Dickhead Mike. Understanding Mike the religious leader. Why the Larkin decision? Legalism and imperialism. Changeling Ben Caxton. Jill's lessons. Naked Heinlein. Recognizing oneself. Pushing Free Love. James references Kevin Smith. The politics of open relationships. One-way polemics. Chatting about religion. Faith versus heirarchy. "Cult." The sexual politics of the Ninth Circle. Sapir-whorf. The intimacy of water-brotherhood. Boundaries. Sameness. The failure of the hippies. Mike the martyr. Violence. Wrapping up.  Check out all our future episodes at oispaceman.com, and check out James's podcasts at pexlives.libsyn.com.