I intended to post this last month but got sidetracked, so here goes.
How long until it begins answering questions with slurs and quoting sections of Mein Kampf? What a coincidence that Martian Elon names it "Grok".
![[Image: SHbodSd.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/SHbodSd.jpg)
Hitch Hiker's Guide??
![[Image: SZjzdUf.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/SZjzdUf.jpg)
![[Image: 0XUek9O.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/0XUek9O.jpg)
The book title is a quote to the phrase in the King James Version of the Book of Exodus 2:22, "And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land". According to Heinlein, the novel's working title was The Heretic.
In 2010, feminist sci-fi fantasy Welsh-Canadian author Jo Walton denounced the book as sexist, smug and weakly plotted, saying she would not recommend that others read the book. She also won the Hugo award for her 2012 fantasy novel Among Others.
Here is an unflattering review of the Heinlein biography on the Tor Books site by Jo Walton.
Walton was also active in online sci-fi fandom, especially in the Usenet groups rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. Her poem "The Lurkers Support Me in E-Mail" is widely quoted on it and in other online arguments, often without her name attached.
The Lurkers Support Me in E-mail (To the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean") akin to "How To Participate In An Internet Flame War."
Ok, enough about her...back to the book...
In the preface to the uncut, original version of the book re-issued in 1991, Heinlein's widow, Virginia, wrote: "The given names of the chief characters have great importance to the plot. They were carefully selected: Jubal means "the father of all", Michael stands for "Who is like God?".
Maybe some of you read the book long ago, but this took me off down a left-hand path of mystery hocus pocus as you'll soon see.
The book tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Earth culture. In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".
The character Valentine Michael Smith known as Michael Smith or "Mike", the "Man from Mars" becomes a celebrity and is feted by the Earth's elite. He investigates many religions, including the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch in which sexuality, gambling, alcohol consumption, and similar activities are allowed and even encouraged and considered "sinning" only when they are not under church auspices. Smith has a brief career as a magician in a carnival, in which he and Gillian befriend the show's tattooed lady.
Mike starts a Martian-influenced "Church of All Worlds", combining elements of the Fosterite cult with Western esotericism. The church is besieged by Fosterites for practicing "blasphemy", and the church building is destroyed, but unknown to the public, Smith's followers teleport to safety.
One of the characters in the book is Dr. "Stinky" Mahmoud. A semanticist, crew member of the Champion and the second human (after Mike) to gain a working knowledge of the Martian language but does not "grok" the language. He becomes a member of the church while retaining his Muslim faith.
The word "grok", coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein's invented Martian language, "grok" literally means "to drink" and figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with". The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers and hackers, and has since entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
![[Image: ZaGF08H.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ZaGF08H.jpg)
Heinlein was surprised that some readers thought the book described how he believed society should be organized, explaining: "I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers ... It is an invitation to think – not to believe."
Now, apply that book to X-Elon fantasies & obsession with Mars and today's UFO cult belief system that is being propagated on our culture which is also steeped in Nazi mysticism which originated well before they came into power and has been churning in our culture for decades. It's nothing new and the only thing new is how our gov't the past 6 years is so engrossed in it.
Of course over the decades all this gets twisted into new cult religions in which Youtube/Twitter/Fakebook/History Channel, etc, etc is saturated with this crap, though some of it when presented/narrated correctly is interesting in a mythos manner.
The 1961 version which, at the publisher's request, Heinlein cut by 25% in length. Approximately 60,000 words were removed from the original manuscript, including some sharp criticism of American attitudes toward sex and religion.
The 1991 version, (3 years after Heinlein died) retrieved from Heinlein's archives in the University of California, Santa Cruz, Special Collections Department by Heinlein's widow, Virginia, and published posthumously, which reproduces the original manuscript and restores all cuts. It came about because in 1989, Virginia renewed the copyright to Stranger and cancelled the existing publication contracts in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" is included in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire."
Heinlein himself remarked in a letter he wrote to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972 that he thought his shorter, edited version was better. Letter from Robert A. Heinlein to Oberon Zell, Green Egg magazine, Vol. XXII. No. 85 (Beltane, 1989).
![[Image: HRk8DTS.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/HRk8DTS.jpg)
Polyamory, Robert Heinlein, and his definitive new biography (scroll down near bottom in comments section)
Green Egg is an active Neopagan magazine currently published quarterly by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). Founded in 1968 by Neopagan writer, speaker and religious leader Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, it became dormant in 1976, before being revived in 1988 by Zell's two wives, Morning Glory Zell and Diane Darling. After ceasing in 2001, the magazine was restarted as an ezine in 2007 and produced 26 issues. In 2020, it was relaunched as an online only publication.
There is mind-boggling number of editions for "Stranger in a Strange Land" from 1961 to 2018, including audiobooks. Between 1961 and 1991, all published editions of this novel contained 160,000 words. From 1991 on, revised editions contain 220,000 words. According to Virginia Heinlein's preface to later editions, the longer text is what Heinlein originally wrote before publisher-requested abridgements.
The 220,000 word version can be downloaded from Archive.org. There are PDF copies all over the web.
STRANGER VS STRANGER: Comparing Versions of Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” - The Heinlein Society
Sects Ed PODCAST Episode 8: Grok and Roll (Church of All Worlds)
The CAW is the first (legal) Pagan Church founded in the US. It was incorporated in 1968 by Tim Zell (now Oberon Zell) and recognized by the IRS in 1970. Oberon read "Stranger in a Strange Land" and was so inspired by the vision of a Nest — a close-knit group seeking a deep knowing of each other — that he brought his vision alive with the CAW. He continued his vision of forming community by founding Green Egg Magazine and the Mythic Images statuary company.
While CAW members express a broad spectrum of personal magicks and beliefs, and among its members are people of various faiths, including the Abrahamic traditions. They have a shared set of values: immanent divinity (expressed as "Thou art God/dess"); self-knowledge and personal responsibility; deep friendship and tribal intimacy; positive sexuality; living in harmony with the natural world, and appreciation of the diverse nature of human beings.
The Church of All Worlds (CAW) operates its own website which you can visit here. Keeping true to its aquatic motif inherited from Stranger in a Strange Land, the website invites you to "Enter and Drink Deep." As mentioned in the podcast, church co-founder Oberon Zell-Ravenheart also founded The Grey School of Wizardry.
![[Image: ux5ER4r.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ux5ER4r.jpg)
In writing this episode (the vid above), they consulted the following primary and secondary sources, see Grok and Roll Show Notes.
![[Image: llfPLyt.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/llfPLyt.jpg)
Plenty more: Sects Ed Podcast Playlist
More wizard talk...
![[Image: POENNmH.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/POENNmH.jpg)
Episode 26: Oberon Zell-Ravenheart on Paganism, Polyamory, Unicorns, and more
Brother & Sister Rogues you're invited to this Harry Potter school. Well, why not? Invite will be sent to each of you via astral dream. Unfortunately, not all of you may receive, which might be a blessing. LOL!
![[Image: XSkxH6w.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/XSkxH6w.jpg)
![[Image: JsvCUuK.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/JsvCUuK.jpg)
Continue...
How long until it begins answering questions with slurs and quoting sections of Mein Kampf? What a coincidence that Martian Elon names it "Grok".
Hitch Hiker's Guide??
The book title is a quote to the phrase in the King James Version of the Book of Exodus 2:22, "And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land". According to Heinlein, the novel's working title was The Heretic.
In 2010, feminist sci-fi fantasy Welsh-Canadian author Jo Walton denounced the book as sexist, smug and weakly plotted, saying she would not recommend that others read the book. She also won the Hugo award for her 2012 fantasy novel Among Others.
Here is an unflattering review of the Heinlein biography on the Tor Books site by Jo Walton.
Walton was also active in online sci-fi fandom, especially in the Usenet groups rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. Her poem "The Lurkers Support Me in E-Mail" is widely quoted on it and in other online arguments, often without her name attached.
The Lurkers Support Me in E-mail (To the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean") akin to "How To Participate In An Internet Flame War."
Ok, enough about her...back to the book...
In the preface to the uncut, original version of the book re-issued in 1991, Heinlein's widow, Virginia, wrote: "The given names of the chief characters have great importance to the plot. They were carefully selected: Jubal means "the father of all", Michael stands for "Who is like God?".
Maybe some of you read the book long ago, but this took me off down a left-hand path of mystery hocus pocus as you'll soon see.
The book tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Earth culture. In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".
The character Valentine Michael Smith known as Michael Smith or "Mike", the "Man from Mars" becomes a celebrity and is feted by the Earth's elite. He investigates many religions, including the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch in which sexuality, gambling, alcohol consumption, and similar activities are allowed and even encouraged and considered "sinning" only when they are not under church auspices. Smith has a brief career as a magician in a carnival, in which he and Gillian befriend the show's tattooed lady.
Mike starts a Martian-influenced "Church of All Worlds", combining elements of the Fosterite cult with Western esotericism. The church is besieged by Fosterites for practicing "blasphemy", and the church building is destroyed, but unknown to the public, Smith's followers teleport to safety.
One of the characters in the book is Dr. "Stinky" Mahmoud. A semanticist, crew member of the Champion and the second human (after Mike) to gain a working knowledge of the Martian language but does not "grok" the language. He becomes a member of the church while retaining his Muslim faith.
The word "grok", coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein's invented Martian language, "grok" literally means "to drink" and figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with". The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers and hackers, and has since entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
Heinlein was surprised that some readers thought the book described how he believed society should be organized, explaining: "I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers ... It is an invitation to think – not to believe."
Now, apply that book to X-Elon fantasies & obsession with Mars and today's UFO cult belief system that is being propagated on our culture which is also steeped in Nazi mysticism which originated well before they came into power and has been churning in our culture for decades. It's nothing new and the only thing new is how our gov't the past 6 years is so engrossed in it.
Of course over the decades all this gets twisted into new cult religions in which Youtube/Twitter/Fakebook/History Channel, etc, etc is saturated with this crap, though some of it when presented/narrated correctly is interesting in a mythos manner.
The 1961 version which, at the publisher's request, Heinlein cut by 25% in length. Approximately 60,000 words were removed from the original manuscript, including some sharp criticism of American attitudes toward sex and religion.
The 1991 version, (3 years after Heinlein died) retrieved from Heinlein's archives in the University of California, Santa Cruz, Special Collections Department by Heinlein's widow, Virginia, and published posthumously, which reproduces the original manuscript and restores all cuts. It came about because in 1989, Virginia renewed the copyright to Stranger and cancelled the existing publication contracts in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" is included in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire."
Heinlein himself remarked in a letter he wrote to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972 that he thought his shorter, edited version was better. Letter from Robert A. Heinlein to Oberon Zell, Green Egg magazine, Vol. XXII. No. 85 (Beltane, 1989).
Polyamory, Robert Heinlein, and his definitive new biography (scroll down near bottom in comments section)
Green Egg is an active Neopagan magazine currently published quarterly by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). Founded in 1968 by Neopagan writer, speaker and religious leader Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, it became dormant in 1976, before being revived in 1988 by Zell's two wives, Morning Glory Zell and Diane Darling. After ceasing in 2001, the magazine was restarted as an ezine in 2007 and produced 26 issues. In 2020, it was relaunched as an online only publication.
There is mind-boggling number of editions for "Stranger in a Strange Land" from 1961 to 2018, including audiobooks. Between 1961 and 1991, all published editions of this novel contained 160,000 words. From 1991 on, revised editions contain 220,000 words. According to Virginia Heinlein's preface to later editions, the longer text is what Heinlein originally wrote before publisher-requested abridgements.
The 220,000 word version can be downloaded from Archive.org. There are PDF copies all over the web.
STRANGER VS STRANGER: Comparing Versions of Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” - The Heinlein Society
Sects Ed PODCAST Episode 8: Grok and Roll (Church of All Worlds)
The CAW is the first (legal) Pagan Church founded in the US. It was incorporated in 1968 by Tim Zell (now Oberon Zell) and recognized by the IRS in 1970. Oberon read "Stranger in a Strange Land" and was so inspired by the vision of a Nest — a close-knit group seeking a deep knowing of each other — that he brought his vision alive with the CAW. He continued his vision of forming community by founding Green Egg Magazine and the Mythic Images statuary company.
While CAW members express a broad spectrum of personal magicks and beliefs, and among its members are people of various faiths, including the Abrahamic traditions. They have a shared set of values: immanent divinity (expressed as "Thou art God/dess"); self-knowledge and personal responsibility; deep friendship and tribal intimacy; positive sexuality; living in harmony with the natural world, and appreciation of the diverse nature of human beings.
The Church of All Worlds (CAW) operates its own website which you can visit here. Keeping true to its aquatic motif inherited from Stranger in a Strange Land, the website invites you to "Enter and Drink Deep." As mentioned in the podcast, church co-founder Oberon Zell-Ravenheart also founded The Grey School of Wizardry.
In writing this episode (the vid above), they consulted the following primary and secondary sources, see Grok and Roll Show Notes.
Plenty more: Sects Ed Podcast Playlist
More wizard talk...
Episode 26: Oberon Zell-Ravenheart on Paganism, Polyamory, Unicorns, and more
Brother & Sister Rogues you're invited to this Harry Potter school. Well, why not? Invite will be sent to each of you via astral dream. Unfortunately, not all of you may receive, which might be a blessing. LOL!
Continue...
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." – Thomas Sowell
![[Image: LitD4eB.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/LitD4eB.jpg)
![[Image: G0hDYjU.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/G0hDYjU.jpg)
![[Image: kP6Jclx.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/kP6Jclx.jpg)
![[Image: HXeTJwH.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/HXeTJwH.jpg)