Editing Stranger in a Strange Land (section)

==Reception==
Heinlein's deliberately provocative book generated considerable controversy.<ref name="nyt1" /> The [[free love]] and [[Intentional community|commune]] living aspects of the Church of All Worlds led to the book's exclusion from school reading lists. After it was rumored to be associated with [[Charles Manson]], it was removed from school libraries, as well.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Orville Prescott]] received the novel caustically, describing it as a "disastrous mishmash of science fiction, laborious humor, dreary social satire, and cheap eroticism"; he characterized ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' as "puerile and ludicrous", saying "when a non-stop orgy is combined with a lot of preposterous chatter, it becomes unendurable, an affront to the patience and intelligence of readers".<ref>{{cite news |last=Prescott |first=Orville |author-link=Orville Prescott |date=August 4, 1961 |title=Books of The Times |page=19 |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/08/04/98444171.pdf |access-date=2 June 2011 |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823005510/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/08/04/98444171.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the novel 3.5 stars out of five, saying "the book's shortcomings lie not so much in its emancipation as in the fact that Heinlein has bitten off too large a chewing portion".<ref name="gale196206">{{Cite magazine |last=Gale |first=Floyd C. |date=June 1962 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v20n05_1962-06#page/n191/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=191–194}}</ref>

Despite such reviews, ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' won the 1962 [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]]<ref name="MacFarlane2007">{{cite book |author=Scott MacFarlane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtosBAX5ZfcC&pg=PA92 |title=The Hippie Narrative: A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture |date=12 February 2007 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8119-4 |pages=92– |access-date=6 October 2016 |archive-date=24 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724023653/http://books.google.com/books?id=GtosBAX5ZfcC&pg=PA92 |url-status=live }}</ref> and became the first science fiction novel to enter ''The New York Times Book Review''{{'}}s best-seller list.<ref name="nyt1" /> In 2012, it was included in a [[Library of Congress]] exhibition of "Books That Shaped America".<ref>{{cite news |title=Library of Congress issues list of "Books That Shaped America" |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/library-of-congress-issues-list-of-books-that-shaped-america/2012/06/21/gJQACDMxtV_story.html |url-status=live |access-date=6 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712154927/http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/library-of-congress-issues-list-of-books-that-shaped-america/2012/06/21/gJQACDMxtV_story.html |archive-date=12 July 2014}}</ref>

Critics have also suggested that Jubal Harshaw is actually a stand-in for Robert Heinlein himself, based on similarities in career choice and general disposition,<ref>{{cite book |last=Marshall B. Tymn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4YAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Jubal+Harshaw |title=Masterplots II.: American fiction series, Volume 4 |year=1981 | publisher=Salem Press |isbn=978-0-89356-460-5 |access-date=2020-10-28 |archive-date=2022-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823005458/https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4YAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Jubal+Harshaw |url-status=live }}</ref> though Harshaw is much older than Heinlein was at the time of writing. Literary critic [[Dan Schneider (writer)|Dan Schneider]] wrote that Harshaw's belief in his own [[free will]], was one "which Mike, Jill, and the Fosterites misinterpret as a [[pandeistic]] urge, 'Thou art God!{{'"}}<ref name="DS">[[Dan Schneider (writer)|Dan Schneider]], [http://www.hackwriters.com/strangerH.htm ''Review of Stranger In A Strange Land (The Uncut Version), by Robert A. Heinlein''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804044724/http://www.hackwriters.com/strangerH.htm |date=2013-08-04 }} (29 July 2005).</ref>

Writer Sophie Kleeman has taken issue with the roles of female characters within the novel and statements made about women, such as Jill's assertion that "Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it’s partly her fault".<ref>{{cite web | last=Kleeman | first=Sophie | title=The misogyny of 'Stranger in a Strange Land' takes on new shame | website=The Outline | date=December 21, 2017 | url=https://theoutline.com/post/2706/the-misogyny-of-stranger-in-a-strange-land-takes-on-new-shame | access-date=November 14, 2024}}</ref>