Oswald Spengler and William Olaf Stapledon
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Steam Engine Time 5
Steam Engine T ime PRIEST’S ‘THE SEPARATION’ MEMOS FROM NORSTRILIA CENSORSHIP IN AUSTRALIA POLITICS AND SF Harry Hennessey Buerkett James Doig Paul Kincaid Gillian Polack Eric S. Raymond Milan Smiljkovic Janine Stinson Issue 5 September 2006 Steam Engine T ime 5 STEAM ENGINE TIME No. 5, September 2006 is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia ([email protected]) and Janine Stinson, PO Box 248, Eastlake, MI 49626-0248, USA ([email protected]). Members fwa. First edition is in .PDF file format from eFanzines.com or from either of our email addresses. Print edition available for The Usual (letters or substantial emails of comment, artistic contributions, articles, reviews, traded publications or review copies) or subscriptions (Australia: $40 for 5, cheques to ‘Gillespie & Cochrane Pty Ltd’; Overseas: $US30 or £15 for 5, or equivalent, airmail; please send folding money, not cheques). Printed by Copy Place, 415 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. The print edition is made possible by a generous financial donation. Graphics Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) (front cover). Photographs Covers of various books and magazines discussed in this issue; plus photos of (p. 5) Christopher Priest, by Ian Maule; (p. 24) Roger Dard, supplied by Kim Huett; (p. 25) Roger Dard fanzine contributions, supplied by Kim Huett; (p. 32) Nigel Burwood, Martin Stone and Bill Blackbeard, by John Baxter; (p. 39) David Boutland. 3 EDITORIAL 1: 32 Letters of comment ‘Dream your dreams’: A meditation on Babylon 5 John Baxter Janine Stinson Rosaleen Love Steve Jeffery 4 EDITORIAL 2 E. B. Frohvet Bruce Gillespie Steve Sneyd Sydney J. -
Stapledon Chapter
“Stapledon and Cosmic Evolution” Draft of Chapter Seven for the Forthcoming Book Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future Volume II: The Time Machine to Star Maker © Thomas Lombardo Center for Future Consciousness “Beside his [Stapledon’s] stupendous panorama, his vision of worlds and galaxies, of cosmos piled upon cosmos, the glimpses of the future that Mr. Wells and others have provided for us are no more than penny peepshows.” Christian Science Monitor Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1925 from the University of Liverpool, and his first published book was in philosophy, titled A Modern Theory of Ethics (1929). From very early in his life, he showed an intense passion for writing and the thoughtful exploration of the deepest questions of life, which generated both a set of “modern psalms,” as well as a study of Joan of Arc, in which he argued that her inspirational visions were neither hallucinations nor a product of psychological hysteria, but due to “natural causes.” Indeed, also from his early years, Stapledon was fascinated with mystical and psychic topics, searching for some new doorway into the “way of the spirit,” having come to the conclusion that contemporary religion, which is based on a hope in personal immortality, was neither credible nor inspiring. Of relevance to his later science fiction writings, during these early formative years Stapledon appears to have explored the unorthodox idea of an “evolving God.” See Robert Crossleyʼs Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future (1994) for an in-depth biography of Stapledonʼs early life and education. -
Ursula╎s Bookshelf
Volume 39 Number 2 Article 8 4-23-2021 Ursula’s Bookshelf Kris Swank Pima Community College Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Recommended Citation Swank, Kris (2021) "Ursula’s Bookshelf," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 39 : No. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol39/iss2/8 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract In keeping with the purpose of the Mythopoeic Society—“promoting the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature”—this selective list examines a few of the authors and works Ursula K. Le Guin acknowledged as being influential or among her favorites, and to which some connections might be traced in her own mythopoeic and cosmopoeic works. The list includes Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, Lord Dunsany’s A Dreamer’s Tales, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Philip K. -
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. -
Cosmic Visions of the Future: the Science Fiction of Stephen Baxter Tom Lombardo “In My Books, I Deal with a Whole Set of Futu
Cosmic Visions of the Future: The Science Fiction of Stephen Baxter Tom Lombardo “In my books, I deal with a whole set of futures. That’s deliberate. I’d say the point of science fiction is trying to figure out the meaning of our lives. What is the meaning for humanity of this new understanding we have?” Stephen Baxter The seventeenth century philosopher Baruch Spinoza argued that reality should be viewed “through the eyes of eternity.” To get a true picture of things, look at reality in the context of the big cosmic picture. If we follow this line of thinking and apply it to the future, then we should stand back from our local and relatively short term ideas on the future, stretch our imaginative powers to the limits, and attempt to envision the most all-encompassing panoramic visions of the cosmos, both in space and time. We should also, following Spinoza, ask and consider possible answers to the big questions of life in pondering the meaning and significance of the future. In this spirit, the philosopher and science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon, in his novels The Last and First Men and Star Maker, speculated on the entire future history of humanity, the evolution of intelligence and mind within the universe until literally the end of time, the existence and nature of God, the purpose and meaning of life, and the unending quest for knowledge and enlightenment.1 Frequently compared with Stapledon, the contemporary science fiction writer Stephen Baxter not only writes on a vast cosmic scale that, in fact, exceeds Stapledon in scope, but also attempts to address in his novels, as did Stapledon, the big philosophical questions of existence. -
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Issue 53 • Spring 2012 MallornThe Journal of the Tolkien Society Mallorn The Journal of the Tolkien Society Issue 53 • Spring 2012 Editor: Henry Gee Production & editorial 4 Kristine Larsen takes a look at Tolkien through her telescope design: Colin Sullivan Cover art: At the Cracks of letters 9 Troels Forchhammer unravels the mysteries of the 1961 Nobel prize Doom by Ted Nasmith Inside: Lorenzo Daniele: The Voice of Saruman (p. 2); reviews 11 Janet Brennan Croft on Tolkien and the Study of his Sources Jef Murray: Amon Sul (p. 6), Haven (p. 10), Gandalf 12 Daniel Howick on A Tolkien Tapestry (p. 16), Rhosgobel Doorway 14 Becky Hitchen on Tolkien and the Peril of War (p. 25), Cair Paravel (p. 28), 15 Troels Forchhammer on Tolkien Studies, Volume VIII Frodo and Strider (p. 31), 17 Pat Reynolds on Among Others Warg Rider (p. 33), Gandalf 18 Harley J Sims on The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (p. 35), Galadriel (p. 40), 20 Sharron Sarthou on C. S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid Alatar (p. 42), Radagast (p. 45), Mage of Rhosgobel commentary (p. 48); Cor Blok: Rivendell 22 Colin Duriez What made J. R. R. Tolkien tick and why was he called ‘Reuel’? The (p. 13), Lothlórien I (p. 13), importance of Tolkien biography The Petrified Trolls (p. 21); Ted Nasmith: Barrel Rider 26 Kristine Larsen From Dunne to Desmond: disembodied time travel in Tolkien, (p. 23), The Shire: A View Stapledon and Lost of Hobbiton From The Hill 30 Virginia Luling Going back: time travel in Tolkien and E. -
The Destiny of Life and Mind in the Universe in the Works by Arthur Clarke and Olaf Stapledon
ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER 821.111.09-31 КЛАРК А. Ч. 821.111.09-31 СТЕЈПЛДОН О. DOI:10.5937/ZRFFP49-22826 IREN BOYARKINA1 UNIVERSITY OF ROME “LA SAPIENZA”, FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF EUROPEAN, AMERICAN AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES THE DESTINY OF LIFE AND MIND IN THE UNIVERSE IN THE WORKS BY ARTHUR CLARKE AND OLAF STAPLEDON ABSTRACT. Arthur Clarke has claimed to be influenced by Stapledon, especially by his Last and First Men and Star Maker. Clarke wrote about the latter that it is “[p]robably the most powerful work of imagination ever written.” He was inspired not only by the Stapledon’s grandeur of visions of the future and of the cosmos but also by the aim and scope of Star Maker. Stapledon admits that the purpose of the narrator’s voyage in Star Maker was “[n]ot only to explore the depths of the physical universe, but to discover what part life and mind were actually playing among the stars […]”. The narrator, as well as Stapledon himself, was possessed by “A keen hunger… for insight into the significance of men and of any manlike beings in the cosmos.” Also the works by Arthur Clarke demonstrate the same Stapledonian keen hunger for the insight into the significance of men and other beings in the cosmos, as well as into the destiny of life and mind in the universe. Clarke’s novels (Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc.) clearly manifest his deep interest in the predestination of life in general and intelligent life in particular. This paper studies Clarke’s ideas about the destiny of life and mind in the universe expressed in his Childhood’s End and confronts them with the ideas of Stapledon in Star Maker and Last and First Men. -
Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, and Totality Gerry Canavan Marquette University, [email protected]
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette English Faculty Research and Publications English, Department of 7-1-2016 "A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration": Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, and Totality Gerry Canavan Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2 (July 2016): 310-330. DOI. © 2016 DePauw University. Used with permission. 310 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 43 (2016) Gerry Canavan “A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration”: Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, and Totality “And yet I worshipped!”—Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker 256 Science-fictional efforts to model history in terms graspable by the human mind often become hyperbolized as attempts to narrate the full billion-year history of the entire cosmos—in the process reducing the history of the human species, and even the history of the Earth itself, to a small and unremarkable moment, a footnote to a footnote. Few texts have taken up this paradoxical tug-of-war between humanistic significance and anti-humanistic insignificance with more enthusiasm than Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker (1937), which seeks to schematize all possible systems for social organization that might ever exist in the universe precisely by imagining Homo sapiens as only one very marginal and very unhappy case in the larger cosmic order. Star Maker has long enjoyed well-deserved admiration for the incredible scope and scale of its cosmic imagination; the novel, undoubtedly, is transcendent, a dizzying achievement, and rightly beloved. But Star Maker’s unflinching -
Where Are We, Really? Parallel Universes, Fact Or Fiction
Where Are We, Really? Parallel Universes, Fact or Fiction Lecture 2: The Plurality of Worlds in Religion, Philosophy and Fiction – from Ancient Scriptures to Today’s Sci-Fi Parallel Worlds in Early Philosophy - Atomists and Epicureans: Multiple worlds in infinite space - Stoics and eternal recurrence: Multiple worlds in infinite time Leucippus (1st half of 5th cent. BCE) Democritus (460?-370? BCE) - Believed that reality consists of an infinite space filled with an infinite number of indivisible atoms (atomos: atomos) whose attributes and motions determine what we perceive Bust of Democritus - Argued that an infinite space has no center, and therefore, other worlds (cosmoi: kosmoi) besides that of which our finite Earth is the center must exist Metrodorus of Chios - Pre-Socratic philosopher of school of Democritus - Skeptic: Doubted everything – “We know nothing, no, not even whether we know or not” - Maintained that everyone has a unique reality – “Everything is to each person only what it appears to him to be” - Believed the infinity of space implied Metrodorus (4th Century BCE) the plurality of worlds – “A single ear of corn in a large field is as strange as a single world in infinite space” Epicurus - Greek philosopher; taught that the gods do not punish or reward, that death is the end of body and soul, and that the highest good in life is peace, freedom from fear (ataraxia: ataraxia) and absence of pain (aponia: aponia) - Took his ideas of cosmology from the Atomists - Argued that nothing should be believed except what can be shown by experiment or Epicurus (341 BCE – 270 BCE) proved by logic – including that multiple worlds must exist because a finite world could not use up an infinity of atoms … There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. -
Olaf Stapledon: Personal Reflections on Cosmic Inspiration from a Pioneering Visionary
DOI:10.6531/JFS.2015.20(2).E123 ESSAY .123 Olaf Stapledon: Personal Reflections on Cosmic Inspiration from a Pioneering Visionary Oliver Markley University of Houston-Clear Lake USA Introduction When I heard of the plans for a special issue of the Journal of Futures Studies on the interplay between science fiction and futures work, I immediately knew that I wanted to contribute an essay about Olaf Stapledon—why his writing is of such relevance to what I will describe as the central evolutionary challenge of the human race; and how his work suggests that human consciousness can be enhanced for this challenge to be resolved successfully in the very long-term future. This essay begins with an exposition of Stapledon’s cosmically futures-oriented science fiction and ends with a visionary illustration of how his work points to a promising “new paradigm” direction of development for futures studies involving what are currently called non- ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC). Thus, a number of concepts are introduced that are well beyond what is considered credible from the standpoint of the currently dominant paradigm of social reality. A preliminary version of this essay includes evidence of their credibility, as well as promising directions of exploration for both FS and SF—but alas, due to length limitations they had to be abandoned along with a number of informative footnotes. They are available, however, in an online expanded preprint [www.imaginalvisioning.com/Stapledon- Expanded-Preprint]. Stapledon as a Pioneering Visionary W. Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) was a visionary author who occupies a uniquely foundational position in the genres of both futures studies (FS) and science fiction (SF).