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Odd John

Olaf Stapledon

Paperback | Pages: 209 pages

Rating: 3.71 | 1157 Users | 103 Reviews

Present Out Of Books Odd John

Title	:	Odd John
Author	:	Olaf Stapledon
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 209 pages
Published	:	March 2012 by Gollancz (first published 1935)
Categories	:	Science Fiction. Fiction

Rendition Concering Books Odd John

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.

List Books Supposing Odd John

Original Title:	Odd John: A Story between Jest and Earnest
ISBN:	0575072245 (ISBN13: 9780575072244)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	John Wainwright

Rating Out Of Books Odd John

Ratings: 3.71 From 1157 Users | 103 Reviews

Criticize Out Of Books Odd John

A bit of a slow read with a rather outdated writing style, but a number of ideas and concepts well ahead of the time.

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?

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

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.)

another one that I read many times when I was young - fond, vague impressions lingerI 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

I thought this was absolutely dire! Maybe at the time it was written it was more interesting, but I felt John just served as a mouthpiece for the author most of the time. There was nothing to interest you enough to persuade you to keep reading. I only did because I know it is considered a classic and I hoped it would get better. It didn't. There was one page that interested me because of the time in which it was written - and John's pronouncements did have truth in them (on this subject only)...

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.