Stranger in a Strange Land is a bit of a head-scratcher, by design. Robert A. Heinlein always said that the reader was meant to supply the answers. Being your average dimwit that needs everything spelled out, I was somewhat stumped by the ending. That is, until I saw the cover art on the first edition. This cover only lasted a year before being replaced by a painting of colorful planets and a half-naked alien that was more appropriate to 60s sci-fi. My suspicion is that the publisher wanted a better visual hook, which is a mistake from a creative standpoint because the first edition cover hints at what Heinlein thought to be important about the book, and even helps to make sense of the final scenes. It has something to do with a bronze sculpture of a young woman who has been crushed under stone: Auguste Rodin’s Fallen Caryatid.Continue reading Heinlein’s Caryatid