1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,640 I'm sorry guys, I wonder if I'm late. 2 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,200 Hey how's it going? 3 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:21,680 Welcome to Wednesday Night Book Club. 4 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,480 I'm your host Andy Rice. 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:30,920 Today, this week's book is Stranger in a Strangelink. 6 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:45,200 Hang on, the bowl's still burning. 7 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:49,280 I am the host of Fried Rice Podcast, this is part of it. 8 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:58,720 I am just a guy who smokes weed, listens to audiobooks, and then once a week sits down 9 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,080 alone without any old man distractions. 10 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,800 Mike, looking at you, you old bitch. 11 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:10,320 But on a real note though, thank you for being a part of the show for as long as you have. 12 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:11,320 Couldn't have done this without you. 13 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:16,320 Or if I did, it would just be better and I don't know if I can handle that amount of 14 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:17,320 success. 15 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:23,320 I'm just a guy who gets high, listens to books recommended by you, the audience, except for 16 00:01:23,320 --> 00:01:30,520 this time, which was recommended by Austin, who drove three hours just to recommend this 17 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:31,520 book for me. 18 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:36,280 The book we're listening to this week, or reading if you're one of those people, is 19 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:44,480 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. 20 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:51,040 Yeah, science fiction book, it's retro-futuristic. 21 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:56,680 It's about a, I mean, just a note at the top. 22 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:07,960 Again, I'm just a guy who likes to get high and read and I don't have any real, I guess, 23 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:12,280 understanding of probably the themes that Heinlein was going for throughout this. 24 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:19,560 I mean, I'm sure because he's known for satire and he's known for these, he's known for putting 25 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:27,400 complex, controversial subjects into his books and then using just like a sci-fi story to 26 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:31,160 soften the blow, I guess. 27 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:37,800 This was, his wife told him that he should, she had an idea to rewrite, to do the Jungle 28 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:47,760 Book, but instead of being a kid being raised by animals to do one raised by Martians. 29 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:49,040 He went further. 30 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:58,840 He decided to inject a lot of hippie culture into this, a lot of socialist ideas and nudity 31 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:05,880 and sex and religion and he threw it all under the bus and it's great for those kind of things. 32 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:11,920 You will get into that if I even comprehended what he was trying to say. 33 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:20,320 Another note at the top of that note is I have both seen and read Starship Troopers, 34 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:26,640 which is also by Robert A. Heinlein. 35 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:32,920 When I was a kid and Starship Troopers came out, I watched it unironically as just a dope 36 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:36,400 militaristic sci-fi movie. 37 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:42,160 I was rude, like I didn't think that there was satire in it at all. 38 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,680 That wasn't part of what was going on in my mind when I watched it. 39 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,160 I was like, oh, this is cool. 40 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:48,160 Everyone's gung-ho. 41 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:49,160 They want to join the military. 42 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,320 What a cool society that this world building. 43 00:03:52,320 --> 00:04:02,520 Then I read the book as an adult last year and I still sort of viewed it as just a cool 44 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:06,440 militaristic sci-fi book. 45 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:18,160 I guess I'm either too high to think past just the plot line and the characters to what 46 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:23,000 he's trying to say, quote unquote. 47 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:34,040 I don't know if that makes me not intellectual or if it makes me the perfect book reader 48 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:46,960 because this way I just enjoy the novel without having to think about all the extra weight 49 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:52,800 on my shoulders while trying to enjoy a book about, in this case, a Martian coming to Earth. 50 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:58,320 Well, a human raised by Martians coming to Earth. 51 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:02,760 What I was going to say is that if you go on YouTube, you can find people that have 52 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:09,200 way smarter than me, that can break down the complex themes, can tell you all about what 53 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:10,640 Heinlein was trying to say. 54 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:19,000 For me, I just enjoyed what was a pretty misogynistic and funny, cool sci-fi book. 55 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:24,080 I introduced one of my favorite characters I think I've ever read, Jubal Harsha, which 56 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:25,080 we'll get into. 57 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:26,080 He's amazing. 58 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:27,600 I love him so much. 59 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,520 Everything he said was so funny. 60 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:35,120 I have seen that Heinlein used him as a mouthpiece. 61 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:42,280 The way that this is going to be a long one, I hope. 62 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:49,680 I just saw that Smith is confined at the Bethesda hospital. 63 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:55,800 So for any Elder Scrolls fan that's out there, I don't know if they named their studio after 64 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:59,640 that fictional hospital in Stranger in a Strange Land, but that would be interesting, unless 65 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:01,440 Bethesda means other things. 66 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:06,520 Oh, God, am I about to go on a rabbit hole in my own show? 67 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:08,680 I think I am. 68 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,720 We're all about to find out what Bethesda means. 69 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:15,400 Bethesda, of course, is going to take me to the software, which I don't want. 70 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,280 Origin, let's do that. 71 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:19,280 Stick with me, guys. 72 00:06:19,280 --> 00:06:20,280 This will be interesting. 73 00:06:20,280 --> 00:06:22,080 We'll all learn something right now. 74 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:28,640 It's named after the biblical Pool of Bethesda, which means House of Kindness in Hebrew. 75 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:33,320 The Hebrew word Beth-hesda means House of Mercy or House of Grace, but it also means 76 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:34,320 shame or disgrace. 77 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:37,320 So we went to the Disgrace Hospital. 78 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:38,320 Shame. 79 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:43,080 That's where I belong. 80 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,920 Anyway, so let's get into it. 81 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,920 I forgot what I was saying. 82 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,320 I screwed my own thought up. 83 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,920 Anyway, okay. 84 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:01,440 So right off the top, my favorite thing about this book is the retrofuturism. 85 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:03,120 This was written in 1961. 86 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:04,920 That's 60 something years ago. 87 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:05,920 63. 88 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:06,920 I didn't have to say something. 89 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:08,520 It's 2024. 90 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,600 The math is easy on that one. 91 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:13,440 But yeah, 63 years ago this thing was written. 92 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:17,080 I think it was actually written before that, and then he just waited a few years for people 93 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:26,040 to catch up to the sort of the topics that he was preaching, religion and sex. 94 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,320 The American public commercially wasn't ready for that, so he had to wait a little bit. 95 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:31,320 He sat on it. 96 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,720 And then he did release it when it was supposed to. 97 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:38,160 Well, he released it at a good time. 98 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:44,440 So the story, it's 25 years ago, according to this. 99 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,600 I don't even know what year this takes place in. 100 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,360 I don't know if it ever really gives it here. 101 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:56,880 Just sort of like an ambiguous prior to World War III is what it says. 102 00:07:56,880 --> 00:08:04,600 So anyway, they sent a ship to Mars with a bunch of couples. 103 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:10,440 When they got there, fell into this pansexual conglomerate, and they produced a baby. 104 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:11,760 And then they all died. 105 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:17,600 That baby was raised by actual Martians. 106 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:19,360 He was able to live over there. 107 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:20,360 Breathable atmosphere. 108 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:25,520 That's a little bit of an artistic liberty from Heinlein, I think. 109 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:31,600 But maybe at the time he might have thought there was breathable air on Mars, potentially. 110 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,960 I don't know if that was when the rumor was going around that there was ice on Mars. 111 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:35,960 I mean, rumor. 112 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,960 I mean, I think they found ice on Mars with water. 113 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:41,760 And I don't know if there could be living organisms. 114 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:42,760 I think they found little fossils. 115 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:44,480 I don't know if that's a thing. 116 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:45,960 I think I read that once. 117 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:52,360 But they sent another ship out. 118 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:53,760 They bring that kid back. 119 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,880 His name is Michael Smith. 120 00:08:56,880 --> 00:08:58,520 Or Valentine Michael Smith. 121 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:00,120 They call him Michael the whole time. 122 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,440 The man from Mars. 123 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:09,080 So in the beginning, it's basically that one movie I haven't seen by Guillermo del Toro, 124 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:14,240 the lady and the fish alien guy in the tank. 125 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:15,240 Lady in the Water? 126 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,680 No, that's the other one. 127 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:18,680 Fish Man. 128 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:20,280 They won an Oscar, I think. 129 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:21,280 The Shape of Fish? 130 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:22,280 The Shape of Water? 131 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:23,280 Might be the Shape of Water. 132 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,480 I think it's the Shape of Water. 133 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:27,480 Or the Shape of Fish. 134 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:32,600 Now that I'm saying that, that sounds to me like it would be a way better title. 135 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaking of titles, Now You See Me, remember that movie? 136 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:38,920 They should have called it the sequel, Now You Don't. 137 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:44,760 Because calling it Now You See Me 2 was the worst marketing decision they ever could have 138 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:45,760 made. 139 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,120 So Michael Smith, he's new to Earth. 140 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:49,120 He doesn't know anything about humans. 141 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:52,240 He's never seen a woman. 142 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:54,560 He then, a woman breaks in. 143 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:56,120 She's a nurse. 144 00:09:56,120 --> 00:10:04,000 She shows up, she's going to get naked for him because he's never seen a woman. 145 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:10,040 There's a lot of misogynistic fantasy from Heinlein in this. 146 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:12,040 It really comes into play later. 147 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:19,200 So if you're a fan of that Mad Men style, I'm going to spank you, I'm going to put 148 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:24,560 you over my knee and spank you kind of vibe, and you want it in a sci-fi setting, this 149 00:10:24,560 --> 00:10:27,600 is the ticket. 150 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:31,960 But then if you also don't like that kind of stuff, because it's 2024, we've kind of 151 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:38,720 moved past that in a lot of ways, I would, I mean still, this is a fun book then to pick 152 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,560 it I guess, but what did I write down my notes? 153 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:45,440 The stereo vision tanks are just, that's pretty cool. 154 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:49,360 So this was like, we had, so I'm sure he had TVs at the time, so he had to think of what 155 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:50,360 would be the next thing. 156 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:56,000 He came up with stereo vision tanks that you could turn into, make it look like an aquarium 157 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:57,440 until you're ready to use it. 158 00:10:57,440 --> 00:10:59,600 It can reject calls. 159 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:07,440 So basically he came up with the idea of almost like a personal computer with zoom interface 160 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:10,960 because it had video calling on it, which is pretty cool. 161 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:11,960 And I like that. 162 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:17,920 And I like that I'm sure when he wrote it, and he, in his mind, he was thinking of like 163 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:20,160 a fat tube TV. 164 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:26,880 I even think at one point it made a distinction between color and black and white stereo visions, 165 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:31,760 which I think is pretty funny because if you had the technology for flying taxis, which 166 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:38,240 they certainly do, then you would think they'd have color stereo vision by then. 167 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:44,240 But that was the first kind of like hint that of the retrofuturism being cool. 168 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:48,240 And retro, I'm going to say that a bunch of times, I'll stop saying it, but if you're 169 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:53,360 unfamiliar with the term, it's when something is written in the past and it's talking about 170 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:54,360 the future. 171 00:11:54,360 --> 00:12:02,360 Technically, I would imagine that any sci-fi written eventually becomes retrofuturism because 172 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:11,800 when aliens was made in the seventies or eighties, they were still analog. 173 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:17,040 We weren't really thinking MP3 streaming or, or even CDs at the time. 174 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:22,760 So everything's like big, chunky, like VHS looking things that they're shoving into things 175 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:29,160 to get computers to work otherwise in a functional spaceship, which we're not capable of producing 176 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:30,160 it. 177 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:37,520 So when Heinlein writes this and he's coming up with like flying taxis and stuff, which 178 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,640 we still don't have, but then at the same time, the stereo visions might be in black 179 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:42,640 and white. 180 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:44,320 I think it's kind of fun. 181 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:49,840 There's a few other, like Star Trek is a great example. 182 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:56,720 And what's cool about Star Trek is that that inspired a lot of modern day kind of gadgets 183 00:12:56,720 --> 00:13:02,560 because nerds watching Star Trek wanted those futuristic technologies. 184 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,760 So they, you know, worked towards them. 185 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:11,280 And now we have like better than Star Trek, except for replicators, which would be just 186 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:12,280 amazing. 187 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:18,680 And if everyone used stun guns to, you know, phasers to go to war. 188 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:25,980 And if all fighting was that ridiculous Star Trek fighting that they do, which seems ineffective, 189 00:13:25,980 --> 00:13:32,200 but and kind of harmless, then, you know, I think the world would be a safer place. 190 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:33,200 But anyway, that's it. 191 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:39,920 That's a different, there was a newspaper that someone was reading, I think on the stereo 192 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:44,200 vision or maybe just in his hand, but it auto scrolled for him. 193 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:48,280 And that's pretty cool for the idea of the time in the sixties to have an auto scrolling 194 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:49,280 newspaper. 195 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:51,600 Thought that was cool. 196 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,040 Some of these are just random notes. 197 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:57,920 I had to write on the go sometimes. 198 00:13:57,920 --> 00:13:58,920 Japan's way. 199 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:05,720 Oh, so Japan has apparently Japan has five different ways to say thank you. 200 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,320 And they all are some form of degradation. 201 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:14,560 Like it's a shame to say thank you in the Japanese culture. 202 00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:17,160 And I've never heard that before. 203 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:18,960 I didn't do any research on it afterwards. 204 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:20,360 I probably should have. 205 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:25,200 But you know, this is a weed based book club. 206 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:34,000 So if you're as high as I am right now, then you can forgive me. 207 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:44,800 So and then oh, so Douglas's wife who, okay, sorry, you guys don't know who Douglas is 208 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:46,160 unless you've read this. 209 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:54,120 So there's a secretary like the main guy, he's like the he's not the president, but 210 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:55,840 he's a security general guy, whatever. 211 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:02,160 He's the main dude on the government's side and this whole man from Mars thing. 212 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:12,280 And Michael Smith gets broken out by the by Jill, the nurse, and she takes him to gerbil 213 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,960 Harsha, which I'll talk about in a second. 214 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:24,760 And while they're there, the Douglas guy, he talks to Harsha and they are talking about, 215 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:29,240 you know, meeting up doing whatever they have to do to take care of the situation. 216 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:30,760 But she has a quote. 217 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:32,360 And I love it. 218 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:34,240 And it's just I'll get to the real plot line in a second. 219 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,840 But this quote, I absolutely love. 220 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:41,920 If a man can take your money two ways, he'll certainly take it three, three ways. 221 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,400 And I'm like, that's such a good there's so many smart lines in this. 222 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,640 Okay, here's another another good line. 223 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:51,800 I guess I'm just on quote time right now. 224 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:58,880 I try to serve the world, but the world doesn't want to be served and resents anyone who tries. 225 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:03,760 So now I do what serves Harsha, which is him. 226 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:05,320 So whatever serves me. 227 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:12,880 No, now I do whatever pleases me is what he says, which is great. 228 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:15,640 Okay. 229 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,520 So Michael gets broken out by Jill. 230 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:22,120 He's being like not experimented on necessarily inside when the government takes him, but 231 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,840 it's like he's scared and they don't know how to really talk to him. 232 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:25,840 They're sort of like trying. 233 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:31,520 It doesn't seem like too bad of a situation, but he is, you know, trapped there. 234 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:35,360 And so Jill breaks him out dressing him like a woman so they don't have any idea who he 235 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,360 is. 236 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:38,960 And then, you know, some loony tunes, hijinks, she gets him out of there. 237 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:43,240 She is in love with a guy named Ben. 238 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,600 Ben gets taken because he's asking a lot of questions about the man from Mars after Jill 239 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:52,920 tells him that they're keeping him hidden and they take them. 240 00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:58,520 So she's scared and she goes to Ben's house. 241 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:06,080 He's not there, but she's with Mike and the cops bust in and they slap her. 242 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:10,920 And the moment she and I'm like, at this point, I'm like, okay, this seems pretty kind of 243 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:16,480 standard, a little stiff 60s written sci fi campy, whatever. 244 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:17,580 But I'm liking it. 245 00:17:17,580 --> 00:17:26,720 But then one of the cops slaps Jill and Michael is just, he just reaches out and unalives 246 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:32,400 this guy, just makes him disappear, flips him, I think is what it says at one point, 247 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,120 makes him never, I think it says, like never is him or whatever. 248 00:17:35,120 --> 00:17:38,400 But like, it just, this guy just disappears. 249 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:42,580 Michael just makes this guy disappear using his mind. 250 00:17:42,580 --> 00:17:44,560 And I'm like, whoa. 251 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:48,280 So then the other guy, he's like, what the fuck? 252 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:49,280 What is going on here? 253 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:54,840 He pulls his gun out, Mike recognizes the gun and then boom, that dude's gone too, just 254 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,240 unalived. 255 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,480 And so, I mean, Jill's freaking out. 256 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:06,160 Michael then goes back into a comatose, little state that he gets into. 257 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:16,600 And she takes him to a guy named Jubal Harsha and Jubal Harsha is the best character ever. 258 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:24,480 He is described as what's the, where's the, oh, come on, I just had it pulled up. 259 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:25,480 I'm so sorry. 260 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:26,480 Oh yeah. 261 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:37,080 He says Jubal E. Harsha, LLB, MD, SCD, Bon Vivant, Gourmet, Sybarite, popular author, 262 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:42,920 extraordinary, neo-pessimist, philosopher, devout agnostic, professional clown, amateur, 263 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:46,000 subversive and parasite by choice. 264 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,720 That is how he describes himself. 265 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,240 And he's so good. 266 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,200 He's like, I mean, it says it up there. 267 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:55,200 He's a lawyer. 268 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:56,200 He's an author. 269 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,720 So, he has these three assistants. 270 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,720 And this is one of the best gags in the whole book, but he has these three assistants where 271 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:07,400 they're Ann, who are they? 272 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,240 Ann, they're right here. 273 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:11,240 So sorry. 274 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:12,680 Ann, Miriam and Dorcas. 275 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:20,960 And they, whenever he yells out front, they, one of them runs up needing, you know, to 276 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:22,080 do what he needs to be done. 277 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:29,460 So like, one of them will dictate notes, one makes dinner, one is a fair witness, which 278 00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:31,280 is a very cool idea. 279 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:40,240 And I wish that we kind of had in real life, but these fair witnesses are, oh, the side 280 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:41,240 of the house. 281 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:42,240 Oh yeah. 282 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,240 So like, you sort of get demonstrated what a fair witness is. 283 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:49,360 When they're in their white robes, they cannot tell a lie. 284 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:54,280 Like, I mean, I'm sure they could technically still, but you trust that they won't. 285 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,960 And they, I think, live up to that trust. 286 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:06,000 So Jubal points out, and that's J-U-B-A-L, Jubal. 287 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,080 He points out, Ann, I want you to tell me what color that house is. 288 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:16,980 And she says, well, the side that I can see, which seems to be roughly half of the house 289 00:20:16,980 --> 00:20:21,440 is painted white, but unless I go over there and look at the other side of the house, I 290 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:26,680 couldn't tell you with 100% certainty that the house is indeed entirely white. 291 00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:30,540 So they don't fuck around when they tell you something. 292 00:20:30,540 --> 00:20:35,420 So she's important later because when Mike starts doing some crazy shit with his mind, 293 00:20:35,420 --> 00:20:39,300 she goes and gets her robe, stands there and witnesses. 294 00:20:39,300 --> 00:20:43,700 So it's like, you know, it's really happening. 295 00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:51,320 So these three, they, so Harsha, who again is just amazing, super smart, super witty. 296 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,500 He doesn't let anyone get in his way. 297 00:20:55,500 --> 00:21:00,320 He has this scene where he's talking to a cop later, this like head of police guy, and 298 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,640 he just shuts him down. 299 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,240 He's like, no, according to the law, you have to show me your ID, and that's going to go 300 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:07,920 for the eight men that you just brought over here. 301 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:19,440 And if you don't get that helicopter that or that sorry, the taxi or the cop car that flies off of my Rose Garden, you know, there's going to be damages that you're going to have to pay, blah, blah, blah. 302 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,240 He just makes them go through paperwork. 303 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:25,760 He's such a like a he's so smart at what he does. 304 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:30,000 And what's one of the I wrote this later. 305 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:47,440 Like one of the biggest flexes from Heinlein, the author of this book, is Harsha throughout this book comes up with about, I'd say, 10, maybe 11 really, really cool openings to books. 306 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:53,060 I think he does a couple of poems, maybe a song, but like he calls over, he just yells 307 00:21:53,060 --> 00:21:54,060 out front. 308 00:21:54,060 --> 00:22:00,520 And then one of his and Miriam Dorcas pops up and he goes, OK, opening. 309 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,480 There's a you know, it's a it's a screenplay. 310 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,000 We zoom in on whatever. 311 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:08,000 And it's just a beautiful opening to a book. 312 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:14,060 And you as the reader, like if he just kept going, you know, kind of almost reminds me 313 00:22:14,060 --> 00:22:21,840 of it's like AI, you know, a little bit like I was playing with AI and I was doing a like 314 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:33,320 a D&D with it and I made it make my character in the D&D use the onboard AI on her ship 315 00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:37,860 to play a game of D&D. 316 00:22:37,860 --> 00:22:42,720 And it was fun watching the AI write her playing it. 317 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:46,560 And I sort of feel like and that sort of popped in my head because as I was reading this, 318 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:54,680 I was like, damn, I would love if Heinlein like maybe put some footnotes that or an appendix 319 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:59,360 that had some of those stories written out, because some of them sounded great. 320 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:03,880 I can't remember off the top of my head, but any anyone that like stands out, but some 321 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:05,440 of them are like really engaging. 322 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:10,040 I had to I paused the book and just had to kind of think about it for a second. 323 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:18,240 So the government finds out eventually that Mike is at Parshaw's and they send people 324 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:25,920 out to go get Mike and Mike sort of just unalives all of them, disappears a lot of them. 325 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:34,560 And so then they talk to the main guy, Douglas, and they he says, okay, yeah, come on out. 326 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:35,560 We'll talk. 327 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:39,440 We'll go into this, you know, you come over here to the palace or wherever I am, this 328 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:40,920 building and we'll talk it. 329 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:41,920 And he goes and harsh. 330 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:46,280 I was like, nah, we're going to we're going to meet in this very, very public setting 331 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,360 and there's going to be a shitload of press there. 332 00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:52,440 And before that happens, my guy is going to go and do interviews with people and let him 333 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,320 know that he exists and like what his shit is. 334 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:57,480 And then we'll meet with you. 335 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:03,240 And oh, by the way, if Ben remember the guy from earlier, Jill's love interest, the reporter 336 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:08,480 who got taken, it's like if he's not there, then the talks don't happen because Mike needs 337 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:09,480 him. 338 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:17,480 It's part of the Mars delegation because the whole kind of crux of it is is because technically 339 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,760 the Mike is the only representative of Mars. 340 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,600 He owns it like he owns Mars. 341 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,840 So he is in line to me. 342 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:33,200 And because of the they have like some drive that makes space travel, you know, possible 343 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:34,200 or whatever. 344 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,000 He's the inheritance of he gets has that. 345 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:39,880 So he's like billions of dollars in his name. 346 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,200 And they're trying to, you know, I guess, take that from him. 347 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,200 Right. 348 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,720 Oh, he's the secretary general of the Federation of Free States is what it is. 349 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:50,460 It's what it's called. 350 00:24:50,460 --> 00:24:57,440 So he's trying to take it and Harsha in I think like a super brilliant move. 351 00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:02,760 He has the secretary general of the Federation of Free States. 352 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:09,020 He gives him control of Mike's affairs financially. 353 00:25:09,020 --> 00:25:14,280 And I think it just maybe I was too dumb to pick up on this, but I don't know how how 354 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:15,360 it worked. 355 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,840 But that just got Douglas off their backs. 356 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:24,760 I think it's because he just maybe had access to a bunch of money and he still had to fairly 357 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,840 keep Mike afloat. 358 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:29,200 I don't know. 359 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:34,600 But moving past all that, we get into, like I said, if you want the details, you go on 360 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:35,600 YouTube. 361 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:36,600 This is just I'm high. 362 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:37,600 And I was looking up stuff. 363 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:42,080 I mean, I was writing down notes. 364 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:43,920 Okay. 365 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,680 So then we get into what I think is one of the more interesting aspects of the book, 366 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,600 which is Mike learning about religion. 367 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,240 There's a religion called the Foster rights. 368 00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:06,040 And the Foster rights believe that when you ascend to heaven, like you become an archangel 369 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,840 after you die. 370 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:19,200 So they believe that now what's interesting is, oh, and when Mike so when you discorporate, 371 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:23,280 that's the Martians way of dying and you become an old one. 372 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,720 So your spirit lives on or whatever. 373 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:30,720 So this is where I think I'm the most confused about and leave in the comments if you know 374 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:31,880 what the fuck this was all about. 375 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:39,320 But there's a guy named Digby and Foster who like run the church and they both die 376 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,200 and they become archangels. 377 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:46,000 And there's a few moments through the book where they're straight up after dying. 378 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:52,120 So being discorporated, having conversations of like talking about eternity and doing all 379 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:53,120 these different stuff. 380 00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:59,040 So like, I think they really are archangels, which makes me feel like the Foster rights 381 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:05,160 were the closest to like what the truth is of what religion is. 382 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,040 And it's not a real religion, the Foster rights in our world. 383 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:23,960 So Mike sort of he learns about this and he then starts his so he becomes at some point 384 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,240 at the zoo. 385 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,920 He's with he's with Jill and he's at the zoo. 386 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,080 And he this whole time he's like, sort of not getting the point of what it is to be 387 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:36,280 human. 388 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:41,520 He's more Martian than human, and he's never laughed and he doesn't understand humor and 389 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:43,600 he doesn't understand love. 390 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:51,600 But then he's at the zoo and he sees these monkeys and one of them like does something 391 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:54,000 mean to the other monkey. 392 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,600 And he this triggers something in Michael and he starts laughing. 393 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,440 And he laughs and he laughs and Jill's like, what the fuck? 394 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,920 And he laughs and she like ends up having to take him home and he's not he's like crying 395 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:07,520 and laughing and crying and laughing. 396 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,000 And she like takes him home and she's like, I'm really fucking worried about you, bro. 397 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,440 What's going on? 398 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:17,120 And he he finally stops and he goes, I get it now. 399 00:28:17,120 --> 00:28:24,040 I grock, which is their understand which their word that means to understand, like I grock 400 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,720 humans, I grock humor, I grock love. 401 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,480 And it's because he understands how like just cruel what the monkey did. 402 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:35,240 And like the fact that it was just humans watching it go down to him was like a sad 403 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:40,200 kind of like humor, that there is no humor without sadness, you know, like without something 404 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,520 bad happening to somebody else. 405 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:46,060 And he just gets it. 406 00:28:46,060 --> 00:28:50,240 And so the book sort of jumps ahead a little bit goes to another part. 407 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:54,200 And it's him starting a religion. 408 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:58,200 So he ends up starting well, he starts a church where he's teaching people Martian and he's 409 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:06,120 teaching them how to how to do these like the powers that he has. 410 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:16,120 And it's fucking nuts because it's it's a what's the best way to describe this? 411 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:22,720 Like not an orgy, but it's a it's a it's like a sex it's like a sex commune. 412 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,480 So he ends up going from never seeing a woman in the very beginning and being shocked by 413 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,920 it and going all the way to he's just banging chicks left and right throughout the book. 414 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:36,040 I did see somewhere that somebody said Heinlein is just a sexual male fantasy for him of just 415 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:42,440 like everyone every woman wants to fuck and they're all subordinate, you know, subserv, 416 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:48,000 sub subverse sub sub sub. 417 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:55,240 What word where they are doesn't matter. 418 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,160 They're willing to do whatever a man tells them to. 419 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,920 And they he ends up just starting a religion. 420 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:09,180 And when Ben eventually who's doing his own thing as a journalist outside of this goes 421 00:30:09,180 --> 00:30:13,480 and visits this, he's just banging chicks left and right. 422 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,920 And then when Harsha comes and visits, he's getting he's like hooking up with with, you 423 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:19,720 know, chicks and he's super fucking old. 424 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:21,760 He's like in his 80s. 425 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,320 And every all the chicks are hot. 426 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,640 They're like, you know, and they all want a bone. 427 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,680 It's just such a it's kind of funny. 428 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:34,920 Like when you read it, it's it got really goofy. 429 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,800 I was like engaged into like, you know, oh, how's Mike going to, you know, take the whole 430 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:39,800 idea of religion? 431 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:40,800 Like, what's he going to do? 432 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,480 And then, oh, shit, he's going to start his own church was interesting. 433 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:47,640 And then the more circle, like the more inner circles you get, the just the more naked people 434 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,100 become and the more fucking goes on. 435 00:30:50,100 --> 00:30:55,480 And so eventually the government blows up their church, which is fine because no one 436 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:56,480 was there. 437 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:57,480 No one got hurt. 438 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:03,760 And Mike goes on TV and he's trying to tell people his message, which is thou art God, 439 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,320 you know, everyone is God. 440 00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:12,960 And people start throwing shit at him and start blowing his limbs off with shotgun. 441 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,720 And he every time someone strikes him or blows off his limb, he just says thou art God, you 442 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,480 know, love each other, you know, whatever. 443 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,720 Sort of like a Jesus moment. 444 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:24,600 And then he just corporates, which is dying. 445 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,600 And no one seems to care. 446 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,520 I mean, no one seems to be sad about it because they know that he's going to exist outside 447 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:32,800 of his body. 448 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,520 But Harshawn cares and he's sad about it. 449 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:42,680 And then I think if I'm not mistaken, I think Michael goes all the way out and starts talking 450 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:47,040 to Digby and Foster, those two archangels who died from the foster religion. 451 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:51,720 Anyway, that had a messy ending, sort of like that. 452 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:57,200 We are the Knights of I'm the Knight of whatever that one Tizza Tizza flesh wound guy from 453 00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:59,840 Monty Python and Holy Grail. 454 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:04,400 That dude where he just keeps getting body parts chopped off and then he just keeps saying 455 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:05,400 shit. 456 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:09,520 That was the ending of this book of the man from Mars. 457 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:12,860 So I don't know, silly ending. 458 00:32:12,860 --> 00:32:13,860 The sex cult. 459 00:32:13,860 --> 00:32:16,360 I wasn't really like, you know, whatever. 460 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,720 I guess in the 60s, this was the sort of free love. 461 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:21,220 Maybe that was the 70s. 462 00:32:21,220 --> 00:32:23,800 But this was the sexual revolution was coming. 463 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:29,640 This was less women making martinis for their man when they came home and more, you know, 464 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:31,740 free sexual exploration. 465 00:32:31,740 --> 00:32:33,520 So I get it. 466 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,840 This was for a product of its time. 467 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,720 I would see that that, you know, cool. 468 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:43,000 And this maybe even helped some people find out more about him because there are some 469 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:48,200 themes in this that are that he touches on homosexuality. 470 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,520 He touches on what but not in a good way. 471 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:56,400 I don't think because I think at one point there's a man who tries to kiss another another 472 00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:00,540 man and the guy's like, whoa, hey, stop it there, buddy. 473 00:33:00,540 --> 00:33:07,560 You know, not in an aggressive way, but maybe there's a few lines that are that are bad. 474 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,480 Definitely misogynistic. 475 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:20,640 There's a church, the church that that he starts is called the Church of All Worlds. 476 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:21,640 OK. 477 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:27,280 And I looked it up because I saw another documentary sort of talking about it. 478 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,280 And it's a real church. 479 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:34,720 And what makes it even crazier is everything about the it was OK. 480 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:39,720 So it's founded in 1961, the year this book came out. 481 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:45,680 It's let's see, it's an American neo pagan religious group whose stated mission is to 482 00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:51,500 evolve a network of information, mythology and experience that provides a context and 483 00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:55,840 stimulus for we reawakening. 484 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:00,880 Gaia and reuniting her children through tribal community community dedicated to responsible 485 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,280 stewardship and evolving consciousness. 486 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:07,040 So that's dope. 487 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:16,080 But the fun thing is, is that the the guy who founded it, his name is Oberon Zell Ravenhart, 488 00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:19,920 who serves the church as primate. 489 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:27,560 And then his wife, mourning Glory Zell Ravenhart, who I guess passed away, RIP, is the high 490 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,080 priestess. 491 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:35,080 So if you go on to the Church of All Worlds, see a w dot org, there's a documentary called 492 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,280 the Wizard Oz. 493 00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:42,520 And because his name is Oberon Zell, so I guess he goes by Oz. 494 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:48,680 So any he's a when you think of wizard, when you think of what does a wizard look like, 495 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,160 this guy looks more like Dumbledore than Dumbledore. 496 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:54,520 He is decked out. 497 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,440 He's full wizard gear. 498 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,480 He lives in a wizard house with his wizard wife. 499 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,840 Everything they do is like Ren Fair 24 seven. 500 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:09,280 I started watching this documentary about five minutes in and there's a I paused it 501 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:14,760 probably in the best possible time because it's him fully naked on a on a rope, on a 502 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:16,760 swing tire over a lake. 503 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:20,800 I mean, I'm just looking at bare ass right now as I'm talking about this. 504 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:25,520 But yeah, so he's he's insane. 505 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:26,520 He's very interesting. 506 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,960 I'm going to definitely watch the rest of it. 507 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,280 It's a 22 minute documentary. 508 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:37,400 And then, of course, his tagline, which I didn't even touch on, is may you never thirst. 509 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:47,960 And so because Mars doesn't have water or water is a scarcity on Mars, then it's a very 510 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:52,720 symbolic gesture to offer somebody water. 511 00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:55,520 And when you offer somebody water, they become your water brother. 512 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:59,080 And when you become a water brother, then you're bonded for life. 513 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:00,460 You can never lie to each other. 514 00:36:00,460 --> 00:36:04,800 You can never you all anything that's yours is theirs. 515 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:10,040 It's very much family marriage. 516 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:12,520 It's spiritual bonding. 517 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:16,720 Eventually, when they start learning Martian, they become bonded on an entirely different 518 00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:17,720 level. 519 00:36:17,720 --> 00:36:20,120 They could start looking through each other's eyes. 520 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:27,280 Like when Harsha comes and visits, he bangs some young, beautiful woman, of course, and 521 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:31,320 they all experience it through her eyes. 522 00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,600 And so the next day he's walking around and everyone's just like, all right, hey, thanks 523 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:35,880 for fucking us last night. 524 00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:38,160 He's like, oh, OK. 525 00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:44,520 He becomes the patron saint of the church, Harsha, because Mike believes that anything 526 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:48,120 that he talks to, like he thinks of Harsha as a great counsel. 527 00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:52,280 So when he talks to him, Harsha grocks what Mike is saying. 528 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:58,720 So he understands what Mike is saying without having to learn Martian. 529 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:03,880 And so when you become a water brother, you're bonded for life. 530 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:08,840 So Jill, the first thing that she does really with him is she offers him a glass of water. 531 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,840 And when she does, she becomes bonded to him. 532 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:13,840 And he trusts her more than anybody. 533 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,160 And then eventually she gives him a bath. 534 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,280 And when he's in the bath water, he fucking loves it. 535 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,160 Of course, there's a pool at some point. 536 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:21,160 Like water is a big thing. 537 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:23,320 He loses his fucking mind when he sees the ocean. 538 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,280 And they have to take him away from it. 539 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:31,520 I think the cops were getting involved because he was just acting like an insane person at 540 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,680 the beach because he was so happy. 541 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:41,600 And so may you never thirst is one of the, it's like thou art God, may you never thirst 542 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:48,040 is sort of the church peace be with you and also with you sort of thing if you're a Christian. 543 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:53,040 Or God, what is it that other religion say? 544 00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:54,040 Shalom? 545 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:56,040 I think that's hello. 546 00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,160 What else we got? 547 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,160 What's that Muslim one? 548 00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,000 Man, I should know more religious greetings. 549 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,000 Or not. 550 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,880 I don't know why I would. 551 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:14,680 So anyway, we so that's the whole thing. 552 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:16,920 I think it's insane that this dude has a church. 553 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:20,400 You go check out caw.org. 554 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:24,240 Another thing I want to touch on before ending this and giving it a grade and then talking 555 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:34,280 about what we're going to read next week is that this is supposedly unfilmable, which 556 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:42,520 I mean, I don't see how I know that there's a lot of internal dialogue from not internal 557 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:43,520 dialogue. 558 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:51,360 But it's the understanding that Mike has while learning all the human stuff, the overall 559 00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:52,360 understanding that he has. 560 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,520 He just doesn't have the words to describe what he knows, which is a lot more than we 561 00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:57,520 know. 562 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:03,800 So eventually, towards the end of the book, so when he at some point he leaves Harsha's 563 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:08,880 house and he runs away from the government and he's on the, not on the lam necessarily, 564 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:18,120 but he's like just living his life, he's a traveling magician with a circus and he's 565 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:22,360 really good with the magic because he's using alien magic. 566 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:29,000 But the problem is that he's not funny and he's not like no one knows. 567 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:30,880 It's just like it's boring. 568 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:31,880 They don't care about the magic. 569 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:36,600 They're more just looking at his assistant who's Jill. 570 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:45,080 But when he goes to the zoo and he gets, learns humanity and he comes back, now he's smooth 571 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,680 talking, he talks like a normal human being. 572 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:57,960 He's funny, he's charismatic, he becomes very much like a cult icon, like a cult leader. 573 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:02,360 And so, I forgot where I was going with that. 574 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:08,520 Oh, so I understand that if you're making a movie, the beginning part would be difficult 575 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:14,120 before he has the language to say the things that he's thinking in the beginning because 576 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:19,600 when he's doing these things, like when he reaches out and just unalives somebody, if 577 00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:24,600 you're filming that from a movie perspective, you'd have to film it from the perspective 578 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:28,440 of the humans, which would be scary. 579 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:32,160 And that's not the vibe you get from the book because it's not scary. 580 00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:36,560 It's like a peaceful thing where Mike is just like, oh man, I hate to waste food. 581 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:41,120 Oh, by the way, Mars, they eat each other. 582 00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:46,320 Cannibalism, that was a big shocking thing that he put in this book that people, was 583 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:53,760 big controversy at the time, which a little foreshadowing, the next book that I picked 584 00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:59,040 that we're going to read, the next two books is also controversial. 585 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,080 It's on the banned book lists. 586 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:10,520 So cannibalism, every time Michael kills somebody, he doesn't think that it's sad that that person's 587 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,000 dead because he knows better. 588 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:17,920 He knows that they just go on living, but he thinks it's a waste of food so he gets 589 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:18,920 sad. 590 00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:24,360 And so if you were to film that from a human perspective, you would see this dude getting 591 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:25,840 sad, the food's getting... 592 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:30,760 And I understand that that's Jill's point of view was scared and the cop's point of 593 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:37,000 view was scared, but how would you film that in a way that makes Mike seem sympathetic, 594 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,320 that he's just doing them a favor of like, oh no, there's a wrongness here. 595 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:44,340 Let me undo this. 596 00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:46,240 That would be tough. 597 00:41:46,240 --> 00:41:50,200 But I feel like we're there, movie making techniques. 598 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:51,600 I feel as long... 599 00:41:51,600 --> 00:42:00,280 I don't think they should take the same approach they did for that movie with Tom Holland 600 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:01,760 and Daisy Ridley. 601 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:06,240 I can't remember the name of, but I read the book and I thought the book was okay. 602 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:13,280 It's like kind of young adult-ish, a little Twilight meets sort of stranger in a strange 603 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:14,280 land. 604 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:17,640 It's like a woman lands on a planet of all men and they can hear each other's thoughts, 605 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,600 but they can't hear hers. 606 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,400 Very Twilight-y, I'm sure Twilight, one of the two ripped each other off on that. 607 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:30,160 But when they shot the movie, they shot the way that the dudes can hear each other's thoughts 608 00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:34,520 in a weird way that I don't know how I felt about. 609 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:35,520 I don't think it was good. 610 00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:40,600 I think that's maybe one of the reasons it didn't do well, people didn't care for it. 611 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:49,440 I know that they didn't want to release the movie because they thought it was so bad. 612 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:58,640 So maybe, I don't know, but I know that from the middle to the end, you could totally film 613 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:07,200 this and it would definitely get an R rating, which is crazy because the entire book, I 614 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,560 would say, is definitely not R rated. 615 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:16,480 And then you get to the last part where it's basically everybody fucking all the time. 616 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:22,640 At that point, I would say, yeah, this maybe is a little unfilmable. 617 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:28,320 Maybe you have to take the approach that they did with Stephen King's It and when they omitted 618 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:34,240 the child orgy that he wrote into the ending of that book, which, great, thank God they 619 00:43:34,240 --> 00:43:36,600 cut that out. 620 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:38,680 That's unfilmable. 621 00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:41,200 And I don't even know why he put that in there. 622 00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:48,760 I know that it was supposed to represent her overcoming her fear of her dad's sexual abuse 623 00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,800 by having sex with her friends, but that doesn't make any sense. 624 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:53,840 Anyway, that's neither here nor there. 625 00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:54,840 That's it. 626 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,560 It's just what a weird thing that Stephen King put in. 627 00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,000 He's not great with endings. 628 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:01,920 But I'm a huge Stephen King fan. 629 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,320 We will get into more Stephen King stuff down the line. 630 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:10,040 In this one, yeah, maybe if they omit the whole orgy and all the women want to fuck 631 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:14,560 all the time, they'd have to sort of, if they were going to film this, there'd be one or 632 00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:15,880 two, there's like two options. 633 00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:21,960 You either film it completely misogynistic, like the way that it was written, like a Mad 634 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:31,160 Max or like a Madman episode, but meets the future, meets this retro future. 635 00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:41,440 Or you update it all, make it more PC, make it more 2024 and update the ideals behind 636 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:42,440 it all. 637 00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:46,320 But if you're going to do that, then you're not really making the book because this is 638 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:50,560 a critique of a lot of things. 639 00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:56,080 I don't know if the, for me, I don't know if the misogyny is satire or not. 640 00:44:56,080 --> 00:45:05,320 So that's the problem with not understanding these themes is that every time Harsha threatens 641 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:11,080 to bend over one of his secretaries and spank her, is that satire from Heinlein or is that 642 00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:17,320 just from the time how men treated women and that's just kind of what happens? 643 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,640 Because there's a lot of times women are just told to shut up and stuff. 644 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:29,560 But anyway, we're going to rate this on out of five spanks to a secretary's ass. 645 00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,880 I'm going to give this three specs. 646 00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,040 It's not my favorite. 647 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:36,040 It was enjoyable. 648 00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:37,520 It felt like homework at times. 649 00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:43,200 I know that Mike from Fried Rice podcast, he told me that he had to read this in high 650 00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:47,600 school as required reading, which is insane. 651 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:49,480 How would that be? 652 00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,960 Whatever high school he went to, whatever teacher gave him that book, there's orgies 653 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,880 at the end. 654 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:00,840 Three spanks on a secretary's ass out of five. 655 00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:08,000 And now let's get into next week's book, which is going to be... 656 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:18,560 But we are going to be reading The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier and also Beyond the 657 00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:23,800 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier because they're both short as fuck. 658 00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:25,960 I think they're kind of young adult books. 659 00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:26,960 I'm not sure. 660 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:27,960 They feel... 661 00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:31,760 I mean, yeah, I think they are because it takes place in high school. 662 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,400 And anyway, just a little... 663 00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:35,440 They're great. 664 00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:36,440 They're very controversial. 665 00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:44,520 They were like, I think number three or four on the 2000 to 2009 banned book list because 666 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:50,560 it deals with sexual themes, deals with critiques of religion. 667 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:51,560 Wow. 668 00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:56,360 I'm just on a fucking roll here, aren't I? 669 00:46:56,360 --> 00:47:00,360 I swear I'm going to pick a fun book at some point, but these are actually pretty fun. 670 00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:01,360 I will say this. 671 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:07,880 At one point, a guillotine gets involved in these Chocolate War books and this Catholic 672 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:11,280 high school, all boy Catholic high school is never the same. 673 00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:15,480 It's very good if you haven't read... 674 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:16,480 If you're looking for one of... 675 00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:21,160 If you're looking to read a book and keep up with me, this would be a good one to start 676 00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:23,080 on because of how short it is. 677 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:24,360 Please, it's great. 678 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:26,720 And I'll see you next week. 679 00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:27,720 Thanks so much. 680 00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:32,400 You guys have been wonderful. 681 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:57,800 Have a great night.