Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 11:07:40 -0500
From: Reg Lilly <rlilly-AT-scott.skidmore.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: Help With "Grok"


Metin Aktay wrote:
> 
> Ages ago I read a sci-fi novel centering on a kid rescued from an
> unsuccessful colonisation effort in space and brought back to earth.
> This kid turns out to have mind-over-matter powers which he tries using
> for reforming earth society and sacrifices himself to a mob. The story
> had many deliberate parallels with that of Jesus Christ.
> 
> The verb "to grok" was a central theme of the novel, meaning to
> understand the whole of something, to internalise fully.
> 
> I forgot the author (heinlein, clarke, asimov?) and the name of the
> novel (children?childhood?) and would appreciate it someone could remind
> me who/what they were.

I believe that "to grok" comes from John Irving's The World According to Garp.

Ciao,
Reg


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