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Odd John

 

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Odd John



 
 
Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest is a 1935 science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 novel by the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 author Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon

William Olaf Stapledon was a United Kingdom philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction....
. The novel explores the theme of the Übermensch
Übermensch

The ?bermensch is a concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche posited the ?bermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
 (superman) in the character of John Wainwright, whose supernormal human mentality inevitably leads to conflict with normal human society and to the destruction of the utopia
Utopia

Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, taken from the Utopia written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect social system-politics-legal system....
n colony founded by John and other superhumans.

The novel resonates with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th century philosophy Germans philosophy and classical philology. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor and aphorism....
 and the work of English writer J. D. Beresford
J. D. Beresford

John Davys Beresford was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and some short stories in the horror story and ghost story genres....
, with an allusion to Beresford's superhuman child character of Victor Stott in The Hampdenshire Wonder
The Hampdenshire Wonder

The Hampdenshire Wonder is a 1911 science fiction novel by J. D. Beresford. It is one of the first novels to involve a wunderkind. The child in it is named Victor Stott and he is the son of a famous cricket player....
 (1911).






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Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest is a 1935 science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 novel by the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 author Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon

William Olaf Stapledon was a United Kingdom philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction....
. The novel explores the theme of the Übermensch
Übermensch

The ?bermensch is a concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche posited the ?bermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
 (superman) in the character of John Wainwright, whose supernormal human mentality inevitably leads to conflict with normal human society and to the destruction of the utopia
Utopia

Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, taken from the Utopia written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect social system-politics-legal system....
n colony founded by John and other superhumans.

The novel resonates with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th century philosophy Germans philosophy and classical philology. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor and aphorism....
 and the work of English writer J. D. Beresford
J. D. Beresford

John Davys Beresford was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and some short stories in the horror story and ghost story genres....
, with an allusion to Beresford's superhuman child character of Victor Stott in The Hampdenshire Wonder
The Hampdenshire Wonder

The Hampdenshire Wonder is a 1911 science fiction novel by J. D. Beresford. It is one of the first novels to involve a wunderkind. The child in it is named Victor Stott and he is the son of a famous cricket player....
 (1911). As the devoted narrator remarks, John does not feel obligated to observe the restricted morality of Homo sapiens. Stapledon's recurrent vision of cosmic angst
Angst

Angst is a German language and Dutch language word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of strife. The term Angst distinguishes itself from the word Furcht in that Furcht usually refers to a material threat , while Angst is usually a nondirectional emotion....
 -- that the universe may be indifferent to intelligence, no matter how spiritually refined -- also gives the story added depth. Later explorations of the theme of the superhuman and of the incompatibility of the normal with the supernormal occurs in the works of Stanislaw Lem
Stanislaw Lem

Stanislaw Lem was a Poland science fiction, philosophy and satire writer. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies....
, Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert

Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American list of science fiction authors. Although also a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels....
, Wilmar Shiras and Vernor Vinge
Vernor Vinge

Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer science, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep , A Deepness in the Sky , Rainbows End , Fast Times at Fairmont High and The Cookie Monster , as well...
, among others.

The book is mentioned by Julian May in Intervention, part of the Galactic Milieu Series
Galactic Milieu Series

Julian May's Galactic Milieu Series of science fiction novels is the sequel to her "Saga of Pliocene Exile." It comprises four novels: Intervention, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask and Magnificat....
. It is also responsible for coining the term "Homo superior".

Outline

  1. John and Author. A physical description of John Wainwright.
  2. The First Phase. His parents, and his life from birth (around 1910) to five years of age. At the age of four, he learns to speak; nine months later, he learns to count.
  3. Enfant Terrible. He learns to walk at the age of six, and practises acrobatics and fighting with a neighbourhood boy called Stephen. He studies biology and jujitsu.
  4. John and his Elders. John's relationships with people around him. He is taken to see factories and mines, and waylays people of interest to interview them. The interview with "Mr Magnate".
  5. Thought and Action. John occupies himself with toys, and studies philosophy. His burglaries, and his murder of Smithson.
  6. Many Inventions. John's friendship with the six-year-old Judy. His secret laboratory and his inventions.
  7. Financial Ventures. John uses the author as a go-between to sell the inventions. He speculates financially and is cheated. He tries to study directly with financiers.
  8. Scandalous Adolescence. John has affairs, and courts a much older woman named Europa.
  9. Methods of a Young Anthropologist. John interviews famous people using various ruses. He travels to France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. He plays the part of a backward child while visiting a psychiatrist.
  10. The World's Plight. John discusses current affairs with the narrator, and asserts that he has no interest in helping humanity.
  11. Strange Encounters. John goes on "holiday" in Scotland, and the narrator hears bizarre reports from two climbers named McWhist and Norton.
  12. John in the Wilderness. John returns and gives an account of his austerities and his spiritual experiences.
  13. John Seeks his Kind. He develops telepathy
    Telepathy

    Telepathy describes the purported transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the Senses#Five classical senses ....
    , and uses it to discover two beings similar to himself: a musical madman named James Jones, and a crippled child in the Hebrides.
  14. Engineering Problems. He conceives the idea of creating a colony of "supernormals", and builds a yacht and a plane.
  15. Jacqueline. The story of a superhuman in Paris, who was born in 1765.
  16. Adlan. The story of a superhuman in Egypt, born in 1512, who communicates with John 35 years after his own death.
  17. Ng-Gunko and Lo. A 12-year-old Ethiopian boy and a 17-year-old Siberian girl join John.
  18. The Skid's First Voyage. They travel to the South Pacific, picking up many colleagues on the way. On arrival they take over an island, massacring the original inhabitants.
  19. The Colony is Founded. John and Lo briefly return to England.
  20. The Colony in Being. The narrator travels to the island and describes the colony.
  21. The Beginning of the End. The island is discovered by a British surveying vessel called the Viking. This is followed by a visit from two British light cruisers, a visit from the Soviets, and a final attempt at mass arrest by an international expedition. All are repelled with psionic attacks.
  22. The End. Mercenaries invade the island, but are driven away with harsh psionic attacks. On 15 December 1933, the colonists deliberately destroy their own island.


Film rights

None of Stapledon's novels or short stories have been filmed, although George Pal
George Pál

George Pal , born Gy?rgy P?l Marczincs?k, was a Hungarian-born United States animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre....
 bought the rights to Odd John. Castle of Frankenstein
Castle of Frankenstein

Castle of Frankenstein was an USA horror fiction, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, distributed by Kable News and published in New Jersey from 1962 to 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company....
 magazine reported in 1966 that actor David McCallum
David McCallum

David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish people actor and the son of concertmaster violinist David McCallum, Sr.. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, on the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Ducky Mallard on the series NCIS ....
 would play the title role.