Heinlein

Does anybody know if Stranger in a strange land: uncut is the substantially different from Stranger in a strange land
? I feel they probably ought to be combined, but as they are carefully seperated at the moment, I've left them

What should be done in similar cases, such as The Stand ?

I say leave the cut & uncut Strangers separate. I certainly don't want to be told that I have a work "duplicate." If they were the same, I wouldn't have bought the uncut version.

'want' to have a work duplicate? Its not a matter of want surely? Either they are substantially similar and you have a duplicate, or they aren't and you don't?

If you have both, have you read both? How different are they? How much longer is the uncut? If there are just a few extra sex scenes with Valentine then to me they are the same. If there is a profound piece of extra writing commenting on the social differences, then they are different.

The original cut (for length and shocking at the time reasons) version published in 1961 was about 160,000 words. The full version was finally published in 1991 and is about 220,000 words.

That's substantial enough difference for me to not combine the editions.

Yep - that's substantial enough for me too. I'll leave them seperated.

Now how do I tell which version mine is and where it has ended up being combined?...... I suspect a lot of the 2200 users with a copy of the 'original' actually have the uncut "recent" version.

I was looking at the Wikipedia article and they give a publication history. If the book was published before 1991, it's the cut version. The trade paperbacks labeled uncut runs 655 pages. An Ace uncut (1991) runs 528 pages. There's a 1995 Ace Charter that's only 438 pages and looks like it probably is the cut version.

There's a discussion of the versions at Stranger vs Stranger with examples of the text. Wish it cited some page numbers to find the text.

edit added: Publication history at isfdb Seems to imply that post '91 are uncut versions

'want' to have a work duplicate? Its not a matter of want surely? Either they are substantially similar and you have a duplicate, or they aren't and you don't?

Sorry. Perhaps I "misspoke." When I said "I don't want to be told that I have a duplicate" I meant that I don't want a combiner causing me to have a duplicate on my list when it is not in fact a duplicate. I have more than enough real duplicates. :-)

That's a tough one, but I think a good case could be made that if someone owns the one of the versions they ought to be connected at least for suggestions purposes with the others. And if someone is talking about one version in a group that owners of both versions should be able to know about it.

#8

Take a look at the touchstones. Easy enough to indicate which version you are talking about. As for suggestions, those with books by Heinlein will get suggestions for other books by Heinlein (even if they own 50 or 60) and for other science fiction.

There are plenty of identical books out there, usually by less famous authors, waiting to be combined.

Another Heinlein puzzle:

RAH's Podkayne of Mars also exists in an (uncut/original text/author's intention) edition. In this case, the changes are minor in length - but amount to a complete reversal of the ending.

One could argue that stories with totally opposite endings are not actually the same story, and should be separated. On the other hand, the difference is only a page or two of text, so they could be considered the same 'work'.

OK - I got interested enough in the question to poke around for what editions were re-issued as 'uncut'.

From the RAH website that alibrarian links to at #6 above, a 2001 essay called "Red Planet/Blue Pencil" by Jane Davitt explains:

"Red Planet is one of four Heinlein books reissued in a restored form. The reasons for the editing are not the same in each case and each version has its fans and critics. Podkayne of Mars has perhaps the least amount of new or changed words but the alteration of the ending has a profound effect on the rest of the book. Stranger In A Strange Land is unchanged as far as plot goes but is enriched (or encumbered) by hundreds of tiny additions to the text. Perhaps the most similar case to 'Red Planet' is The Puppet Masters which, although unquestionably an adult book was divested of much of its darker and more adult themes..."

Sorry to dredge this up if you all have decided "once and for all" the answer to this question but...I am new to the site. For the record - I have entered 69 works - have several thousand more to go. I have bought my lifetime membership and likely will be a vigorous combiner once I learn the mores.

Re: combining the "cut" from the "uncut" version of SIASL

Point #1) When I enter the ISBN for my copy (0-399-13586-3) and take the option that comes up on the add a book page - my book gets added under the "work" that coincides with the earlier "cut" version (even though the cover of my book says "FOR THE FIRST TIME THE ORIGINAL UNCUT...." above the title.
-- so for those of you concerned with accuracy a LOT of those people listed under the "cut" version actually have "uncut" copies by default.

Point #2) I HAVE read and re/read BOTH the cut and the uncut version 6-10 times each and do not feel that there is a substantial difference. I currently only keep the uncut version on hand. But that is only my opinion - to find several (dozen) others you have only to go to the AFH newsgroup (alt.fan.heinlein) and google past discussions of the various cut/uncut novels.

I would view the cut and uncut versions as being variations not entirely different WORKS and would be in favor of having them combined.

PortiaLong

(PS. My copy of Podkayne contains BOTH endings - I'll have to check and see which one IT came up under - >smile