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The Science Fiction Fan, v. 4, issue 5, whole no. 41, December 1939
Page 5
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FAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 the output of the earlier Weinbaum. He began to display, if only surreptitiously, a leaning toward what might be called the"superiority complex", the "will to power", There is a feeling of "elevation" in his character, not just a physical or brute strength, but an intellectual "Elevation" that tends to place one individual not only above the crowd, but even places him (or her) in a seprate category. Black Margot is perhaps no more genuinely human than is the Wonderful,Boy in Stapledon's "First and Last Men". She sprang from the human race but she is a different nature. Weinbaum's place as a philosopher will be determined by general acceptance or rejection of "The New Adam". This is a more than science-fiction, more than fantasy. Here he is interested little, if at all, in action, and almost totally in thought. And here-belatedly - he uncovers a deep concern in the essential relations between man and woman. Edmond and Vanny, Edmond and Sarah. Which relation, physical or intellectual, has a permanent value, which brings happiness, which determines the development and growth of a being? These, and all other questions that are posed in the book, remain unanswered. Weinbaum obessed with negation and futility, with a belief that "the sum total of all knowledge is zero", with a certainty that beauty and value are entirely subjective, disposes of the superman in a logical, thoroughly Nietzscheian fashion. And, to make the gloom more Stygian, there is the conviction that futility would be bearable if it were not for the realization that Time returns upon itself, that it is all to do over again.
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FAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 the output of the earlier Weinbaum. He began to display, if only surreptitiously, a leaning toward what might be called the"superiority complex", the "will to power", There is a feeling of "elevation" in his character, not just a physical or brute strength, but an intellectual "Elevation" that tends to place one individual not only above the crowd, but even places him (or her) in a seprate category. Black Margot is perhaps no more genuinely human than is the Wonderful,Boy in Stapledon's "First and Last Men". She sprang from the human race but she is a different nature. Weinbaum's place as a philosopher will be determined by general acceptance or rejection of "The New Adam". This is a more than science-fiction, more than fantasy. Here he is interested little, if at all, in action, and almost totally in thought. And here-belatedly - he uncovers a deep concern in the essential relations between man and woman. Edmond and Vanny, Edmond and Sarah. Which relation, physical or intellectual, has a permanent value, which brings happiness, which determines the development and growth of a being? These, and all other questions that are posed in the book, remain unanswered. Weinbaum obessed with negation and futility, with a belief that "the sum total of all knowledge is zero", with a certainty that beauty and value are entirely subjective, disposes of the superman in a logical, thoroughly Nietzscheian fashion. And, to make the gloom more Stygian, there is the conviction that futility would be bearable if it were not for the realization that Time returns upon itself, that it is all to do over again.
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