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Olaf Stapledon by Gavin Chappell
Olaf Stapledon By Gavin Chappell In his day, Olaf Stapledon was a science fiction writer whose only real contemporary rival was his friend HG Wells. He went on to inspire writers such as Arthur C Clarke and the inventor Freeman Dyson. He was also a respected Wirral resident who left us a stretch of woodland named after him, and a house in Caldy that he built himself. Stapledon was born on 10 May 1886, in Wallasey. He was named William Olaf, but everyone always called him Olaf. Despite spending much of his early years in Port Said, he lived in Wirral for the best part of his life. Even when he became a successful literary figure, Stapledon remained in Wirral, living at first in West Kirby, before building his own house in Caldy. As a science fiction writer, he is highly influential, if perhaps not the most accessible. His two greatest works, Last and First Men , and Star Maker , describe vast epochs of future history or immense expanses of space. Civilisations rise and fall, and the individual is insignificant in the face of infinity. Although individual characters are often blotted out by the vast scope of his imagination, Stapledon’s own somewhat provincial life informs them – including his years in Wirral. Despite the wildness of his imagination, he always drew on personal experience for his inspiration. Mere paragraphs in both works have been taken as the inspiration for entire science fiction works by other writers and indeed inventors. Freeman Dyson invented the Dyson Sphere after being inspired by Star Maker . -
The Emigrants from Småland, Sweden. the American Dream
THE EMIGRANTS FROM SMÅLAND, SWEDEN. THE AMERICAN DREAM by Ken Sawyer, Halifax, England. 1999 from http://www.swedesintexas.com Introduction These are my collected notes about emigration from Sweden to the USA first became interested in this subject when I discovered that some of the Swedish emigrants traveled by train through my home area in West Yorkshire (England), en route from Hull to Liverpool. I had previously known a little about this great emigration and then I was further stimulated when we visited the Emigrants Museum in Växjö, Småland; this was a main province from which the emigrants departed and is the reason for emphasising Småland as representative of Sweden as a whole. With the start of steam powered ships their voyage to the USA took 2-3 weeks and often included a crossing from Gothenburg to Hull on board the ships of the Wilson Line. This was followed by a train journey from Hull, through the Huddersfield/Halifax area, to Liverpool and then a crossing by the Inman Line or another company’s ship to New York. Did you know that in 1638, through a Government inspired emigration, the colony called New Sweden was established in Delaware, on America’s East Coast? It was in Sweden’s possession for almost twenty years, but was then lost to the Dutch. Did you know that in the second half of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th, more than a million Swedes, around 1/4 of the population, emigrated from Sweden and mainly to the USA? Did you know that this was called the “American fever”? Even today, at least five million USA citizens are of Swedish extraction? Vilhelm Moberg, storywriter about the emigrants. -
Last and First Men
Last and First Men William Olaf Stapledon Published: 1930 Categorie(s): Fiction, Science Fiction Source: http://gutenberg.net.au About Stapledon: He was born in Seacombe, Wallasey, on the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool, the only son of William Clibbert Stapledon and Emmeline Miller. The first six years of his life were spent with his parents at Port Said. He was educated at Abbotsholme School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he acquired a BA in Modern History in 1909 and a Master's degree in 1913[citation needed]. After a brief stint as a teacher at Manchester Grammar School, he worked in shipping offices in Liverpool and Port Said from 1910 to 1913. During World War I he served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in France and Belgium from July 1915 to January 1919. On 16 July 1919 he married Agnes Zena Miller (1894-1984), an Australian cousin whom he had first met in 1903, and who maintained a correspondence with him throughout the war from her home in Sydney. They had a daughter, Mary Sydney Stapledon (1920-), and a son, John David Stapledon (1923-). In 1920 they moved to West Kirby, and in 1925 Stapledon was awarded a PhD in philosophy from the University of Liverpool. He wrote A Modern Theory of Ethics, which was published in 1929. However he soon turned to fiction to present his ideas to a wider public. Last and First Men was very successful and prompted him to become a full-time writer. He wrote a sequel, and followed it up with many more books on subjects associated with what is now called Transhumanism. -
The American Immigrant in Fiction
THE AMERICAN IMMIGRANT IN FICTION by Gayle Venable Hieke Submitted as an Honors Paper in the Department of History Woman's College of the University of North Carolina Greensboro 1963 Approve^ by %4y^ Wsjdr&l Director Examining Committee c«-i 'i-a-.c- &Mrt--l ■-*-*- gjjfa U- A/y^t^C TABLE OP CONTENTS Part I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. IMMIGRANT EXPRESSION THROUGH NONPICTION 4 III. AUTHORS OP IMMIGRANT FICTION 10 IV. MOTIVES FOR CREATING IMMIGRANT FICTION 22 V. LITERARY TECHNIQUES IN IMMIGRANT FICTION 35 VI. RECURRENT THEMES IN IMMIGRANT FICTION 38 VII. CONCLUSION 47 BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION People streamed from Europe driven to a new land by the lack of food and the lack of land, by the presence of peasant fears and the presence of racial and religious persecution, by the love of adventure and a plan for a richer life, by the hope for a more generous future and the dread of a continued oppression. It is conceded that most who wanted to come were poor or despairing, harrassed or discontented, but only the courageous and optimistic dared to come. Many others who chose to migrate could have continued to lead comfortable lives in Europe, but curiosity about America and confidence in its future influenced them to transfer. Only the bold and enterprising have sufficient courage: they are the Instruments which stir up the tranquil hamlete and shake the order of unchangeableness. These separate from the multitude and fill a few small ships a trickle here and there starts the running stream which in due time swells to a mighty river.1 The crossing was often marked by diseases of body and mind, by deprivation of needs, physical and spiritual, and by humiliation of landsmen on the sea and Individuals in a herd. -
Discovering Gnostic Tropes in Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker
Knowledge and Cosmos: Discovering Gnostic Tropes in Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker Tara Smith Introduction In his 1937 novel Star Maker,1 Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) draws on the gnostic concepts of dualism, gnosis and mythology to make sense of the spiritual and physical plight of humanity. Star Maker can be seen as reflective of Stapledon’s own quest for knowledge in and about the cosmos, and this is a quest heavily signposted with the markers of Gnosticism. Instead of reflecting the typical Christian theology of his peers, Stapledon draws on gnostic theodicy to make sense of his very real apathy and fear regarding the modern world between two World Wars. Using Birger Pearson’s typology of Gnosticism,2 this article will explore the Gnostic world that is presented in Star Maker. Stapledon’s work expresses a sense of conflict and spiritual exploration that breaks the confines of Gnosticism’s historical context, revealing a shared proclivity still relevant in the twentieth century. The novel depicts an unnamed protagonist’s astral travel, spatial and temporal, toward his ultimate meeting with the Star Maker. He joins his mind with the many alien minds he encounters, and together as a cosmic mind they explore the furthest reaches of space, meeting all manner of life forms, including sentient stars, planets, and nebulae. First, I present a brief overview of the historical and biographical context of Olaf Stapledon, and how this impacted on his writing. Second, I will briefly discuss the limitations associated with using Gnostic terminology, and explain its particular use within this article. -
Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 Time Travel HG Wells the Time Machine (Chapter 1)
Philosophical Ideas in Science Fiction 261— Syllabus Lecturer: SidneyFelder,e-mail: [email protected] Rutgers The State University of NewJersey, Fall 2018, Tue & Thurs 2:50-4:10 Office Hours: By Appointment Generally speaking, science fiction, or,more broadly,speculative fiction of anykind, can be utilized as a vehi- cle of philosophical exploration in twodistinct but interconnected ways. First, its natural accommodation of beings and circumstances of a hitherto unencountered kind permits the postulation of settings and events in which familiar ideas and attitudes can be tested and the limits of their applicability determined. Second, in a manner analogous to mathematics, it can be used to explore what the bounds of coherent speculation are. Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 Time Travel H.G. Wells The Time Machine (chapter 1) Robert A. Heinlein By His Bootstraps Donald C. Williams The Myth of Passage Michael Dummett Causal Loops C.J.S. ClarkeTime in General Relativity Brian Gerstein Troud’sPlan Weeks 4, 5, 6 Artificial Intelligence Isaac Asimov I, Robot (‘Reason’, ‘Runaround’) Olaf Stapledon Last And First Men (ch.XI, sections 1 and 2) Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence John Searle Minds, Brains and Programs Samuel Butler Erewhon (Darwin Among the Machines chs. 23-25) Weeks 6, 7, 8 The Problem of Other Minds Lewis Padgett Private Eye Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Part I Section 1 Chapters 1-4) Edward Bellamy To Whom This May Come Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations (sections 239-436) Hilary Putnam Minds and Machines Weeks 8, 9 Probability and Confirmation Robert M. Coates The Law AntonyFerry,R.C. -
The British Interplanetary Society and Cultures of Outer Space, 1930
The British Interplanetary Society and Cultures of Outer Space, 1930 - 1970 Oliver Dunnett, BA(Hons), MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 Abstract This thesis explores the institutional and cultural development of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) and its influence in wider cultures of ‘British outer space’ in the mid-twentieth century. The Society was founded in 1933 in Liverpool by P E Cleator, and having attracted a small group of enthusiastic members before the outbreak of the Second World War, successfully re-grouped after the conflict and grew to become one of the most influential of all the space flight societies by the 1960s. The thesis starts by examining the ways in which the discipline of geography has recently started to re-engage with outer space as a field of enquiry, and suggests that geopolitical and cultural approaches to studying outer space would be a productive academic pursuit. The empirical chapters start by looking at the institutional cultures of the BIS, and explore the relationship between the Society and the production of interplanetary knowledge. The Society’s global connections and internationalist stance are also brought into focus, with contrasting accounts identified before and after the war raising questions about the geopolitics of British outer space. The empirical chapters go on to study how the BIS became connected to the wider world of popular culture in Britain, examining imaginative and amateur representations and performances. This section includes analyses of certain science fiction texts, including the selected novels of Olaf Stapledon, Arthur C Clarke and C S Lewis, and also considers Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare space adventure comics and the long-running television series The Sky at Night, whilst maintaining an empirical connection to the BIS throughout. -
Death Into Life
Death into Life William Olaf Stapledon Published: 1946 Categorie(s): Fiction, Science Fiction, War & Military Source: http://gutenberg.net.au About Stapledon: He was born in Seacombe, Wallasey, on the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool, the only son of William Clibbert Stapledon and Emmeline Miller. The first six years of his life were spent with his parents at Port Said. He was educated at Abbotsholme School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he acquired a BA in Modern History in 1909 and a Master's degree in 1913[citation needed]. After a brief stint as a teacher at Manchester Grammar School, he worked in shipping offices in Liverpool and Port Said from 1910 to 1913. During World War I he served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in France and Belgium from July 1915 to January 1919. On 16 July 1919 he married Agnes Zena Miller (1894-1984), an Australian cousin whom he had first met in 1903, and who maintained a correspondence with him throughout the war from her home in Sydney. They had a daughter, Mary Sydney Stapledon (1920-), and a son, John David Stapledon (1923-). In 1920 they moved to West Kirby, and in 1925 Stapledon was awarded a PhD in philosophy from the University of Liverpool. He wrote A Modern Theory of Ethics, which was published in 1929. However he soon turned to fiction to present his ideas to a wider public. Last and First Men was very successful and prompted him to become a full-time writer. He wrote a sequel, and followed it up with many more books on subjects associated with what is now called Transhumanism. -
Chapter 1: Introduction
Notes Chapter 1: Introduction 1. F. Bacon (n.d.) ‘The New Atlantis’, in H. Morley (ed.), Ideal Commonwealths, 10th edn (London: Routledge, and New York: Dutton), p. 202. Subsequent page references in the text are to this edition. 2. G. Claeys (2011) Searching for Utopia: The History of an Idea (London: Thames & Hudson), p. 151. 3. M.I. Finley (1967) ‘Utopianism Ancient and Modern’, in K.H. Wolff and B. Moore, Jr (eds), The Critical Spirit: Essays in Honor of Herbert Marcuse (Boston, MA: Beacon Press), p. 13. 4. K. Kumar (1991) Utopianism (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991), pp. 54, 59. 5. A. Huxley (1971) Brave New Worldd (London: Folio Society), p. 154. Subsequent page references in the text are to this edition. 6. Kumar (1991), p. 55. 7. See E. Hansot (1974) Perfection and Progress: Two Modes of Utopian Thought (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press), p. 100. 8. See B. Goodwin and K. Taylor (1982) The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice (London: Hutchinson), p. 63. 9. It is sometimes claimed that the whole social structure of Plato’s Republicc is based on a ‘noble lie’. For a brief commentary, see Plato (1987) The Republic, trans. D. Lee, 2nd edn (London: Penguin), p. 177. 10. On politics in News from Nowhere, see R. Levitas (2013) Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Societyy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 111. 11. Kumar (1991), p. 55. 12. Goodwin and Taylor (1982), p. 63. 13. L.T. Sargent (2010) Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. -
The Emigrants Series Book Club RSVP Greatly Appreciated but Not
February 29, 2016 For immediate release Contact: Heidi Gould Education Coordinator, Carver County Historical Society (952) 442-4234; [email protected] The Emigrants Series Book Club Local Swedish farmer Andrew Peterson kept a daily diary from the time he left Sweden to about 2 days before his death. This 50+ year diary provides a wonderful insight into the lives of early pioneer farmers. Upon his death, Peterson’s children donated this diary to the Minnesota Historical Society. In the 1940’s, Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg discovered the diary there, and used the information contained in it as the basis for a series of novels– The Emigrants (1949), Unto a Good Land (1952), The Settlers (1956) and The Last Letter Home (1959). The novels were published in English in 1951, 1954, and 1961, respectively. Two films, The Emigrants and The New Land were made from these books in the 1970’s. Join us as we explore these books, and the worlds of protagonists Karl Oskar and Kristina. Discover connections to Andrew Peterson as we explore one book a month. RSVP greatly appreciated but not required. Dates: Saturdays– April 23, May 28, June 25, July 23 Times: 10am-12pm Cost: FREE Books available through the CCHS. Copies also available through Carver County libraries. **Get your books and start reading- book club starts in just under two months!** About the Carver County Historical Society Established in 1940, the Carver County Historical Society is a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Carver County. -
Animal Non-Belongingness in a Dichotomized Environment Siriusmente Preocupados: La No Pertenencia Animal En Un Entorno Dicotomizado
PANGEAS. Revista Interdisciplinar de Ecocrítica ISSN: 2695-5040 Núm. 3, Julio 2021, pp. 69-78 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14198/PANGEAS.18848 Siriusly Concerned: Animal Non-Belongingness in a Dichotomized Environment Siriusmente preocupados: la no pertenencia animal en un entorno dicotomizado JESÚS FERNÁNDEZ-CARO1 Como citar este artículo: Fernández-Caro, J. (2021). Siriusly Concerned: Animal Non-Belongingness in a Dichotomized Environment, Pangeas. Revista Interdisciplinar de Ecocrítica (núm. 3) 69-78. https:// doi.org/10.14198/PANGEAS.18848 Abstract This article approaches Sirius (1944), by Olaf Stapledon, from a perspective that brings together literary animal studies and ecocriticism. The eponymous main character of this science fiction novel is a genetically-modified dog who struggles between the human and the animal realms, being unable to belong to either urban or natural spaces. I argue this work of fiction carries out an exercise of blurring boundaries, thus proposing alternatives for harmful binaries such as human- animal, city-nature, or divine-mundane. Each of these binaries is explored in three trips of the many this character experiences throughout the novel. This allows the main character to reflect on his peculiar, unique species as the singularity he is. Sirius claims it is only empathy that can help in such a task; both human and nonhuman animals are then able to rejoice in biological, cultural, and spiritual differences. Sirius’s trips are analyzed in order to look closely at (1) the dog’s reflections on humankind while being in London, (2) his becoming a wolf, dog, and human at the same time in the woods, and (3) music as the ideal tool to articulate one’s spirituality based on a reconnection with an almost lost biodiversity. -
Swedish American Genealogy and Local History: Selected Titles at the Library of Congress
SWEDISH AMERICAN GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY: SELECTED TITLES AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Compiled and Annotated by Lee V. Douglas CONTENTS I.. Introduction . 1 II. General Works on Scandinavian Emigration . 3 III. Memoirs, Registers of Names, Passenger Lists, . 5 Essays on Sweden and Swedish America IV. Handbooks on Methodology of Swedish and . 23 Swedish-American Genealogical Research V. Local Histories in the United Sates California . 28 Idaho . 29 Illinois . 30 Iowa . 32 Kansas . 32 Maine . 34 Minnesota . 35 New Jersey . 38 New York . 39 South Dakota . 40 Texas . 40 Wisconsin . 41 VI. Personal Names . 42 I. INTRODUCTION Swedish American studies, including local history and genealogy, are among the best documented immigrant studies in the United States. This is the result of the Swedish genius for documenting almost every aspect of life from birth to death. They have, in fact, created and retained documents that Americans would never think of looking for, such as certificates of change of employment, of change of address, military records relating whether a soldier's horse was properly equipped, and more common events such as marriage, emigration, and death. When immigrants arrived in the United States and found that they were not bound to the single state religion into which they had been born, the Swedish church split into many denominations that emphasized one or another aspect of religion and culture. Some required children to study the mother tongue in Saturday classes, others did not. Some, more liberal than European Swedish Lutheranism, permitted freedom of religion in the new country and even allowed sects to flourish that had been banned in Sweden.