A look behind at stranger in a strange land.

one of the main ideas of stranger in a strange land is the concept of "grok". The literal martian definition is "to partake water". One of the beauties of this book is that, while the concpet of groking is never fully explained, by the end of the book you understand groking, but find yourself unable to explain it to others. My view of groking is that it means to understand something. But it is fuller than that. You understand something, you know how it works. you know every little peice of how it works. you know how the peices work. you know why the peices work. You know why it happens, you know what happens when it happens. you understand it so infintismaly that that thing has been absorbed by your pysche, has been spiritually liquified and used to marinate your brain. You may know how an engine works. But if you grokked an engine, you would be a different person. you see, with utter clarity, what this thing affects, and how peoples emotions and reactions changed it. Anything can be grokked. For example, Mike knows that he is required to wear clothes. He does not need to, cold and heat dont affect him. only extreme polar differences can make him take notice. So he understands why people wear clothes, because it is a cultural requirement and a social tradition. He unsderstands clothing, but he cannot grok it. he cannot grok why people feel that they have to clothe themselves, why people cant control their bodies like he can to avoid injury and discomfort. he would have to sit down and think intensely for hours just to grok clothes.

i know that i do not grok this book. i probably grok nothing, except for myself, maybe. such intense soul searching and reasoning would be almost impossible for an untrained person. But i feel that i am on my way to grokking. And i think one key element of groking is fullfilment. fulfilment of the spirit, flesh, and mind.

"we laugh because it hurts not to"