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What is the unabridged text of Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" on the "Caryatid Who Has Fallen Under Her Stone"?

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked on June 20, 2021

"…Ben, for three thousand years architects designed buildings with columns shaped like female figures. At last Rodin pointed out that this work was too heavy for a girl. He didn’t say, ‘Look, you jerks, if you must do this, make it a brawny male figure. He showed it. This poor caryatid has fallen under the load. She’s a good girl—look at her face. Serious, unhappy at her failure, not blaming anyone, not even the gods . . . and still trying to shoulder her load, after she’s crumpled under it."

What is the text for this passage as it appears in the unabridged SiaSL?

One Answer

Looking in the 1991 Ace edition that says "the original uncut version" on the cover, the text of the section you have quoted is:

"What's that got to do with it? Does that make me blind and deaf to fundamental human emotion? I was saying that the crummiest painted plaster crucifix or the cheapest cardboard Christmas Creche can be sufficient symbol to evoke emotions in the human heart so strong that many have died for them and many more live for them. So the craftsmanship and artistic judgment with which such a symbol is wrought are largely irrelevant. Now here we have another emotional symbol-wrought with exquisite craftsmanship, but we won't go into that, yet. Ben, for almost three thousand years or longer, architects have designed buildings with columns shaped as female figures-it got to be such a habit that they did it as casually as a small boy steps on an ant. After all those centuries it took Rodin to see that this was work too heavy for a girl. But he didn't simply say, 'Look, you jerks, if you must design this way, make it a brawny male figure.' No, he showed it...and generalized the symbol. Here is this poor little caryatid who has tried-and failed, fallen under the load. She's a good girl-look at her face. Serious, unhappy at her failure, but not blaming anyone else, not even the gods...and still trying to shoulder her load, after she's crumpled under it.

"But she's more than good art denouncing some very bad art; she's a symbol for every woman who has ever tried to shoulder a load that was too heavy for her-over half the female population of this planet, living and dead, I would guess. But not alone women-this symbol is sexless. It means every man and every woman who ever lived who sweated out life in uncomplaining fortitude, whose courage wasn't even noticed until they crumpled under their loads. It's courage, Ben, and victory."

1991 Ace cover of Stranger in a Strange Land

Correct answer by DavidW on June 20, 2021

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