Star Maker: Olaf Stapledon (S.F. MASTERWORKS)

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When I started to read SF at the end of 1952 , Olaf Stapledon had been out of print a long time. I think it took about 10 years before I noticed the Dover reprint of Last and First Men. Odd John had maybe gone into the public domain because in the early 60’s there was an odd lurid cover reprint.

A prescient view of society falling into war and racial hatred again and again, and radio/virtual reality being used to control the populace, reminds the reader a bit of George Orwell. However in essence many of the descriptions of alien societies are all quite reflective of the age the writer forms part of, with class warfare and exploitation recurring.

PREFACE

In 2019 a short film adaption of Stapledon's story "A Modern Magician" was written by, produced by and starred Justin McDonald and Kate Hodgson. The film, which was directed by Mark Heller, also featured the voice of Brian Cox. It was the first-ever live-action adaptation of any of Stapledon's literary works. It's really interesting reading a future history written in the 1930's that stretches so far into the future across the entire galaxy. Both works go well together as a set as Last and First Men is Earthcentric while Star Maker focuses on the rest of the galaxy with allusions to Earth and things that happened in Last and First Men along the way.

Overhead, obscurity unveiled a star. One tremulous arrow of light, projected how many thousands of years ago, now stung my nerves with vision, and my heart with fear. For in such a universe as this what significance could there be in our fortuitous, our frail, our evanescent community? But now irrationally I was seized with a strange worship, not, surely of the star, that mere furnace which mere distance falsely sanctified, but of something other, which the dire contrast of the star and us signified to the heart. Yet what, what could thus be signified? Intellect, peering beyond the star, discovered no Star Maker, but only darkness; no Love, no Power even, but only Nothing. And yet the heart praised. The complexity of the problem will be analyzed and we will show that some philosophical prejudice is unavoidable. There are two types of philosophy: “Natural Philosophy”, seeking for some essence of things, and “Critical (or analytical) Philosophy”, devoted to the analysis of the procedures by which we claim to construct a reality. An extension of Critical Philosophy, Epistemo-Analysis (i.e. the Psycho-Analysis of concepts) is presented and applied to the definition of Life and to Astrobiology.

Star Maker

Galaxies might be living beings as part of their nature and makeup. As for any real intelligence with such a massive collections of stars, it may be the same as a colony of ants: They function as a unit in such a way as to appear highly organized and intelligent, but in reality are functioning more like little various software programs working in unison for the benefit of the whole – just smart enough to get their particular tasks done, but not able to truly comprehend what they are doing or why. Crossley, Robert (1994). Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future. Syracuse University Press. p.306. Together with his philosophy lectureship at the University of Liverpool, which now houses the Olaf Stapledon archive, Stapledon lectured in English literature, industrial history and psychology. He wrote many non-fiction books on political and ethical subjects, in which he advocated the growth of “spiritual values”, which he defined as those values expressive of a yearning for greater awareness of the self in a larger context (“personality-in-community”). Stapledon himself named his spiritual values as intelligence, love and creative action. His philosophy was strongly influenced by Spinoza. Eighth Men. "These long-headed and substantial folk were designed to be strictly pedestrian, physically and mentally." When Venus becomes uninhabitable, about to be destroyed along with the entire inner solar system, they design the Ninth Men, who will live on Neptune.