Tales about a Superman and a Superdog  
By A2BYTP4NJQIDR7 on 2001-05-12
A thousands thanks to Dover for keeping Olaf Stapledon's novels in print._Odd John_ John is a terribly precocious and at first frighteningly amoral child born to only modestly intelligent parents. With time, he learns to master his superhuman intelligence and develop telepathic powers which allow him to find others of his kind. By the end of the book, he and his band of superhuman mutants are trying to create a new civilization on an isolated island. This is an early novel, and to some extent it shows. A lot of Stapledon's views of what a highly intelligent creature would be like and do with his time seem awfully cliched today; there are odd parallels with Stapledon's thinking and some current-day "New Age" thinking. But it may be that _Odd John_ created those cliches! Stapledon was an immensely influential writer in 1930s Britain. Wonderful Trivia: The copyright for Odd John is held by George Pal . . . the filmmaker who brought us the movie versions of "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds." Forrey Ackerman told me that Pal had hopes and plans to film _Odd John._ Oh, what might have been! _Sirius_, written during World War II and published in 1944, is a far more mature and insightful work. It is also a really _sad_ book . . . a genuine tragedy. As the title suggests, it's about a dog; a mastiff / alsatian / border collie mix with a brain enlarged by _in utero_ hormone treatments. Sirius is as smart as an above-average human, but with the senses and instincts of a dog. Sirius' life is not easy, despite having loving "step parents" and siblings. The novel follows his childhood and education in Wales, his experiences as an anonymous social observer in 1940s London, and his career as a sheep farmer. (What better job for a dog?) We also learn about his affair with his human step-sister, and his painful brooding about his place in the world and the meaning of his strange life. Contrast _Sirius_ with Kirsten Bakis's _Lives of the Monster Dogs_, which was slicker and brighter but is no where near as realistic, insightful or involving.
STEPPENDOG
By AAE2DUEMTR30I on 2003-07-26
Until 2002 Sirius was the only thing by Stapledon I had read. Now with Last and First Men, Star Maker, Nebula Maker and Odd John, plus a good few more years, behind me, it means a lot more to me. Like his author, the dog with an equal-to-human brain is one of a kind, but the main theme is Stapledon's familiar tragic theme of the futile destruction of what intellect, mind and spirit can achieve. This is a Stapledon story with some very unfamiliar ingredients like characters and humour. It may be the strangest love story ever, but it's a love story all right, and a harrowing one. This time Stapledon is not looking directly into the mind of the Creator, but the religious professionals still get it in the neck from him. That strikes a chord with me. At a recent college reunion I attended a service for which 'unctuous and complacently servile' would have been an excellent description. If there is a Creator, to behave to him in this manner seemed to me to be verging on blasphemous, and I was relieved to get out before a thunderbolt struck. 'Find your calling...or be damned' may be the main message of this book, but it seems that the forces of futility may still get to you whether you do or not. Bertrand Russell has a story that Macaulay never spoke until the age of 6, when hot tea was spilled over him at a children's party and he reassured his fussing hostess with 'Thankyou madam, the agony is abated'. The early story of Odd John Wainwright, the son of slightly eccentric and moderately talented parents, started by reminding me of this, but I knew I would soon have to take it seriously. Odd John is a superhuman and he knows it. He is not cruel or evil, but like Stapledon's Star Maker he has more important priorities than, say, human life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life will be calmly sacrificed if it interferes with his mission. His 'property-is-theft' attitude to the local tycoon is probably a mask for the kind of early-20th century socialism that appealed to Stapledon, and John's early sexual mores have a touch of Bloomsbury about them -- the activity that dares not speak its name would seem to be obviously incest, except for the fact that it does not appear to create any downstream waves in his later relations with any of his family. The thought crossed my mind that I might be on the wrong track altogether. What could be equally unmentionable, something on which the taboo is almost as much cosmic as human? But on folk-dancing I dare not dwell. Odd John will not wring your emotions the way Sirius ought to do. It has other virtues. The creativity that conjured such a riveting series of human species in Last and First Men and would later create the planetary civilisations in Star Maker is at work here with the freakish superhumans, including one that is surely the most hellish being in all literature. The book is also obviously the main inspiration for Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End, in which the writer surpasses himself and achieves a stupendous reinterpretation of the whole legend of God and Satan. In Odd John the supreme being is not showing his hand regarding his ultimate intentions for humanity, but all in a way more reminiscent of the Overmind in Childhood's End than of the terrifying Star Maker. The main difference for me is not the stylistic gulf between the two authors but that in Childhood's End I am always conscious that I am reading a colossal piece of imagination. Stapledon, like his Sirius, upsets me by giving me the uncomfortable sense that he may be sniffing around the truth.
Little known classics
By A2YUZKPLUYQDKV on 2000-12-08
Most people don't even know that Olaf Stapledon even existed as an author and those that do most often gravitate toward his more famous (and certainly more groundbreaking) novels Last and First Men and Starmaker (also available as a twofer job and well worth your time), but if they pass up these books they're definitely missing out. Far more accessible than either of his other books, mostly because if you're not ready for the almost textbook style of LAFM/SM it might just bore the heck out of you before you realize how awesome those books actually are. Here Stapledon gets to show off his narrative skills and he more than succeeds. The first story Odd John is about a bloke who basically is one of the Second Men, as advanced over the rest of mankind as we're advanced over dogs and cats. Stapledon has some fun with the idea, mostly with John's utter inability to figure us out (or he knows us too well and can't figure out our motivations), the only problem is that John himself is a bit of a hard character to like, he uses people mostly because he can and justifies every act he does no matter how bad it is based on the fact that he's far superior to us. Granted you still care about the big lug, but sometimes he's so snotty you just want to slap him. Still, Stapledon does a great job of taking some shots at humanity and pretty well rationalizing the thought processes of a guy who's just not like us. Thankfully Sirius has the compassion that Odd John lacks in parts. This one is even stranger, it's about a really smart dog who might as well be human. The fact that Stapledon manages to pull this one off without it seeming silly or far fetched is a testament to his writing genius, he makes Sirius, who could have just been a talking dog, into something three dimensional and worthy of your attention. I had thought Odd John was good but Sirius just blew me away with its emotion and depth. It's interesting to note that in Odd John, John thinks Communism isn't a bad idea (with a few modications) while Sirius hates it because he feels it crushes the spirit. Thought I'd point that out. Other side note, Stapledon writes the coolest narrators I've ever read, they come across as totally human and just regular guys who happened to be caught up in really strange events. Classics like this deserve to be remembered.
Painfully moving...Wonderfully frightening.
By A2Q7EMF2AQU7YG on 1999-12-10
Never before have I read such a book that encompasses so much, in such a wonderful way. I've only read the second half of the volume, the strange, coldly scientific fairy tale of Sirius. After what I've read there, I'm not quite sure I'm ready to read Odd John. In due time I shall, but for now, I'll have to be contented with mulling over the life of Sirius, sitting, thinking, reflecting on its harsh mysticism.
Painfully moving...wonderfully frightening.
By A2Q7EMF2AQU7YG on 1999-12-09
Never before have I read such a book that encompasses so much, in such a wonderful way. I've only read the second half of the volume, the strange, coldly scientific fairy tale of Sirius. After what I've read there, I'm not quite sure I'm ready to read Odd John. In due time I shall, but for now, I'll have to be contented with mulling over the life of Sirius, sitting, thinking, reflecting on its harsh mysticism.
- A book that is still way ahead of its time.
By A2702BHLQKFZNR on 1997-12-09
Odd John is one of those books that you never forget. It is the odd biography of someone called John and his struggle to find himself. This struggle is made all the more difficult because John is not like the rest of us. Perhaps the best that can be said of him is that he is more human than the rest of us. His joys are brighter and his pain is deeper. This may be one of the first books that talk about what it means to be a "superman" and it is certainly the best. There are many hauntingly beautiful and a few terrible visions in this work that you will not forget, This book is a deep spring from which many subsequent works have sprung. It should be better known. If you enjoyed Childhood's End by Arthur C Clark or Stranager in A Strange Land by Robert Heinlien then find the source ... read this book!
- the best science fiction ever written
By on 2003-04-08
Sirius is an intelligent, strange work of contemporary fiction (contemporary to Britain inbetween the wars, that is) with a touch of science fantansy, and as such it is successful. Odd John is much the same only more so; in fact it is the equal of any science fiction tale ever created. It uses fiction as a device to conceal the author's real intent, which is to get some points across to those "supermen" that walk the real earth, people so far advanced in terms of mental and conscious functioning as to be like men living in a world of monkeys. If you are among them you must see what Stapledon has to say to you.
- Review of Sirius (I have not read Odd John)
By AW8HRCXVVWDN on 2003-06-20
A story about a superintelligent talking dog? It sounds terrible, like something out of a twee Disney film, but in actual fact Stapledon manages to avoid anything like that, and has written an incredible, touching story. It reminds me of "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", and doesn't avoid the dark side of Sirius' nature... there are a couple of particularly savage passages where Sirius kills a sadistic farmer, and also "murders" a horse just to indulge his canine instincts.Sirius ends up seeing the full range of human life, from bad to good, and more. He is also not a true dog, and finds himself not only alienated from human beings who cannot accept him fully (with a handful of exceptions), but other dogs who are like cretins to him especially his "lovers" (as the book puts it). Despite having difficulty speaking and writing (he devises ways to get around that), Sirius has an advantage over other dogs through his intelligence, and over humans in his hearing, sense of smell etc. What we get is not only a satire on English life during WWII, but an almost autistic view of the world, seeing everything but not able to integrate oneself into it. Of course some of the writing is dated, and Stapledon at times takes a very colonial view of the Welsh and their language (Sirius is originally brought up on a Welsh farm by English academics). Some of the style is very dry and typical of the period (for example when Sirius spots a holy roller farmboy pleasuring himself, Stapledon calls it "something unspeakable". Fortunately Victorian hangovers like these are not common).
- Stapledon's Parallel Lives.
By A1Y87E22UVYCE6 on 2005-04-26
The editors of this volume have had a brilliant idea; both stories may be read as a pair of Plutarch's "Parallel Lives".
They have many traits in common. It is very interesting for the reader to see the author's evolution on some considerations about humankind in a 9 years span.
Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) is believed to be the generational link between H. G. Wells (with whom he corresponded) and more recent British sci-fi authors as Arthur C. Clark (who recognizes Stapledon's influence on his "Childhood's End").
Born in England, spent his infancy at Port Said, absorbing the influence of the multicultural environment. He was a conscientious-objector but served as ambulance driver in WWI. In 1925 he was awarded with a Ph.D. in Philosophy and this is clearly perceptible in his novels.
He had a powerful imagination and humanistic, scientific and philosophical interests that he poured in his four major opus: "Last an First Men" (1930), "Odd John" (1935), "Star Maker" (1937) and "Sirius" (1944).
I'll comment each novel in particular and try to draw a parallel between them.
Odd John.
The present story follows the life and deeds of a Super Human. He is the product of an evolutionary jump and graced with super human intelligence.
This intelligence needs time to evolve and grow, so John maintain infant characteristic by a longer period than normal.
He is in permanent conflict with his surroundings, mastering them is a hard task. In order to receive help he recruits/bewitch a family's friend, who is the narrator in this novel.
John grows up and discovers he is not alone; there are other specimens of Homo Superior around the world. He sets out to search and recruit them for a unique project: establishing a Colony of his kind.
Stapledon use the different anecdotes to illustrate his reflections about human kind, religion, politic, justice, ethic and more, many more subjects of transcendence.
Sirius.
This novel follows the life and deeds of a Super Dog. He is the product of a biological experiment and was gifted with a human equivalent intelligence.
He is raised as a step-son in his creator's family and develops a very intimate relation with Plaxy the younger daughter of Dr. Thomas Trelone.
Sirius' career comprises being a super sheepdog, wild wolf, laboratory subject, farmer and investigator.
There is one central issue that traverses the whole narration: Sirius' uniqueness and solitude. He is a Dog in Man's universe, a Wolf in Monkey-land. He goes from alert inquisitiveness to deep dark depression and back. A melancholic air is always present until the unavoidable tragic ending.
Parallel.
Two extraordinary creatures are examined in detail from birth to death.
Both of them are immersed in an alien environment, no "equals" are around. They are raised by well-meaning people but still not of their "class".
Sirius and John are compelled to kill a human forced by circumstances. Stapledon use these events to generate a deep cogitation about self defense and its limits.
Both characters observe humankind from an outsider's look and pass judgment on many significant issues.
Sirius and in a lesser way John are doomed by loneliness.
The two novels are constructed as a tragedy; no matter what the protagonists do they are doomed.
It is thought provoking double volume and deserves to be present in every sci-fi fan's collection.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
- Two Wonderful Novels
By A2DG5YM5YLZDGZ on 1998-11-21
Odd John usually gets all the attention, but Sirius is the more moving and beautiful of the two books. In some ways, it's also more daring. But I suppose it's unfair to compare, especially since both novels are well worth reading. I think that Sirius is one of the two best books ever written about a dog (the other being My Dog Tulip).
- On the outside looking in
By A3AXGIYTX1YT18 on 2002-04-20
Too few poeple know of this man's work. Stapledon's writing style is a bit dry for most readers, and one is often presented with the idea that he is using his work as a vehicle to voice his own opinions. However, both of these works are truly unique views of a mindset alien to humanities, looking upon our species. Reflected in their own views is the same arrogance and folly that we must see other species through. Few writers have ever truly approached writing from this perspective, and Stapledon does a good job of presenting of presenting the oddness of ourspecies to those who may see it from the outside. It is something we find rarely expressed in ourselves, the ability to look with such a scrutinous eye through our own vanity and see ourselves from the outside looking in.
- Ahead of it's time
By on 1997-06-17
Olaf Stapledon crafted a novel that was far ahead of it's time in both prose and ideas. When science fiction writers were still fumbling with aliens from mars, Stapledon was examining the nature of humans billions of years into the future. Odd John is one of the first appearances of the so called "second man", humans as we know them being "first men". John is the next evolutionary step and to him, we all seem like apes. Stapledon picked his hero (anti-hero?) perfectly and told it from just the right perspective. One of my favorite books ever
- Simply Brilliant, well told, A plethura of immerive tension!
By on 1999-01-25
I have read this book a total of 7 times in my lifetime. The first time being when i was only 12.. This book is not the avg 12 yr old story and I was 16 before I felt that I could even start to grasp when this story told. Even still as I read this book I am shocked and amazed at the intense yet so subtle manner of this book. Never have I enjoyed a book as much as this. You actually look at life differently after reading this book! If there was a 6 star rating I would give it 12.
- Little Freak and Mandog
By A2B9Y0WXNSN17U on 2007-02-03
Olaf Stapledon was a visionary philosopher who utilized archetypal science fictional concepts, in the 1930s and 1940s, to comment brilliantly and movingly on the human condition. While Stapledon cannot be easily categorized as "sci-fi," he has had a wide, but currently unappreciated, influence on the field. His profound influence on Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury is quite obvious, and sci-fi historians will probably recognize Stapledon's wide-ranging influence immediately. This particular volume collects two novels with a related theme - the destruction of intelligence and dignity by an uncomprehending and hostile society. These stories are brilliantly written and astonishingly insightful, and are highly recommended for both sci-fi fans with a historical interest, and lovers of deeply philosophical literature.
"Odd John" (1935) is a fascinating, though sometimes overly talky, tale of a weird misfit kid with strange physical powers and cosmic thought processes. Eventually John learns to harness his powers for great personal achievement, and to communicate telepathically with others of his kind around the world. John and his brethren are not mutant freaks as they appear on the surface, but the next step in human evolution (a premise borrowed directly by Clarke for "Childhood's End"). John organizes his superhumans on an island colony dedicated to scientific and philosophical research for the betterment of society. Unfortunately, the reaction they face from unenlightened old-style humans is both tragically sad and tragically predictable, allowing Stapledon to comment harshly on humanity's hatred of nonconformity and inherent backwardness.
"Sirius" (1944) is the stronger of the two novels here, and its display of writing skill will amaze the reader. The story has a premise that soon became overused - a scientist hopes to engineer an advanced human, and in the course of his research creates a super-intelligent dog. You may find this to be cheesy comic book material, but Stapledon takes this simplistic premise to astonishingly philosophical lengths. With his human intelligence, Sirius faces human emotional challenges while also trying to cope with his wild canine side, finding himself unable to fully fit into either realm. Stapledon works wonders with an intelligent dog's potential thoughts and interests, with highly enjoyable examinations of what a dog would think about things like music, art, and religion. And through the eyes of a dog (the classic "outside observer" method), Stapledon mercilessly skewers the weaknesses of human society, turning a simple tale of a smart dog into a philosophical powerhouse. The conclusion of this story is also tragically predictable, and crushingly sad as well. Olaf Stapledon was a skilled and visionary writer with strengths that will open the minds of fans from any literary genre. [~doomsdayer520~]
- The next step
By on 1998-03-13
The story of Odd John serves a didactic function for the rest of us. Man as we know him has evolved, and continues to do so. Stapeldon gives us in Odd John the next evolutionary step in man: Homo-Superior! Just as what once was sience fiction (flying machines, spacecraft, communications satellites, etc.), this story has become science fact! Odd John is already here, maybe not as physically described, but definitely here none the less.
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