F armer has written three different work called "The Lovers." The first is the 1952 story which shook up the science fiction establishment by introducing sexual themes into a genre previously oriented toward science and technology. This story was followed by a novel-length adaptation, published in 1961 and then revised and republished in 1979. The following discussion deals with the 1979 novel, the most easy-toobtain version.

Few readers in today's era of sexually explicit films and fiction are likely to be shocked by this novel's sensitive portrayal of a love affair between a male human and female alien. Therefore, we should remind ourselves that Farmer originally was reacting against the dominant cultural mood of the Eisenhower era in America during the 1950s. This was also the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy — a time of mindless patriotism, anti-intellectualism, and suppression of dissent. Farmer attacks the repressive mood of this period...