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Agenbite of Inwit, whole no. 4, Spring 1944
Page 5
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*********************************************************** Agenbite of Inwit -- Spring, 1944 -- Page Five *********************************************************** statement. We don't know all there is to know about either the brain or the chromosomes. Perhaps the facility with which Joe Blow played the organ after a lifetime of study and constant application can be transmitted -- if not to son Roe, perhaps to grandson Hoe. Same with Joe's brother who's a mechanical wizard, Joe's uncle, who is a shrewd lawter and an expert in sizing up people and knowing how to get from them the reactions he wants. Double or triple doses of genius -- magic facility in not one but several types of endeavor. Sure, why not -- if it is a case of inhericance. There are cases on record of persons who showed remarkable aptitudes along several quite different lines. Leonardo Da Vinci is a classic example. Going along on this hypothesis, then the possibility exists of the all-around genius, a genuine superman -- or woman. This interesting person, the total genius, has never been used in science fiction, to my knowledge. All of our supermen had definite limitations -- that is, a number of points in which they were not at all superior to the ordinary homo sap, who has genius in but one aspect, if at all. John Hall died of psychological trauma, and a super--ego, which large numbers of ordinary people mature out of; Odd John, too, was a victim of inhibitions; Jommy Cross was a mutant, not homo sapiens, so that rules him our. The only one who might possibly qualify is John Miller. You see, our total genius would have superior adaptability, which includes understanding and getting along with people in the kind of world we actually live in -- not some super-soul's dream of how things and people ought to be! It further includes superior nerves and nerve control, superior memory and co-ordination of information, etc. The genuine superman would have no desire to conquer the world, in the pulp sense, because such desires are the unhealthy, frustrated aspirations of the ordinary person -- when in a given psychological spot. The real superman would grasp quickly and easily what only a limited number of orinary people venetually realise: that it isn't what you get out of life that counts: it's what you put into it. That, and that alone has been the sum essence of every great religious and moral teacher the world has ever known. This, superman would not compete; he would cooperate/ I don't think he's waste time looking for superwoman; he'd realize the odds against him, and make the best of things as they were. Even he he found superwoman, it would still take some generations for them to have effect. But, unless the carriers were destroyed, one superman could eventually produce a sizeable number of 2, 3, 4, 5, perhaps 6-trait geniuses. So far as superman being destroyed by his fellows (ordinary humans) go -- I doubt it. Our superman would not only know better than let his fellow humans know what he was, but he'd know hot to keep them from finding out -- but without violence. That is, as a policy; if superman had to kill in self-defence, no one would ever suspect murder. And superman wouldn't hesitate; while not being possessed of a psychopathic super-ego, he would still recognize his own worth. But lets go back from fantasy to fact; the genius, as we know him. As with everyone else, he is the product of his enviroment; bring him up in a healthy surrounding, where his special talents are neither frustrated not made the basis of arrogance, and he should have no trouble in getting along with people, in general. Almost evry human being consider himself or herself superior to someone -- in either a kindly
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*********************************************************** Agenbite of Inwit -- Spring, 1944 -- Page Five *********************************************************** statement. We don't know all there is to know about either the brain or the chromosomes. Perhaps the facility with which Joe Blow played the organ after a lifetime of study and constant application can be transmitted -- if not to son Roe, perhaps to grandson Hoe. Same with Joe's brother who's a mechanical wizard, Joe's uncle, who is a shrewd lawter and an expert in sizing up people and knowing how to get from them the reactions he wants. Double or triple doses of genius -- magic facility in not one but several types of endeavor. Sure, why not -- if it is a case of inhericance. There are cases on record of persons who showed remarkable aptitudes along several quite different lines. Leonardo Da Vinci is a classic example. Going along on this hypothesis, then the possibility exists of the all-around genius, a genuine superman -- or woman. This interesting person, the total genius, has never been used in science fiction, to my knowledge. All of our supermen had definite limitations -- that is, a number of points in which they were not at all superior to the ordinary homo sap, who has genius in but one aspect, if at all. John Hall died of psychological trauma, and a super--ego, which large numbers of ordinary people mature out of; Odd John, too, was a victim of inhibitions; Jommy Cross was a mutant, not homo sapiens, so that rules him our. The only one who might possibly qualify is John Miller. You see, our total genius would have superior adaptability, which includes understanding and getting along with people in the kind of world we actually live in -- not some super-soul's dream of how things and people ought to be! It further includes superior nerves and nerve control, superior memory and co-ordination of information, etc. The genuine superman would have no desire to conquer the world, in the pulp sense, because such desires are the unhealthy, frustrated aspirations of the ordinary person -- when in a given psychological spot. The real superman would grasp quickly and easily what only a limited number of orinary people venetually realise: that it isn't what you get out of life that counts: it's what you put into it. That, and that alone has been the sum essence of every great religious and moral teacher the world has ever known. This, superman would not compete; he would cooperate/ I don't think he's waste time looking for superwoman; he'd realize the odds against him, and make the best of things as they were. Even he he found superwoman, it would still take some generations for them to have effect. But, unless the carriers were destroyed, one superman could eventually produce a sizeable number of 2, 3, 4, 5, perhaps 6-trait geniuses. So far as superman being destroyed by his fellows (ordinary humans) go -- I doubt it. Our superman would not only know better than let his fellow humans know what he was, but he'd know hot to keep them from finding out -- but without violence. That is, as a policy; if superman had to kill in self-defence, no one would ever suspect murder. And superman wouldn't hesitate; while not being possessed of a psychopathic super-ego, he would still recognize his own worth. But lets go back from fantasy to fact; the genius, as we know him. As with everyone else, he is the product of his enviroment; bring him up in a healthy surrounding, where his special talents are neither frustrated not made the basis of arrogance, and he should have no trouble in getting along with people, in general. Almost evry human being consider himself or herself superior to someone -- in either a kindly
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