Stranger in a Strange Land
This book is one of my favorites. It's not talked about as much though.
The except on laughter is my favorite:
"I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting" ... "But that's not all people laugh at." "Isn't it? Perhaps I don't grok all its fullness yet. But find me something that really makes you laugh sweetheart... a joke, or anything else- but something that gave you a a real belly laugh, not a smile. Then we'll see if there isn't a wrongness wasn't there." He thought. "I grok when apes learn to laugh, they'll be people."
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SiaSL is my favorite Heinlein book!
I think it was fairly well-known back in the 60s and 70s, even among non-SF readers. But parts of it... not to say that it aged poorly, just that it doesn't have the same impact it did back then.
What parts?
Most of the free-love vibe isn't really as groundbreaking as it was in 1961. Also Heinlein does have a habit of inserting what can only be described as thinly-veiled fetish content into his work. And by modern standards I'd call Jubal a pretty obvious Mary Sue.
And generally most novels that could nearly qualify for Medicare tend to have a sort of idealistic tone that registers more as corny and naïve today.
Don't get me wrong, I still like the book, but I can definitely see how it wouldn't resonate much with a wider modern audience.
That's all very reasonable
I suspect back in the days of the 60s counterculture, its message of skepticism about established religions, and about sexual liberation, resonated in ways that do not (as much) these days.
Definitely helped send me down a path.
It's the rest of the story that makes the laughing ape part really resonate, imo. That a cascade of shit rolling down hill is what VMS saw that led him to that awareness.