Wikipedia

Olaf Stapledon

William Olaf Stapledon(10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) was a Britishphilosopherandauthorofscience fiction.[1][2]In 2014, he was inducted into theScience Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
Born(1886-05-10)10 May 1886
Seacombe,Wallasey,Cheshire, England,UK
Died6 September 1950(1950-09-06)(aged 64)
Caldy,Cheshire, England, United Kingdom
OccupationNovelist,philosopher
GenreScience fiction,philosophy
Notable worksStar Maker,Last and First Men,Odd John

Life

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Stapledon was born inSeacombe,Wallasey,onthe Wirral Peninsulain Cheshire, the only son of William Clibbett Stapledon and Emmeline Miller. The first six years of his life were spent with his parents atPort Said,Egypt. He was educated atAbbotsholme SchoolinDerbyshireandBalliol College, Oxford,where he acquired aBAdegree inModern History(Second Class) in 1909, promoted to anMAdegree in 1913.[3][4]After a brief stint as a teacher atManchester Grammar Schoolhe worked in shipping offices inLiverpoolandPort Saidfrom 1910 to 1912. From 1912 to 1915 Stapledon worked with the Liverpool branch of theWorkers' Educational Association.[2]

During theFirst World Warhe served as aconscientious objector.[2]Stapledon became an ambulance driver with theFriends' Ambulance Unitin France and Belgium from July 1915 to January 1919; he was awarded theCroix de Guerrefor bravery.[5]His wartime experiences influenced his pacifist beliefs and advocacy of a World Government.[6]On 16 July 1919 he married Agnes Zena Miller (1894–1984), an Australian cousin.[2]They had first met in 1903, and later maintained a correspondence throughout the war. They had a daughter, Mary Sydney Stapledon (1920–2008), and a son, John David Stapledon (1923–2014). In 1920 they moved toWest Kirby.

Stapledon was awarded aPhDdegree inphilosophyfrom theUniversity of Liverpoolin 1925 and used his doctoral thesis as the basis for his first published prose book,A Modern Theory of Ethics(1929).[5]However, he soon turned to fiction in the hope of presenting his ideas to a wider public. The relative success ofLast and First Men(1930) prompted him to become a full-time writer. He wrote a sequel,Last Men in London,and followed it up with many more books of both fiction and philosophy.[7]

For the duration of theSecond World WarStapledon abandoned his pacifism and supported the war effort.[5]In 1940 the Stapledon family built and moved into a new house on Simon's Field, inCaldy,in Wirral. During the war Stapledon became a public advocate ofJ.B. PriestleyandRichard Acland'sleft-wingCommon Wealth Party,[5]as well as the BritishinternationalistgroupFederal Union.[8]He supported implementing the recommendations of theBeveridge Report[9]and spoke at the first public meeting of theLeft Book Club's "Readers' and Writers' Group".[10]

Some commentators have called Stapledon a Marxist, although Stapledon distanced himself from the label stating that "I am not a Marxist, but I have learned much from Marxists, and I am not anti-Marxist",[11]though he did refer to himself as a socialist.[12]

After 1945 Stapledon travelled widely on lecture tours. Arthur C. Clarke, as Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, invited him to give a talk on the social and biological aspects of space exploration.[13]He also travelled internationally, visiting the Netherlands,Swedenand France, and in 1948 he spoke at theWorld Congress of Intellectuals for PeaceinWrocław,Poland. He attended the Conference for World Peace held in New York City in 1949, the only Briton to be granted a visa to do so. In 1950 he became involved with theanti-apartheidmovement. After a week of lectures in Paris, he cancelled a projected trip toYugoslaviaand returned to his home in Caldy, where he died very suddenly of a heart attack.[5]

Stapledon was cremated atLandicanCrematorium. His widow and their children scattered his ashes on the sandy cliffs overlooking theDee Estuary,a favourite spot of his that features in more than one of his books. Stapledon Wood, on the south-east side ofCaldy Hill,is named after him.[14]

Works

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Stapledon's fiction often presents the strivings of some intelligence that is beaten down by an indifferent universe and its inhabitants who, through no fault of their own, fail to comprehend its lofty yearnings. It is filled with protagonists who are tormented by the conflict between their "higher" and "lower" impulses.[2]

Stapledon's writings directly influencedArthur C. Clarke,[15]Brian Aldiss,[16]Stanisław Lem,Bertrand Russell,[17]John Gloag,[18]Naomi Mitchison,[19]C. S. Lewis,[20]Vernor Vinge,[21]John Maynard Smith[22]and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction. Clarke wrote:[13]

In 1930 I came under the spell of a considerably more literate influence, when I discovered W. Olaf Stapledon's just-publishedLast and First Menin the Minehead Public Library. No book before or since ever had such and impact on my imagination; the Stapledonian vistas of millions and hundreds of millions of years, the rise and fall of civilizations and entire races of men, changed my whole outlook on the universe and has influenced much of my writing ever since.

Ideas such as a "supermind" composed of many individual consciousnesses forms a recurring theme in his work.Star Makercontains the first known description of what are now calledDyson spheres.Freeman Dysoncredits the novel with giving him the idea, even stating in an interview that "Stapledon sphere" would be a more appropriate name.[23]Last and First Menfeatures early descriptions ofgenetic engineering[24]andterraforming.Siriusdescribes a dog whose intelligence is increased to the level of a human being's. Stapledon's work also refers to then-contemporary intellectual fashions (e.g. the belief inextrasensory perception).

Last and First Men,a "future history" of 18 successive species of humanity, andStar Maker,an outline history of the Universe, were highly acclaimed by figures as diverse asJorge Luis Borges,J. B. Priestley,Bertrand Russell,Algernon Blackwood,[25]Hugh Walpole,Arnold Bennett,Virginia Woolf(Stapledon maintained a correspondence with Woolf) andWinston Churchill.[26]In contrast, Stapledon's philosophy repelledC. S. Lewis,whoseCosmic Trilogywas written partly in response to what Lewis saw as amorality, although Lewis admired Stapledon's inventiveness and described him as "a corking good writer".[27]In fact Stapledon was anagnosticwho was hostile toreligious institutions,[28]but not to religious yearnings, a fact that set him at odds withH. G. Wellsin their correspondence.[29]

Together with his philosophy lectureship at the University of Liverpool, which now houses the Olaf Stapledon archive, Stapledon lectured inEnglish literature,industrial historyandpsychology.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" ).[2]Stapledon himself named his spiritual values as intelligence, love and creative action.[30]His philosophy was strongly influenced bySpinoza.[31]

Stapledon is considered one of the forerunners of the contemporarytranshumanistmovement.[32]

Film rights

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Film producer and directorGeorge Palbought the rights toOdd Johnand in 1966Castle of Frankensteinmagazine reported thatDavid McCallumwould play the title role.[33]

In 2017 a multimedia adaptation ofLast and First Menby Oscar-nominated Icelandic composerJóhann Jóhannssonwas released, featuring narration byTilda Swintonand a live score performed by the BBC Philharmonic.[34]

In 2019,Justin McDonaldandKate Hodgsonwrote, produced, and starred in a short film adaptation of Stapledon's "A Modern Magician." Directed by Mark Heller, the film also featured the voice ofBrian Cox.It was the first-ever live-action adaptation of any of Stapledon's literary works.

Bibliography

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Fiction

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  • Last and First Men:A Story of the Near and Far Future(1930) (ISBN1-85798-806-X)
  • Last Men in London(1932) (ISBN0-417-02750-8)
  • Odd John:A Story Between Jest and Earnest(1935) (ISBN0-413-32900-3)
  • Star Maker(1937) (ISBN0-8195-6692-6) First Edition cover byBip Pares
  • Darkness and the Light(1942) (ISBN0-88355-121-7)
  • Old Man in New World(short story, 1944)
  • Sirius:A Fantasy of Love and Discord(1944) (ISBN0-575-07057-9)
  • Death into Life(1946)
  • The Flames: A Fantasy(1947)
  • A Man Divided(1950) (ISBN0-19-503087-7)
  • Four Encounters(1976) (ISBN0-905220-01-3)
  • Nebula Maker(drafts ofStar Maker,1976) (ISBN0-905220-06-4)
  • East is West(posthumous, 1979)

Non-fiction

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  • A Modern Theory of Ethics: A study of the Relations of Ethics and Psychology(1929)
  • Waking World(1934)
  • Saints and Revolutionaries(1939)
  • New Hope for Britain(1939)
  • Philosophy and Living,2 volumes (1939)
  • Beyond the "Isms"(1942)
  • Seven Pillars of Peace(1944)
  • Youth and Tomorrow(1946)
  • Interplanetary Man?(1948)
  • The Opening of the Eyes(ed. Agnes Z. Stapledon, 1954)

Poetry

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  • Latter-Day Psalms(1914)

Collections

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Andy Sawyer, "[William] Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds.Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction.New York: Routledge, 2010. (pp. 205–210)ISBN1135285349.
  2. ^abcdefJohn Kinnaird, "Stapledon,(William) Olaf" in Curtis C. Smith,Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers.Chicago, St. James, 1986.ISBN0912289279(pp. 693–6).
  3. ^Kinnaird, John.Olaf Stapledon.Borgo Press, 1986.ISBN978-0-916732-55-4
  4. ^Oxford University Calendar, 1915, p. 182
  5. ^abcdeVincent Geoghegan, "Olaf Stapledon:Religious but not a Christian" in Socialism and religion: roads to common wealth.London: Routledge, 2011.ISBN9780415668286(pp. 85–108).
  6. ^"Visions of the Future: Olaf Stapledon - Archives Hub".
  7. ^"Olaf Stapledon". J. L. Campbell Sr., inE. F. Bleiler,ed.Science Fiction Writers.New York: Scribners, 1982. pp. 91–100.ISBN978-0-684-16740-4
  8. ^Andrea Bosco,Federal Union and the origins of the 'Churchill proposal': the federalist debate in the United Kingdom from Munich to the fall of France, 1938-1940London: Lothian Foundation Press, 1992.ISBN1872210198(p. 50)
  9. ^Crossley, Robert (1994).Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future.Syracuse University Press. p. 306.
  10. ^Mulhern, Francis (2020).The Moment of "Scrutiny".Verso.
  11. ^"I am not a Marxist, but I have learned much from Marxists, and I am not anti-Marxist... Marxism and Christianity spring from the same emotional experience, but each in its way misinterprets, falsifies." quoted in Geoghegan, Vincent,Socialism and Religion: Roads to Common Wealth.
  12. ^Geoghegan, Vincent (2012).Socialism and Religion: Roads to Common Wealth.Taylor & Francis. p. 209.
  13. ^abClarke, Arthur C. (1983).The Sentinel.New York: Berkley Books. pp. 3–4.ISBN0-425-09389-1.
  14. ^"Cheshire Now – Caldy Hill".Retrieved16 January2013.
  15. ^"Looking far, far into the future: Olaf Stapledon".Kirkus Reviews.
  16. ^"The Art of Penguin Science Fiction: Memory of the future".penguinsciencefiction.org.
  17. ^Mark Brake (2012).Alien Life Imagined: Communicating the Science and Culture of Astrobiology.Cambridge University Press. p. 225.ISBN9781139851091.Stapledon's writings greatly influenced not only key players in our own story on pluralism, such as Arthur C. Clarke and Stanislaw Lem, but also figures as diverse as Jorge Luis Borges, Bertrand Russell, Tom Wintringham, Virginia Woolf, and Winston Churchill.
  18. ^Ruddick, Nicholas, "Science Fiction", in Brian W. Shaffer, John Clement Ball, Patrick O'Donnell, David W. Madden and Justus Nieland, The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. John Wiley & Sons, 2010ISBN1405192445,(p. 333).
  19. ^"Mitchison, Naomi", inScience Fiction and Fantasy Literature A Checklist, 1700–1974: with Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II.Robert Reginald, Douglas Menville, Mary A. Burgess Detroit – Gale Research Company.ISBN0810310511(p. 1002)
  20. ^Leibovitz, Liel (1 November 2011)."Star Men".Tablet.Archived fromthe originalon 23 April 2016.Retrieved1 March2016.Also, C.S. Lewis cites Olaf Stapledon as an inspiration in his preface toThat Hideous Strength.
  21. ^Menon, Anil."Article: Interview: Vernor Vinge".Strangehorizons. Archived fromthe originalon 3 December 2013.Retrieved24 November2013.
  22. ^Dvorsky, George (24 April 2004)."John Maynard Smith and Olaf Stapledon".Retrieved1 March2016.
  23. ^"MeaningofLife.tv".MeaningofLife.tv. Archived fromthe originalon 9 January 2014.Retrieved24 November2013.
  24. ^"Last and First Men Summary - eNotes".eNotes.Archived fromthe originalon 20 December 2016.
  25. ^Blackwood, Algernon. "Cosmic Thrillers",(Review ofLast and First Men,Time and Tide,20 December 1930. Reprinted inFantasy Commentatormagazine, 6(2):134–136. Fall 1988.
  26. ^Benford,Gregory,"Foreword" inLast and First Men.London, Millennium, 1999.ISBN1-85798-806-Xpp. ix–xi.
  27. ^Amy Mandelker, Elizabeth Powers (12 May 1999).Pilgrim Souls: A Collection of Spiritual Autobiography.Simon and Schuster. p. 521.ISBN9780684843117.
  28. ^Robert Crossley (1994).Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future.Syracuse University Press. p.388.ISBN9780815602811.In a lecture to the New Renascence School in London, he reiterated the central paradox of his own spiritual life: "Agnosticism, far from destroying religion, is the gateway to live religion."...In a 1949 anthology on religion, Olaf gave simple, precise expression to a problem he had wrestled with all his life: the emotional inadequacy of atheism and the intellectual unacceptability of theism. Spirit, for him, meant a character of aspiration, not a substance attributed to souls or deities.
  29. ^Geoghegan, Vincent (29 March 2012).Socialism and Religion.Routledge.ISBN9781136709609.
  30. ^Olaf Stapledon."The Great Certainty".Archived fromthe originalon 4 September 2018.Retrieved5 May2016.
  31. ^Liel Leibovitz (November 2011)."Star Men".Archived fromthe originalon 4 September 2018.Retrieved4 September2018.
  32. ^"What is Transhumanism?".Retrieved29 January2021.
  33. ^"Article:" The Man from M.O.N.S.T.E.R. "Castle of Frankenstein,volume 2, No. 4 (1966) ".David McCallum Fans Online.Retrieved25 January2008.
  34. ^"Article:" Last and First Men "(2017)".Manchester International Festival.Retrieved25 January2017.
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