Robert
Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land
is one of genre’s more divisive offerings.
Loved or hated, it tells of an alien arriving with a message of
universal love and the religious, political, and social reaction as a commune
of belief is created around it. Heinlein
painting the scene in black and white, his ideas are presented via contemptuous
satire, rendering the novel largely a soapbox—the reason behind said reader
discord.
Enter
Nnedi Okorafor’s 2014 Lagoon. About aliens who arrive in Nigeria bearing a
message of love, likewise all manner of chaos is unleashed as they spread
knowledge of their mission. Lagoon is significantly different from
Heinlein in tone and attitude, however.
Rather than bludgeoning the reader with jaded cynicism, Okorafor
presents the social and political issues Nigeria is dealing with in candid
fashion while integrating the alien viewpoint, arriving at something greener,
something more holistic than just the disparaging dichotomy of Heinlein. Her commentary may sometimes be (indirectly)
cutting, but Lagoon remains a warm,
parental novel—the strong hand of love—that is more constructive than
destructive. Not just Heinlein’s stick,
Okorafor also offers the carrot.
