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Odd John
John Wainwright is a freak—a human mutation with an extraordinary intelligence which is both awesome and frightening to all who come into contact with him. Ordinary humans were just playthings to John—subjects for an endless chain of experiments. Their feelings, and sometimes even their lives, are expendable.
Odd John has a plan—to create a new order on Earth, a new supernormal species. But the world is not ready for such a change...
Odd John has a plan—to create a new order on Earth, a new supernormal species. But the world is not ready for such a change...
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
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About the author
Olaf Stapledon
94books545followersExcerpted from
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.
Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction.
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.
Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
May 10, 2022
SF Masterworks (2010 relaunch series) #30: the book from which the term Homo Superior comes from. A family friend recounts the strange birth, challenges and life of 'Odd John' Wainwright, one of a minuscule number of beings of extraordinary intelligence around after the First World war.
First published in 1935 it was one of the first 'seeing the world from a mutant's point of view' books, it is subtitled 'A Story Between Jest and Earnest, and although it pulls no punches on how the Übermensch would treat humans; and takes no prisoners when pointing out human failures, there's an underlying tongue-in-cheekiness about it that at times is both interesting and annoying. 7 out of 12.
2021 read
First published in 1935 it was one of the first 'seeing the world from a mutant's point of view' books, it is subtitled 'A Story Between Jest and Earnest, and although it pulls no punches on how the Übermensch would treat humans; and takes no prisoners when pointing out human failures, there's an underlying tongue-in-cheekiness about it that at times is both interesting and annoying. 7 out of 12.
2021 read
October 2, 2009
Not your run-of-the-mill superhero story, which may have had something to do with the fact that Stapledon wasn't a typical person to be writing a superhero story in the first place; he was a Professor of Philosophy, and apparently a friend of both Virginia Woolf and Winston Churchill. It has always surprised me that this book isn't better known.
Most superhero scenarios, starting with Superman, take it for granted that the guy will spend most of his time acting as a kind of elite first responder service, cleaning up or preventing the more challenging train crashes, armed robberies, earthquakes and so on. Now, if we take the superhero idea seriously for even ten seconds, why ever should this godlike creature think that his top priority is to rescue beings who are, to him, about as significant as mice are to us? I mean, even though your average human could probably save a whole lot of mice if he put his mind to it, you find that that's an unusual career choice. Stapledon, however, goes back to first principles, and asks what a superhero might find to do that wasn't essentially just rescuing mice. The result is a book that's interesting, even if not totally convincing. The obvious problem is that a mouse, even a very clever one, isn't going to be able to write a good book about what it's like to be human - but Stapledon at least tries, and we should give him credit for that.
One idea I liked, which occurs elsewhere in Stapledon's writing, is that it isn't primarily about winning (conquering the world, amassing a colossal fortune, etc), but rather about living your life absolutely to the full. He has a good shot at showing us how John tries to achieve that. He also has a much more interesting take on the battle between good and evil than is common in this genre. Evil people have just, as it were, been handed the Black pieces in the cosmic chess game; it's a question of how artistically they handle their resources. I don't know whether I agree with this, but at least it makes you think, which is more than you can say for variants on Clark Kent versus Lex Luthor.
It's a shortish book and easy to read. If you want to check out some SF that doesn't immediately fit one of the 12 standard SF plots, you could do worse than this.
Most superhero scenarios, starting with Superman, take it for granted that the guy will spend most of his time acting as a kind of elite first responder service, cleaning up or preventing the more challenging train crashes, armed robberies, earthquakes and so on. Now, if we take the superhero idea seriously for even ten seconds, why ever should this godlike creature think that his top priority is to rescue beings who are, to him, about as significant as mice are to us? I mean, even though your average human could probably save a whole lot of mice if he put his mind to it, you find that that's an unusual career choice. Stapledon, however, goes back to first principles, and asks what a superhero might find to do that wasn't essentially just rescuing mice. The result is a book that's interesting, even if not totally convincing. The obvious problem is that a mouse, even a very clever one, isn't going to be able to write a good book about what it's like to be human - but Stapledon at least tries, and we should give him credit for that.
One idea I liked, which occurs elsewhere in Stapledon's writing, is that it isn't primarily about winning (conquering the world, amassing a colossal fortune, etc), but rather about living your life absolutely to the full. He has a good shot at showing us how John tries to achieve that. He also has a much more interesting take on the battle between good and evil than is common in this genre. Evil people have just, as it were, been handed the Black pieces in the cosmic chess game; it's a question of how artistically they handle their resources. I don't know whether I agree with this, but at least it makes you think, which is more than you can say for variants on Clark Kent versus Lex Luthor.
It's a shortish book and easy to read. If you want to check out some SF that doesn't immediately fit one of the 12 standard SF plots, you could do worse than this.
February 21, 2017
Λοιπόν το βιβλίο αυτό είναι ένα κράμα ΕΦ και σκόρπιων μαρξιστικών θεωριών. Ίσως την εποχή που πρωτοεκδόθηκε να ήταν πρωτόλειο και να έκανε κάποια εντύπωση, σήμερα όμως μοιάζει εντελώς παρωχημένο και μάλλον αφελές.
Ο Στάπλετον κατασκευάζει τον Χόμο Σουπέριορ και ουσιαστικά είναι ο πρώτος που τον εντάσσει στον χώρο της ΕΦ. Ο Τζων είναι ένας υπεράνθρωπος και μοιραία διαπιστώνει πως η ανωτερότητα του από τον Χομο Σάπιενς πρέπει να σταθεί αφορμή ώστε να δημιουργήσει μια καινούργια κοινωνία, απαλλαγμένη από τους φόβους και τα πάθη των ανθρώπων και κυρίως μια κοινωνία που βασίζεται στον ανώτερο τρόπο σκέψης και τις υπερδυνάμεις του «είδους» του.
Ο συγγραφέας λοιπόν καταφέρεται αρκετές φορές κατά του κεφαλαίου, του κέρδους, της θρησκείας και παρόλο που προσπαθεί να ασκήσει και μια υποτυπώδη κριτική στον κομμουνισμό και της Λευκή του Βίβλου, δεν το καταφέρνει. Η κοινωνία των Χόμο Σουπέριορ θα μπορούσε να είναι το όνειρο του κάθε χίπη την δεκαετία του �60, όμως πλέον είναι σίγουρο πως η ουτοπία θα πρέπει μεν να αποτελεί όραμα αλλά ποτέ στόχο.
Οι όποιες καλά δομημένες ιδέες (και είναι αρκετές αυτές που μου άρεσαν) χάνουν την δύναμή τους λόγω των τελείως εκνευριστικών και επίπεδων χαρακτήρων. Οι γονείς του Τζων, λόγου χάρη, είναι δύο άνθρωποι οι οποίοι έχουν γεννήσει έναν Θεό και συμπεριφέρονται σαν τους γονείς από το «Μικρό Σπίτι στο Λιβάδι»� Οι δε επιχειρηματίες και φιλόσοφοι που συναντά ο Τζων συνδιαλέγονται με ένα 7χρονο αγόρι και κλείνουν εμπορικές συμφωνίες σαν να μην συμβαίνει κάτι. Η ματιά του Στάπλετον είναι στρεβλή με μια δόση αφέλειας..
Και βέβαια, ο πιο εκνευριστικός απ� όλους τους χαρακτήρες είναι ο αφηγητής και «συγγραφέας φάντασμα» της βιογραφίας του Τζων. Ένας τύπος που καθ� όλη την διάρκεια του βιβλίου αντιμετωπίζει με μια αφέλεια αλλά και μια δουλικότητα την όλη κατάσταση, θυμίζοντας αρκετά πρόσωπα και καταστάσεις σε ολοκληρωτικά καθεστώτα�
2,5/5
Ο Στάπλετον κατασκευάζει τον Χόμο Σουπέριορ και ουσιαστικά είναι ο πρώτος που τον εντάσσει στον χώρο της ΕΦ. Ο Τζων είναι ένας υπεράνθρωπος και μοιραία διαπιστώνει πως η ανωτερότητα του από τον Χομο Σάπιενς πρέπει να σταθεί αφορμή ώστε να δημιουργήσει μια καινούργια κοινωνία, απαλλαγμένη από τους φόβους και τα πάθη των ανθρώπων και κυρίως μια κοινωνία που βασίζεται στον ανώτερο τρόπο σκέψης και τις υπερδυνάμεις του «είδους» του.
Ο συγγραφέας λοιπόν καταφέρεται αρκετές φορές κατά του κεφαλαίου, του κέρδους, της θρησκείας και παρόλο που προσπαθεί να ασκήσει και μια υποτυπώδη κριτική στον κομμουνισμό και της Λευκή του Βίβλου, δεν το καταφέρνει. Η κοινωνία των Χόμο Σουπέριορ θα μπορούσε να είναι το όνειρο του κάθε χίπη την δεκαετία του �60, όμως πλέον είναι σίγουρο πως η ουτοπία θα πρέπει μεν να αποτελεί όραμα αλλά ποτέ στόχο.
Οι όποιες καλά δομημένες ιδέες (και είναι αρκετές αυτές που μου άρεσαν) χάνουν την δύναμή τους λόγω των τελείως εκνευριστικών και επίπεδων χαρακτήρων. Οι γονείς του Τζων, λόγου χάρη, είναι δύο άνθρωποι οι οποίοι έχουν γεννήσει έναν Θεό και συμπεριφέρονται σαν τους γονείς από το «Μικρό Σπίτι στο Λιβάδι»� Οι δε επιχειρηματίες και φιλόσοφοι που συναντά ο Τζων συνδιαλέγονται με ένα 7χρονο αγόρι και κλείνουν εμπορικές συμφωνίες σαν να μην συμβαίνει κάτι. Η ματιά του Στάπλετον είναι στρεβλή με μια δόση αφέλειας..
Και βέβαια, ο πιο εκνευριστικός απ� όλους τους χαρακτήρες είναι ο αφηγητής και «συγγραφέας φάντασμα» της βιογραφίας του Τζων. Ένας τύπος που καθ� όλη την διάρκεια του βιβλίου αντιμετωπίζει με μια αφέλεια αλλά και μια δουλικότητα την όλη κατάσταση, θυμίζοντας αρκετά πρόσωπα και καταστάσεις σε ολοκληρωτικά καθεστώτα�
2,5/5
June 15, 2025
I was craving some science fiction, and managed to find this somewhere near the bottom of my to-be-read pile. No idea when or where I acquired it. Like a lot of the best sci-fi, it's essentially a piece of applied philosophy � only more so, since Olaf Stapledon was actually a doctor of philosophy, and used his writing to play with speculative ideas about human development. (Later in life, he claimed never to have heard of ‘science fiction�, and seemed surprised that he was considered a giant of the genre.)
This one is often referred to as the first superman story, though the title character does not fly and, as far as we can tell, wears his underpants inside his trousers. John is, rather, just much more intellectually advanced than the humans around him, and although he does develop certain psychic abilities in the course of the book, the real issues here are moral and developmental ones. Do people, seen from the vantage point of a higher life-form, have the capacity to develop healthily? And how much can or should such a Homo superior (a neat coinage later borrowed by the Marvel writers) care about the individual well-being of ordinary humans?
John's assessments of humanity are as wearily recognisable today as ever:
And such cynicism allows him to make some pretty accurate predictions:
Not, perhaps, a completely wild call in 1935 when the Nazis were already running Germany, but it's alarming to see how well it applies to the current moment, too.
Stapledon was a conscientious objector during the First World War and a lifelong pacifist. His skills here are not in the plot or story, but in the play of ideas –and, dispiritingly perhaps, there's still plenty to learn.
This one is often referred to as the first superman story, though the title character does not fly and, as far as we can tell, wears his underpants inside his trousers. John is, rather, just much more intellectually advanced than the humans around him, and although he does develop certain psychic abilities in the course of the book, the real issues here are moral and developmental ones. Do people, seen from the vantage point of a higher life-form, have the capacity to develop healthily? And how much can or should such a Homo superior (a neat coinage later borrowed by the Marvel writers) care about the individual well-being of ordinary humans?
John's assessments of humanity are as wearily recognisable today as ever:
‘…nearly all minds are damnably unhealthy, and so they must have something to hate. Mostly, they just hate their neighbours or their wives or husbands or parents or children. But they get a much more exalted sort of excitement by hating foreigners. A nation, after all, is just a society for hating foreigners, a sort of super-hate-club.�
And such cynicism allows him to make some pretty accurate predictions:
‘This sort of thing will spread. I'd bet my boots that in a few years there'll be a tremendous anti-lift movement all over Europe, inspired partly by fear and hate, partly by that vague, fumbling suspicion that there's something all wrong with scientific culture. It's more than an intellectual suspicion. It's a certainty of the bowels, call it a sort of brute-blind religious hunger. Didn't you feel the beginnings of it in Germany last year when we were there? A deep, still-unconscious revulsion from mechanism, and from rationality, and from democracy, and from sanity. That's it, a confused craving to be mad, possessed in some way. Just the thing for the well-to-do haters to use for their own ends. That's what's going to get Europe.�
Not, perhaps, a completely wild call in 1935 when the Nazis were already running Germany, but it's alarming to see how well it applies to the current moment, too.
Stapledon was a conscientious objector during the First World War and a lifelong pacifist. His skills here are not in the plot or story, but in the play of ideas –and, dispiritingly perhaps, there's still plenty to learn.
August 4, 2020
Just recently, I had some words to say regarding Olaf Stapledon's superlative novel entitled "Sirius" (1944), which featured as its protagonist a German shepherd/border collie mix who, thanks to his owner's experiments in genetic engineering and hormonal supplements, winds up a canine with the mentality of a human genius. It was the first book that I had experienced by this British author, and I loved it so much that I immediately began reading an earlier Stapledon novel, "Odd John" (1935), which can happily be found in the same 1972 Dover edition as the 1944 work. As it turns out, the two make for a supremely well-matched double feature, as "Odd John" also deals with the subject of above-average intelligence, but this time in a human being. But perhaps I should not use the expression "human being," with its connotation of Homo sapiens, since the subject of Stapledon's book, John Wainwright, deems himself as being of a breed quite apart; as a matter of fact, Homo superior.
And, as it turns out, for good reason. This idea of the "Ubermensch," the mutated or genetically altered superman, was a favorite theme in the sci-fi of the 1930s to '50s, and I have earlier spoken here of such examples as Stanley G. Weinbaum's "The New Adam" (1939), Jack Williamson's "Dragon's Island" (1951, and the first novel, it is believed, to employ the term "genetic engineering"), and Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore's "Mutant" (1953). In the following months, I hope to be able to read such vintage examples of the subgenre as J. D. Beresford's "The Hampdenshire Wonder" (1911, and a book that is actually referred to in "Odd John") and Philip Wylie's "Gladiator" (1930, and generally assumed to have been an inspiration for the Superman character), both of which have been patiently sitting on their bookshelves here at home for years now.
But getting back to "Odd John": This was Stapledon's third novel, and was originally released as a 1935 hardcover by the British publisher Methuen, featuring beautiful cover artwork by Eric Fraser. Like the "Sirius" novel of nine years later, "Odd John" takes trenchant potshots at modern-day life, delivered via blistering commentary by its title character. Both books are written in the form of biographies by men who knew their subject well, after a close association, and both feature tragic conclusions that go far in demonstrating how ill equipped the modern world is at accepting an entity of supergenius. Of the two characters, John gives evidence of more remarkable abilities, but strangely enough, the canine Sirius comes across as more human, and certainly more humane.
Whereas Sirius' biographer was only revealed as being named "Robert" in the later book, the author who gives us the short and tragic life history of John Wainwright never reveals his name at all. A family friend of the Wainwrights, and later a freelance journalist and husband, he is given the nickname "Fido" by John as the tale progresses, in mocking recognition of the many faithful services that our adult narrator renders to the youth. Our biographer's narrative cleaves into two fairly discrete sections. In the first, we learn that John was born after his mother, Pax, had carried him for a full 11 months. A child with enormous eyes and a thatch of wooly white hair, John did not begin to speak until he was 5, after which he quickly became loquacious, and then well versed in both reading and mathematics. He did not walk until he was 6. By the time he was 11, he had read all the medical, philosophy and biology books that he could acquire, entered into a fitness regimen to strengthen his atrophied body, gone on train trips to study the adults around him (a "beastly cocky little freak" is how the world apparently saw John), and become a burglar in his search for thrills and new experiences. It was during the course of one of those burglaries that John had found it necessary to kill a policeman, at the tender age of 11. As a teenager, John had built a laboratory for himself in a beachside cavern and begun to invent a great number of household gadgets, using our narrator to procure patents for them and thus quietly build up a great fortune. After a period of bisexual promiscuity, during which, it is suggested, he even had carnal relations with his own mother (!), John decided that he was in need of some spiritual cleansing, and so went off to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, where he lived alone in a cave, hunted and gathered like a primitive, and became capable of working wonders.
In the biography's second, and perhaps more compelling, section, John uses his newfound telepathic abilities to search the world for his own kind. He discovers two such--an aged madman in a Brighton lunatic asylum and an evil infant in the Outer Hebrides--but they are not suitable for his future plans. In France, he makes mental and, later, actual contact with a woman named Jacqueline, who had been born in 1765...around 160 years before. He is also able to make contact, in Port Said (an area that Stapledon knew well, having lived there till he himself was 6, and later having worked in as a shipping clerk from the ages of 24 to 26), with an Egyptian named Adlan, who had been born in 1512 and had died 35 years before he and John meet mentally! Eventually, John is able to gather some two dozen examples of Homo superior from around the world, and, using an advanced-design yacht and airplane of his own creation, transports them to a lonely island near the Tuamoto Archipelago, in the South Pacific. There, the mental and physical sports endeavor to found a colony, and all indeed does go well for five years or so, until their island is discovered by the world's major powers, resulting in tragedy and John's death, at the age of 23. (And no, this last bit is not a spoiler; it is revealed by our biographer on the very first page.)
While learning of John's activities on his lonely island, and of his group's experiments with both the physical sciences and in the realm of spirituality, the reader might well be forcibly reminded of another group of youthful and assorted mutants; namely, Marvel Comics' X-Men. Like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's now-famous superhero group of 1963, here, we have a collection of oddball misfits with a vast assortment of talents and backgrounds. Thus, Ng-Gunko, an Abyssinian youth who is a master at telepathy; Lo, a Russian girl with a spongelike mind; Jelli, a deformed Hungarian girl who can read a newspaper from 60 feet away and see outside of our color spectrum; Marianne, a French girl with photographic memory; Sigrid, a Swedish girl with the ability to "comb" others' minds till they are sane; Shen Kuo, a Chinese lad who can probe mentally into the past; and on and on. It is a colorful group, to be sure ("Jesus Christ! What a troupe!" a British officer remarks at first sight of them), one that communicates telepathically with one another, and that has also mastered the art not only of hypnosis, but of hypnotizing the very atoms in matter, making possible instant atomic fission. The scenes in which our narrator visits John's colony and studies these young and budding mutants, and the scenes in which John and his band come into conflict with the world's superpowers, are both fascinating and exciting to behold.
As mentioned, Stapledon--who had, 10 years earlier, at the age of 39, received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Liverpool--uses his main character to offer up observations regarding humankind and today's institutions, just as he would do later in "Sirius." Thus, regarding religion, John sniffs "...Ninety-nine percent slush and one percent--something else, but what?" Of the psychiatrist, he opines "...The poor man is all at sea when he comes up against really grown-up people." Regarding philosophy, he states "...Philosophy is an amazing tissue of really fine thinking and incredible, puerile mistakes." Of mankind as a whole, he says "...Homo sapiens reached his limit a million years ago, but he has only recently begun to use his powers dangerously." And in an instance of youthful prescience, John even predicts the inevitability of WW2, almost to the year:
"...That's what’s going to get Europe. And its power depends on its being a hotch-potch of self-seeking, sheer hate, and this bewildered hunger of the soul, which is so worthy and so easily twisted into something bloody. If Christianity could hold it in and discipline it, it might do wonders. But Christianity's played out. So these folk will probably invent some ghastly religion of their own. Their God will be the God of the hate-club, the nation. That's what's coming. The new Messiahs (one for each tribe) won't triumph by love or gentleness, but by hate and ruthlessness...Then what with this new crazy religion of nationalism that's beginning, and the steady improvement in the technique of destruction, a huge disaster is simply inevitable, barring a miracle, which of course may happen. There might be some sort of sudden leap forward to a more human mentality, and therefore a world-wide social and religious revolution. But apart from that possibility I should give the disease fifteen to twenty years to come to a head. Then one fine day a few great powers will attack one another...."
John offers up these thoughts to his older friend "Fido" when he himself is around 15, in the year 1925. World War 2 would begin 14 years later.
John, it should be added, is a character whom it is hard to precisely like. It is not that he is immoral, per se; just that his morality is quite different than ours. During the course of his short life, he not only murders that policeman, but is also responsible for the deaths of some British sailors on the high seas (to keep the knowledge of his yacht and crew a secret), as well as the deaths of all the natives who had previously occupied the island that he wanted for his own. Yes, unlike Sirius, John is hardly loveable. And yet, our narrator makes us somehow feel for him, and for all that he and his band of misfits are trying to accomplish and give to the world. Despite his many crimes, his aloof bearing, his haughty and condescending manner, one cannot help but admire Odd John, and even marvel at his many attainments. I have read that no less a figure than George Pal, the producer and/or director of such wonderful sci-fi films as "Destination Moon," "When Worlds Collide," "The War of the Worlds," "Conquest of Space" and "The Time Machine," had at one point purchased the rights to adapt "Odd John" for the big screen, and that David McCallum was set to play the title role. Sadly, that film never quite got off the launching pad, leaving us to wonder what might have been. Stapledon's novel, it strikes me, would still make for an impressive big-screen presentation, provided that the filmmakers kept things in the spirit of the author's highly literate and decidedly adult third novel. Beautifully written, thought provoking, colorful, exciting, and filled with a raft of highly unusual characters, "Odd John" is a simply wonderful novel, and indeed, barring one unfortunate instance of the "N word," virtually a faultless performance by Olaf Stapledon, an author who is now a very solid two for two with this reader....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Olaf Stapledon....)
And, as it turns out, for good reason. This idea of the "Ubermensch," the mutated or genetically altered superman, was a favorite theme in the sci-fi of the 1930s to '50s, and I have earlier spoken here of such examples as Stanley G. Weinbaum's "The New Adam" (1939), Jack Williamson's "Dragon's Island" (1951, and the first novel, it is believed, to employ the term "genetic engineering"), and Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore's "Mutant" (1953). In the following months, I hope to be able to read such vintage examples of the subgenre as J. D. Beresford's "The Hampdenshire Wonder" (1911, and a book that is actually referred to in "Odd John") and Philip Wylie's "Gladiator" (1930, and generally assumed to have been an inspiration for the Superman character), both of which have been patiently sitting on their bookshelves here at home for years now.
But getting back to "Odd John": This was Stapledon's third novel, and was originally released as a 1935 hardcover by the British publisher Methuen, featuring beautiful cover artwork by Eric Fraser. Like the "Sirius" novel of nine years later, "Odd John" takes trenchant potshots at modern-day life, delivered via blistering commentary by its title character. Both books are written in the form of biographies by men who knew their subject well, after a close association, and both feature tragic conclusions that go far in demonstrating how ill equipped the modern world is at accepting an entity of supergenius. Of the two characters, John gives evidence of more remarkable abilities, but strangely enough, the canine Sirius comes across as more human, and certainly more humane.
Whereas Sirius' biographer was only revealed as being named "Robert" in the later book, the author who gives us the short and tragic life history of John Wainwright never reveals his name at all. A family friend of the Wainwrights, and later a freelance journalist and husband, he is given the nickname "Fido" by John as the tale progresses, in mocking recognition of the many faithful services that our adult narrator renders to the youth. Our biographer's narrative cleaves into two fairly discrete sections. In the first, we learn that John was born after his mother, Pax, had carried him for a full 11 months. A child with enormous eyes and a thatch of wooly white hair, John did not begin to speak until he was 5, after which he quickly became loquacious, and then well versed in both reading and mathematics. He did not walk until he was 6. By the time he was 11, he had read all the medical, philosophy and biology books that he could acquire, entered into a fitness regimen to strengthen his atrophied body, gone on train trips to study the adults around him (a "beastly cocky little freak" is how the world apparently saw John), and become a burglar in his search for thrills and new experiences. It was during the course of one of those burglaries that John had found it necessary to kill a policeman, at the tender age of 11. As a teenager, John had built a laboratory for himself in a beachside cavern and begun to invent a great number of household gadgets, using our narrator to procure patents for them and thus quietly build up a great fortune. After a period of bisexual promiscuity, during which, it is suggested, he even had carnal relations with his own mother (!), John decided that he was in need of some spiritual cleansing, and so went off to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, where he lived alone in a cave, hunted and gathered like a primitive, and became capable of working wonders.
In the biography's second, and perhaps more compelling, section, John uses his newfound telepathic abilities to search the world for his own kind. He discovers two such--an aged madman in a Brighton lunatic asylum and an evil infant in the Outer Hebrides--but they are not suitable for his future plans. In France, he makes mental and, later, actual contact with a woman named Jacqueline, who had been born in 1765...around 160 years before. He is also able to make contact, in Port Said (an area that Stapledon knew well, having lived there till he himself was 6, and later having worked in as a shipping clerk from the ages of 24 to 26), with an Egyptian named Adlan, who had been born in 1512 and had died 35 years before he and John meet mentally! Eventually, John is able to gather some two dozen examples of Homo superior from around the world, and, using an advanced-design yacht and airplane of his own creation, transports them to a lonely island near the Tuamoto Archipelago, in the South Pacific. There, the mental and physical sports endeavor to found a colony, and all indeed does go well for five years or so, until their island is discovered by the world's major powers, resulting in tragedy and John's death, at the age of 23. (And no, this last bit is not a spoiler; it is revealed by our biographer on the very first page.)
While learning of John's activities on his lonely island, and of his group's experiments with both the physical sciences and in the realm of spirituality, the reader might well be forcibly reminded of another group of youthful and assorted mutants; namely, Marvel Comics' X-Men. Like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's now-famous superhero group of 1963, here, we have a collection of oddball misfits with a vast assortment of talents and backgrounds. Thus, Ng-Gunko, an Abyssinian youth who is a master at telepathy; Lo, a Russian girl with a spongelike mind; Jelli, a deformed Hungarian girl who can read a newspaper from 60 feet away and see outside of our color spectrum; Marianne, a French girl with photographic memory; Sigrid, a Swedish girl with the ability to "comb" others' minds till they are sane; Shen Kuo, a Chinese lad who can probe mentally into the past; and on and on. It is a colorful group, to be sure ("Jesus Christ! What a troupe!" a British officer remarks at first sight of them), one that communicates telepathically with one another, and that has also mastered the art not only of hypnosis, but of hypnotizing the very atoms in matter, making possible instant atomic fission. The scenes in which our narrator visits John's colony and studies these young and budding mutants, and the scenes in which John and his band come into conflict with the world's superpowers, are both fascinating and exciting to behold.
As mentioned, Stapledon--who had, 10 years earlier, at the age of 39, received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Liverpool--uses his main character to offer up observations regarding humankind and today's institutions, just as he would do later in "Sirius." Thus, regarding religion, John sniffs "...Ninety-nine percent slush and one percent--something else, but what?" Of the psychiatrist, he opines "...The poor man is all at sea when he comes up against really grown-up people." Regarding philosophy, he states "...Philosophy is an amazing tissue of really fine thinking and incredible, puerile mistakes." Of mankind as a whole, he says "...Homo sapiens reached his limit a million years ago, but he has only recently begun to use his powers dangerously." And in an instance of youthful prescience, John even predicts the inevitability of WW2, almost to the year:
"...That's what’s going to get Europe. And its power depends on its being a hotch-potch of self-seeking, sheer hate, and this bewildered hunger of the soul, which is so worthy and so easily twisted into something bloody. If Christianity could hold it in and discipline it, it might do wonders. But Christianity's played out. So these folk will probably invent some ghastly religion of their own. Their God will be the God of the hate-club, the nation. That's what's coming. The new Messiahs (one for each tribe) won't triumph by love or gentleness, but by hate and ruthlessness...Then what with this new crazy religion of nationalism that's beginning, and the steady improvement in the technique of destruction, a huge disaster is simply inevitable, barring a miracle, which of course may happen. There might be some sort of sudden leap forward to a more human mentality, and therefore a world-wide social and religious revolution. But apart from that possibility I should give the disease fifteen to twenty years to come to a head. Then one fine day a few great powers will attack one another...."
John offers up these thoughts to his older friend "Fido" when he himself is around 15, in the year 1925. World War 2 would begin 14 years later.
John, it should be added, is a character whom it is hard to precisely like. It is not that he is immoral, per se; just that his morality is quite different than ours. During the course of his short life, he not only murders that policeman, but is also responsible for the deaths of some British sailors on the high seas (to keep the knowledge of his yacht and crew a secret), as well as the deaths of all the natives who had previously occupied the island that he wanted for his own. Yes, unlike Sirius, John is hardly loveable. And yet, our narrator makes us somehow feel for him, and for all that he and his band of misfits are trying to accomplish and give to the world. Despite his many crimes, his aloof bearing, his haughty and condescending manner, one cannot help but admire Odd John, and even marvel at his many attainments. I have read that no less a figure than George Pal, the producer and/or director of such wonderful sci-fi films as "Destination Moon," "When Worlds Collide," "The War of the Worlds," "Conquest of Space" and "The Time Machine," had at one point purchased the rights to adapt "Odd John" for the big screen, and that David McCallum was set to play the title role. Sadly, that film never quite got off the launching pad, leaving us to wonder what might have been. Stapledon's novel, it strikes me, would still make for an impressive big-screen presentation, provided that the filmmakers kept things in the spirit of the author's highly literate and decidedly adult third novel. Beautifully written, thought provoking, colorful, exciting, and filled with a raft of highly unusual characters, "Odd John" is a simply wonderful novel, and indeed, barring one unfortunate instance of the "N word," virtually a faultless performance by Olaf Stapledon, an author who is now a very solid two for two with this reader....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Olaf Stapledon....)
December 15, 2015
Source of my current favorite quote:
"A nation, after all, is just a society for hating foreigners."
Very much on point lately.
Interesting book. The strangest thing about it being that I couldn't figure out why I wanted to keep reading it. It is a mostly philosophical tome about an evolved human (homo superior) who is kind of an ass. Yet it was a very smooth read, in that vein of "an intellectual white man tells the world about a thing he observed" toned stories. And shit, Stapledon so called WWII.
"A nation, after all, is just a society for hating foreigners."
Very much on point lately.
Interesting book. The strangest thing about it being that I couldn't figure out why I wanted to keep reading it. It is a mostly philosophical tome about an evolved human (homo superior) who is kind of an ass. Yet it was a very smooth read, in that vein of "an intellectual white man tells the world about a thing he observed" toned stories. And shit, Stapledon so called WWII.
September 14, 2024
Check out my full, spoiler free, video review
This is a novel about a group of superhumans called homo superior, the next evolution of humanity. The story is told by way of a narrator reciting a biography about the main superhuman character named John, or Odd John. This is a deep, philosophical science fiction and while the prose is a bit dry and descriptive the ideas and thought explorations are very interesting and way ahead of its time. Odd John, as a character, is used to explore ethical problems. Many of his actions are amoral as he sees this new form of humanity worth protecting at all costs. Very influential novel and will read more from Stapledon in the future.
This is a novel about a group of superhumans called homo superior, the next evolution of humanity. The story is told by way of a narrator reciting a biography about the main superhuman character named John, or Odd John. This is a deep, philosophical science fiction and while the prose is a bit dry and descriptive the ideas and thought explorations are very interesting and way ahead of its time. Odd John, as a character, is used to explore ethical problems. Many of his actions are amoral as he sees this new form of humanity worth protecting at all costs. Very influential novel and will read more from Stapledon in the future.
September 23, 2018
Olaf Stapledon's Odd John is an odd book. It is science fiction in its loftiest form - a novel of ideas.
Stapledon uses this tale of a youth who is an example of a new superior species emerging from conventional humanity as a way to examine the human condition from the outside. John's account to the narrator of the failings of our species and why we are, he feels, doomed to self-destruction really cut to the quick. And the fact that John operates according to moral principles so very different from our own is something which also can stimulate uncomfortable questions about the bases of our values. How would we feel about sacrificing the lives of members of a less developed species in service of the survival of our own? We do it all the time. But it doesn't seem quite so acceptable perhaps when we are that lesser species.
Of course having a narrator who is a member of homo sapiens rather than the new homo superior means that much of what John and his fellow supermen and superwomen do and think can only be hinted at. But Stapledon does an amazing job of hinting at some kind of liberated universal consciousness and the communal living it makes possible. All of this is made easier by the fact that the new species is telepathic, even being able to travel telepathically into the past and commune with those who are now dead.
I suppose this raises the question as to whether this is really science fiction or fantasy. John comes up with a number of new technologies which play a part in the story, but even the method of propulsion on his boat and airplane involve the psychic manipulation of atomic forces. Then again, if the behaviour of particles is effected by their being observed as quantum physicists say, maybe telekinesis does have a place in science fiction.
Apparently, Stapledon wasn't aware that there was such a genre as science fiction until after he was being hailed as one of its leading lights. He was certainly ahead of his time. This book was published in 1935 and John's description of where the world is heading includes a very accurate picture of the progress of fascism and the horrors of what would be the Second World War. The book is also free of many of the sexual prejudices of the time.
Stapledon uses this tale of a youth who is an example of a new superior species emerging from conventional humanity as a way to examine the human condition from the outside. John's account to the narrator of the failings of our species and why we are, he feels, doomed to self-destruction really cut to the quick. And the fact that John operates according to moral principles so very different from our own is something which also can stimulate uncomfortable questions about the bases of our values. How would we feel about sacrificing the lives of members of a less developed species in service of the survival of our own? We do it all the time. But it doesn't seem quite so acceptable perhaps when we are that lesser species.
Of course having a narrator who is a member of homo sapiens rather than the new homo superior means that much of what John and his fellow supermen and superwomen do and think can only be hinted at. But Stapledon does an amazing job of hinting at some kind of liberated universal consciousness and the communal living it makes possible. All of this is made easier by the fact that the new species is telepathic, even being able to travel telepathically into the past and commune with those who are now dead.
I suppose this raises the question as to whether this is really science fiction or fantasy. John comes up with a number of new technologies which play a part in the story, but even the method of propulsion on his boat and airplane involve the psychic manipulation of atomic forces. Then again, if the behaviour of particles is effected by their being observed as quantum physicists say, maybe telekinesis does have a place in science fiction.
Apparently, Stapledon wasn't aware that there was such a genre as science fiction until after he was being hailed as one of its leading lights. He was certainly ahead of his time. This book was published in 1935 and John's description of where the world is heading includes a very accurate picture of the progress of fascism and the horrors of what would be the Second World War. The book is also free of many of the sexual prejudices of the time.
May 13, 2019
A somewhat freaky human decides his superiority to others makes him exempt from following all rules of civilized behavior, so he comes up with an invention to make himself wealthy and sets about pursuing his own goals. Actually that's the plot of Stanley G Weinbaum's The New Adam and it appears over and over again anytime a sci-fi writer goes on a philosophical jag. You might also remember the Outer Limits episode 'The Sixth Finger' as another example.
According to Stapledon's bio he was a philosopher as well as a writer. IMO he wasn't much of a writer. He's much too dry, flat, and boring. Reading him is a struggle. In Odd John he picks up on this same old 'superman' plot as espoused by Nietzsche. It's neither new or interesting.
Weinbaum's version isn't all that great either. After all there's not a lot you can do with the scenario. But at least Weinbaum can write.
Odd John is available at Gutenberg Canada if you want to check it out.
According to Stapledon's bio he was a philosopher as well as a writer. IMO he wasn't much of a writer. He's much too dry, flat, and boring. Reading him is a struggle. In Odd John he picks up on this same old 'superman' plot as espoused by Nietzsche. It's neither new or interesting.
Weinbaum's version isn't all that great either. After all there's not a lot you can do with the scenario. But at least Weinbaum can write.
Odd John is available at Gutenberg Canada if you want to check it out.
June 14, 2015
Stapledon was a class above his 1930's SF peers, skipping the stuffy space opera for what is essentially a thinkpiece on philosophy, agnosticism, gender and racial equality, and sexual liberation, and just an overall criticism of humanity itself.
August 21, 2022
I'd known about Olaf Stapledon for many years but hadn't read anything by him until now. Odd John thoroughly blew my mind. I felt a lot in common with the main character, John Wainwright. This is inherently problematic because John does some very immoral stuff. I don't identify with any of these plot points. I identify with John's being different. It felt very familiar and real how people react to him. John's alienation, being misunderstood was beautifully written and felt very real. When he is out in the wilderness, living without the influence of man, so cool! His views on making money, beating the free market at its own game was great. Making inventions that don't really better mankind but make him a ton of money. His use of intellect to become telepathic, to find other supernormals, to be able to communicate with people from different timelines, and beings in other star systems, how it is written is incredible. Just really beautiful out there insanity. I'm pretty sure Jack Kirby read Odd John before creating The X-Men. I need more Stapledon in my brain.
May 2, 2024
ahead of its time
This book took me three times as long to read as it should have. It is that dense. For a book written in the 30’s it is shocking in some respects and problematic in others. For people willing to deal with that I can highly recommend it.
This book took me three times as long to read as it should have. It is that dense. For a book written in the 30’s it is shocking in some respects and problematic in others. For people willing to deal with that I can highly recommend it.
December 30, 2024
it seems fitting that my last posted review of the year would be of Stapledon, one of my favourite old school author - greatly underrated too. And while this one was not my favourite of his, it is clearly an inspiration for so many modern stories I loved (mainly Baxter and his obsession for super smart kids), that I can only love it. It’s brutal, it’s human, and it’s quite a delight to read still. Olaf, once again, was a visionary well in advance for his time. Looking forward to more of this in 2025
March 11, 2016
another one that I read many times when I was young - fond, vague impressions linger
I had never heard of Olaf Stapledon before and I never heard of him again until I bought "The Great Courses: How Science Fiction Works," and there he was again. I had remembered his name and this one book, Odd John, for decades. Now I want to read it again, just to see why I kept some part of it with me for all that time.
On a related subject, I do believe there must be others like me who read many favorite books again, or even many times. I think that is a good thing to do, and I wish it counted toward how many books we have read on our lists here. I read Heart of Darkness fifty times. Elements of Style twenty-five. The John Carter of Mars series, seven times. and on...
Reading a great book once is like looking at the Mona Lisa once, for lack of a better comparison.
You can't understand a book on the first reading the way that you can on the second reading; that's my opinion, but it's logical, too. Hints and foreshadowing are among the many elements of literature that just aren't fully visible on the first reading.
More importantly, the depths and pleasures of a great work cannot be fully enjoyed or plumbed, emotionally or mentally, on one reading.
Then again, I mean no offense to those who read a book once and happily jump to the next. I do that, too. I guess I read most of the Agatha Christi books that way, just for fun. And no offense to those books either. It's just that some books call to me personally, and others may call to you. That's good, isn't it?
Books are a way of life with many different trails one can follow.
I had never heard of Olaf Stapledon before and I never heard of him again until I bought "The Great Courses: How Science Fiction Works," and there he was again. I had remembered his name and this one book, Odd John, for decades. Now I want to read it again, just to see why I kept some part of it with me for all that time.
On a related subject, I do believe there must be others like me who read many favorite books again, or even many times. I think that is a good thing to do, and I wish it counted toward how many books we have read on our lists here. I read Heart of Darkness fifty times. Elements of Style twenty-five. The John Carter of Mars series, seven times. and on...
Reading a great book once is like looking at the Mona Lisa once, for lack of a better comparison.
You can't understand a book on the first reading the way that you can on the second reading; that's my opinion, but it's logical, too. Hints and foreshadowing are among the many elements of literature that just aren't fully visible on the first reading.
More importantly, the depths and pleasures of a great work cannot be fully enjoyed or plumbed, emotionally or mentally, on one reading.
Then again, I mean no offense to those who read a book once and happily jump to the next. I do that, too. I guess I read most of the Agatha Christi books that way, just for fun. And no offense to those books either. It's just that some books call to me personally, and others may call to you. That's good, isn't it?
Books are a way of life with many different trails one can follow.
June 28, 2024
if you like this review i now have website:
030919: odd. of its time, i waver between three and four. ideas yes, politics no. early english portrayal of ‘supernormal� evolution probably has had great effect on subsequent work, but it bothers me that this ‘evolution� is more nietzschean ‘transcendence�, that is, individual rather than population, drastic rather than subtle, immediate and world-wide. these are philosophical disputes. interesting to think of whom this vision might appeal to, educated britons, cultured, ironically certain they and not the masses know best... that they have chance of appreciation of future humans...
030919: odd. of its time, i waver between three and four. ideas yes, politics no. early english portrayal of ‘supernormal� evolution probably has had great effect on subsequent work, but it bothers me that this ‘evolution� is more nietzschean ‘transcendence�, that is, individual rather than population, drastic rather than subtle, immediate and world-wide. these are philosophical disputes. interesting to think of whom this vision might appeal to, educated britons, cultured, ironically certain they and not the masses know best... that they have chance of appreciation of future humans...
February 19, 2021
*Trigger warning*
If you choose to read this book be aware that it was published in 1935 and therefore some of the 'language used' which was common practice then is now considered offensive.
The story of odd John is told by a nameless narrator and family friend in the form of a biography.
He becomes almost a 'pet' to John who actually ends up calling him Fido.
John is An 'Ubermensch' or Super man, a different species to us run of the mill homo sapiens.
He looks different, he behaves differently, he is hyper intelligent and he can be manipulative.
John has a vision of utopia, that is a place for him and the others like him.
He begins searching and eventually finds more of his kind.
Social commentary or critique of the human race in general.
Themes here including Sexual liberation in all it's guises, morality, religion and spirituality, communism, murder and so very much more.
"What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control…we attack." Dan Brown The lost symbol.
Needs a second or even a third read I suspect to fully realise everything in this book.
And I cried at the end.
4*
If you choose to read this book be aware that it was published in 1935 and therefore some of the 'language used' which was common practice then is now considered offensive.
The story of odd John is told by a nameless narrator and family friend in the form of a biography.
He becomes almost a 'pet' to John who actually ends up calling him Fido.
John is An 'Ubermensch' or Super man, a different species to us run of the mill homo sapiens.
He looks different, he behaves differently, he is hyper intelligent and he can be manipulative.
John has a vision of utopia, that is a place for him and the others like him.
He begins searching and eventually finds more of his kind.
Social commentary or critique of the human race in general.
Themes here including Sexual liberation in all it's guises, morality, religion and spirituality, communism, murder and so very much more.
"What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control…we attack." Dan Brown The lost symbol.
Needs a second or even a third read I suspect to fully realise everything in this book.
And I cried at the end.
4*
Read
January 6, 2022Love it. Olaf was on some PKD sh*t� and in 1935!!! Thanks @goof
June 24, 2012
Here is, reissued, one of those SF tales that was of a type so common around the 1940’s and 50’s: except that this one set the mould in 1935. Though short, it challenges the reader, and leaves you much to think about afterwards.
Odd John is a tale of a ‘superman�: John Wainwright, an Englishman who claims to be the forerunner of a new species, homo superior. Told by his friend and butler-type, nicknamed Fido, it is the tale of how John grew up, became an adult and ultimately the consequences of his superior status.
In the new introduction from Adam Roberts (which, like most of the Introductions in this series, I’d recommend reading afterwards) Adam begins by saying that this superman story is odd. Personally I can’t disagree with that. Wainwright is not a man enhanced by the gaining of superpowers or from a more advanced future, he just is more intelligent, and looks down upon normal mortals without his abilities.
The tone of the book is one of superiority and condescension and this is shown by an uncomfortably sneering tone throughout. Nevertheless, John has a tale to tell, and despite being an unsympathetic host recounts his past and his present views on the world.
Though John has clear views on the world, it is also apparent that his views are flawed. His thinking on religion is basically that it has no place in the world, and his relationship with his mother is quite shocking to human morals even today. It is clear that John operates on different rules to the majority of the human race.
It is this difference that leads to his downfall, something highlighted from the first page of the novel. The last part of the book has John and his fellow supernormals set up a colony in the Pacific, from which they can continue to view Homo Sapiens with distain and create a new world order. This does not end well and the book at the finish has a denouement of what these days could be described as ‘a W-T-F moment�. Superiority does not necessarily mean domination and can lead to mistrust and aggression.
In the end this is a tale that leaves the reader with mixed feelings. Stapledon’s tone is so low-key and un-dramatic that the poignancy of the events within is quite telling. John is so different that it is clear he could not be seen as anything other than a threat to ‘normal� humans, and yet his demise is rather sad. By telling this tale, even with a main character that is insensitive and at times unpleasant, the human race doesn’t come out of this well.
Whilst not as well known as Stapledon’s Star Maker or First and Last Men, Odd John is a valuable read. I would not say that Odd John is an enjoyable tale, but it is one that makes the reader think and is therefore all the more important for that. When people talk of SF being a forum for ideas, it is perhaps the thought-experiment that is Odd John that they are thinking of.
Odd John is a tale of a ‘superman�: John Wainwright, an Englishman who claims to be the forerunner of a new species, homo superior. Told by his friend and butler-type, nicknamed Fido, it is the tale of how John grew up, became an adult and ultimately the consequences of his superior status.
In the new introduction from Adam Roberts (which, like most of the Introductions in this series, I’d recommend reading afterwards) Adam begins by saying that this superman story is odd. Personally I can’t disagree with that. Wainwright is not a man enhanced by the gaining of superpowers or from a more advanced future, he just is more intelligent, and looks down upon normal mortals without his abilities.
The tone of the book is one of superiority and condescension and this is shown by an uncomfortably sneering tone throughout. Nevertheless, John has a tale to tell, and despite being an unsympathetic host recounts his past and his present views on the world.
Though John has clear views on the world, it is also apparent that his views are flawed. His thinking on religion is basically that it has no place in the world, and his relationship with his mother is quite shocking to human morals even today. It is clear that John operates on different rules to the majority of the human race.
It is this difference that leads to his downfall, something highlighted from the first page of the novel. The last part of the book has John and his fellow supernormals set up a colony in the Pacific, from which they can continue to view Homo Sapiens with distain and create a new world order. This does not end well and the book at the finish has a denouement of what these days could be described as ‘a W-T-F moment�. Superiority does not necessarily mean domination and can lead to mistrust and aggression.
In the end this is a tale that leaves the reader with mixed feelings. Stapledon’s tone is so low-key and un-dramatic that the poignancy of the events within is quite telling. John is so different that it is clear he could not be seen as anything other than a threat to ‘normal� humans, and yet his demise is rather sad. By telling this tale, even with a main character that is insensitive and at times unpleasant, the human race doesn’t come out of this well.
Whilst not as well known as Stapledon’s Star Maker or First and Last Men, Odd John is a valuable read. I would not say that Odd John is an enjoyable tale, but it is one that makes the reader think and is therefore all the more important for that. When people talk of SF being a forum for ideas, it is perhaps the thought-experiment that is Odd John that they are thinking of.
April 13, 2019
sometimes it gets boring 'cause it's too obvious the way OS inserts his philosophical views into the narrative... not adding very much to the story itself.
it's better written than AEVV's Slan, I think. nevertheless, i'm starting to struggle with this 'golden'-SF not because of what the genre in itself implies/offers but because how was written (so far, i've read a couple though).
btw: it's about THE 1st Superman (story) ever?; and apparently 'where' the idea of a 'Prof. X' and/or 'X-men' came from
it's better written than AEVV's Slan, I think. nevertheless, i'm starting to struggle with this 'golden'-SF not because of what the genre in itself implies/offers but because how was written (so far, i've read a couple though).
btw: it's about THE 1st Superman (story) ever?; and apparently 'where' the idea of a 'Prof. X' and/or 'X-men' came from
April 4, 2018
I read Last and First Men years ago, and I recall liking it. I'd have to read it again to say for sure whether I've lost my taste for Stapledon in the intervening years, or whether Odd John just doesn't live up to the standard the other book set. Either way, I really hated this book.
John is a boy with abnormally slow physical development but superhuman intellectual capacity. Unfortunately, neither the narrator (a friend of John's) nor Stapledon himself is superhuman, so we don't actually get many examples of how John is superior to the rest of us. He figures out how to fight well, and he comes up with some inventions that make millions—but few of those inventions are described in detail, and those that are, like detachable pockets for your pants, are pretty underwhelming. We get page after page of John describing how disappointed he is in all the great philosophers, scientists, and artists of history—but again, although he makes it very clear that those great minds made a lot of mistakes, he can't actually explain what those mistakes were. Instead, he just condescends to us poor humans who can't understand his superior mind. It's kind of like arguing with a teenager on the internet.
Then John discovers that in addition to being so much more intelligent than the rest of us, he also has the powers of telekinesis, telepathy, and astral projection. From that point on, the book turns into something like Midnight's Children without Rushdie's prose or humor.
Dreary stuff.
John is a boy with abnormally slow physical development but superhuman intellectual capacity. Unfortunately, neither the narrator (a friend of John's) nor Stapledon himself is superhuman, so we don't actually get many examples of how John is superior to the rest of us. He figures out how to fight well, and he comes up with some inventions that make millions—but few of those inventions are described in detail, and those that are, like detachable pockets for your pants, are pretty underwhelming. We get page after page of John describing how disappointed he is in all the great philosophers, scientists, and artists of history—but again, although he makes it very clear that those great minds made a lot of mistakes, he can't actually explain what those mistakes were. Instead, he just condescends to us poor humans who can't understand his superior mind. It's kind of like arguing with a teenager on the internet.
Then John discovers that in addition to being so much more intelligent than the rest of us, he also has the powers of telekinesis, telepathy, and astral projection. From that point on, the book turns into something like Midnight's Children without Rushdie's prose or humor.
Dreary stuff.
April 3, 2016
Odd John is a proverbial feast for thought and is filled with many an intelligent nuance. In exploring what it is to be super-human, Stapledon holds a mirror up to what it is to be just merely human.
Odd John has several shocking moments and is clearly aimed at an adult audience. I haven't researched the topic but I can't help but think that certain passages caused it to be received as controversial (for the time) or even caused it to be censured or downright banned in some quarters.
In writing about Homo Superior, Stapledon shows why he's an Author Superior.
- - -
Misc: Stapledon was obviously influenced by The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford
( /book/show/1... ).
He references it 3 times:
p 2 "How pathetically one-sided the supernormal development may be is revealed in Mr. J. D. Beresford's account of the unhappy Victor Scott."
p 4 "His glance, however, had none of that weirdly compelling power recorded in the case of Victor Scott".
p 16 "His vocabulary was of course very inadequate, so he proceeded in the manner of Victor Scott, and read through from cover to cover, first a large English dictionary, then ..."
Odd John has several shocking moments and is clearly aimed at an adult audience. I haven't researched the topic but I can't help but think that certain passages caused it to be received as controversial (for the time) or even caused it to be censured or downright banned in some quarters.
In writing about Homo Superior, Stapledon shows why he's an Author Superior.
- - -
Misc: Stapledon was obviously influenced by The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford
( /book/show/1... ).
He references it 3 times:
p 2 "How pathetically one-sided the supernormal development may be is revealed in Mr. J. D. Beresford's account of the unhappy Victor Scott."
p 4 "His glance, however, had none of that weirdly compelling power recorded in the case of Victor Scott".
p 16 "His vocabulary was of course very inadequate, so he proceeded in the manner of Victor Scott, and read through from cover to cover, first a large English dictionary, then ..."
October 6, 2021
is there anything worse than a stupid book about someone that is supposed to be a super-genius? you know, the kind of genius who is such an incredibly ingenious genius that he can only inform us in the most briefest of general terms that he is the most super genius-y person ever in history but can't explain any of that genius to us because we wouldn't get it anyway? I mean why waste any of the genius's time? so we'll just have to take his word for it but hey look the book mentions that he made a fortune on the stock market to finance all those genius-y schemes so ergo ipso facto super-genius proven move along now nothing to see here ... but hey don't feel bad you dopey non-genius humans because (and yea you have heard this sort of plot point theme before in Star Trek or a hundred other tv show episodes / made-for-tv movies) that kind of genius can only come in a human despising amoral package and you dear reader are certainly not amoral so are an infinitely better human than this poor heartless amoral monster ...
April 7, 2013
I read this first in grade school. While no genius is struck a chord with my lonely childhood and made me think.
I also started writing a book with this tale as a role model for it. Such has this book impacted my life.
I cannot recall how many times I read this book. Despite all my moves I still have that very book, though now tattered.
It has been years since I have done more then pick up the book from my shelf and read it. I almost fear it would no longer be relevant or deep to me. Or maybe that it still would be. Whatever the orginator of my fear I would say this book is directed toward teens.
I also started writing a book with this tale as a role model for it. Such has this book impacted my life.
I cannot recall how many times I read this book. Despite all my moves I still have that very book, though now tattered.
It has been years since I have done more then pick up the book from my shelf and read it. I almost fear it would no longer be relevant or deep to me. Or maybe that it still would be. Whatever the orginator of my fear I would say this book is directed toward teens.
Read
May 8, 2012Much more like a novel than any of Stapledon's other novels that I've read, and again part of the same madly ambitious tapestry, this is essentially the X-Men as conceived in the 1930s, where even the heroic members of homo superior (a classification which apparently originated here) consider a little genocide against mere 'sapients' to be justified, given their own greater mission and "the tragic futility of homo sapiens".
February 4, 2017
Not your typical SF book -- quite an interesting concept, though also, as the title suggests, odd. I was definitely intrigued by John and his superior species. At first I enjoyed reading about his rapid learning and development, but in the middle I got bogged down and somewhat bored hearing about every single aspect. (Though as just a normal, unintelligent member of the homo sapiens, I guess that makes sense.)
February 25, 2017
I first learned of this book because it inspired some of the lyrics to David Bowies song "All You Pretty Things". It is the story of a child prodigy who is more highly evolved than ordinary human beings. He is hyper intelligent and possesses psychic abilities. Written in the period between the first and second World Wars, this book is still fascinating today. A great read! Highly Recommended!
February 13, 2015
Amazing book, the granddaddy of so many sf novels on homo superior. The ESP, psychokinetic and cosmic religious elements seem dated and a little loopy. Wouldn't super humanity have overcome religion altogether?
January 12, 2018
A bit of a slow read with a rather outdated writing style, but a number of ideas and concepts well ahead of the time.
May 21, 2018
This book was first published in 1935. It has aged remarkably well. It reminded me somewhat of Theodore Sturgeon’s “More Than Human� which was written nearly twenty years later. It’s about the next stage of human development, homo superior. The “superman� concept has some similarities to the works of Nietzsche. Though I’ve never read Nietzsche, I am a little familiar with his ideas. It tackles the concept of the morality of the superman with respect to the normal homo sapiens. I liked the book, finding it generally readable, although much of it is, like a lot of early science fiction, about ideas rather than a real plot.
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