Odd John and Sirius by Olaf Stapledon

Odd John and Sirius by Olaf Stapledon

In the list of modern science fiction personalities, the late British philosopher and novelist W. Olaf Stapledon is prominent. Last and First Men and Starmaker are generally considered to be the finest future histories ever written, the gage by which all earlier and later works are measured. Odd John and Sirius are no less accurate in dealing with the problem in another guise. The central question is: if and when a superior being is introduced into a culture, how will either survive? Stapledon's answers are by no means romantic fantasies; they are the pathetic, realistic conclusions which we, one day, may be forced to accept.
Odd John is the definitive fictionalization of the mutated superman. After a strange birth and childhood, John is suddenly compelled to accept the fact that he is different. What is more, he has to decide what to do with his gifts. Sirius, although the logical successor to Odd John, deals with quite another being -- an alien intelligence, artificially produced, a dog with superhuman mentality, who is not only superior to his own kind, but rejected by those with whom he has most in common. Stapledon uses his powers -- intellectual, imaginative, and observant -- to detail the conflict in its very human form.
Odd John and Sirius are something else besides explorations of superbeings. Stapledon is capable of a great deal of humor and tongue-in-cheek description. If his writing, as he says in the subtitle to Odd John, is between jest and earnest, his sympathies are divided between the conflicting forces of man and superman. For those in literature, in psychology, in philosophy, or even in the world as it now exists, the detailed histories of these two strange beings will be ones to ponder. If anything, we have moved closer to the stage when conflict between superior and sapient man is imminent.

Olaf Stapledon is an English novelist and philosopher whose future histories have had a significant influence on modern science fiction. He is a Ph.D. holder. University of Liverpool, with a degree in philosophy and psychology. He published A Modern Theory of Ethics in 1929 and seemed set for a career as an academic, but with the success of his novel Last and First Men (1930), he shifted his focus to fiction. Stapledon also contributed to technical and scholarly ethics and philosophy evaluations. The Last Men in London (1932), Odd John (1935), Philosophy and Life (1938), Star Builder (1937), and Sirius (1944) are among his other notable works.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780486211336
ISBN 10	0486211339
Title	Odd John and Sirius
Author	Olaf Stapledon
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Dover Publications Inc.
Year published	1972-06-01
Number of pages	309
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.