[Ads-l] the proverbial "man from Mars"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: " a hypothetical observer of human behaviour and society whose
perspective would be entirely detached and objective": 1948.

It would seem, however, that the idea comes from - or was at least
adumbrated by - the book _The Man from Mars : His Morals, Politics and
Religion_, by "Thomas Blot" [William Simpson] (San Francisco: Bacon & Co.
1891). A third "revised and enlarged edition" appeared in 1910.

The Martian in question well fits the definition.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009262336

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010944426

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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