DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | The Alchemist, v.1, issue 3, Summer 1940

Transcribe
Translate

The Alchemist, v.1, issue 3, Summer 1940

Page 14

Page 14 ----- THE ALCHEMIST -----
of a particularly naive nature, it would seem to me.

In the course of the book John attempts to gather together about him all the mutational freaks on earth. He succeeds in doing this and sets out to create a new human race, being convinced that genus homo has about twenty or thirty more years of life and then---finis, destroyed by a misdirected science. But Stapledon throws many obstacles in his path. He is regarded with amusement as an overenthusiastic child by several of his more mature colleagues, he passes through various phases of despair and joyous exhaltation as he establishes contact with the universe, many times he himself doubts the value of his undertaking. Throughout, the supericrity of spiritual experience over material achievement is stressed. To Odd John (odd to his fellow super-intellectuals as well as to man) the problems becomes more complex and difficult to solve as the adventure progresses. Finally he gathers his forces and retires to a small island in the Pacific where he is discovered at long last by roving vessels of several nations and the resulting publicity throws the entire scheme out of whack. The supermen, it seems, to not dare use force to destroy humanity (as they would willingly do) as in the process they believe a subtile disintegration of their high spiritual standards whould result. Threatened on all sides, the intellectuals commit suicide, blowing up their island by atomic power and destroying all trace of themselves and their handiwork. Presumably, amn is left to his fate as Stapledon, through Odd John and his death expresses his belief that the present humanity cannot win through and what we must pass.

This is an odd attitude, typically bourgeois. It permeates Stapledon's works as it permeates the literary works of all the dying bourgeoisie. Without reason, he creates obstacles and places them in overwhelming number in man's upward path. Stapledon

Saving...

Page 14 ----- THE ALCHEMIST ----- of a particularly naive nature, it would seem to me. In the course of the book John attempts to gather together about him all the mutational freaks on earth. He succeeds in doing this and sets out to create a new human race, being convinced that genus homo has about twenty or thirty more years of life and then---finis, destroyed by a misdirected science. But Stapledon throws many obstacles in his path. He is regarded with amusement as an overenthusiastic child by several of his more mature colleagues, he passes through various phases of despair and joyous exhaltation as he establishes contact with the universe, many times he himself doubts the value of his undertaking. Throughout, the supericrity of spiritual experience over material achievement is stressed. To Odd John (odd to his fellow super-intellectuals as well as to man) the problems becomes more complex and difficult to solve as the adventure progresses. Finally he gathers his forces and retires to a small island in the Pacific where he is discovered at long last by roving vessels of several nations and the resulting publicity throws the entire scheme out of whack. The supermen, it seems, to not dare use force to destroy humanity (as they would willingly do) as in the process they believe a subtile disintegration of their high spiritual standards whould result. Threatened on all sides, the intellectuals commit suicide, blowing up their island by atomic power and destroying all trace of themselves and their handiwork. Presumably, amn is left to his fate as Stapledon, through Odd John and his death expresses his belief that the present humanity cannot win through and what we must pass. This is an odd attitude, typically bourgeois. It permeates Stapledon's works as it permeates the literary works of all the dying bourgeoisie. Without reason, he creates obstacles and places them in overwhelming number in man's upward path. Stapledon