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Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels

In 'Last and First Men', the narrative follows the evolution of humanity over billions of years, culminating in a grand, cosmic journey. 'Star Maker' delves into the creation of artificial life and the pursuit of knowledge beyond the confines of Earth. more

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Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon

Olaf Stapledon, born on May 10, 1886, in Scotland, and died on September 6, 1950, was a philosopher and writer. His works encompassed cosmic philosophy, life philosophy, and socialist ideas, which had a profound impact on later generations. more

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“[S]ervants of darkness had no lasting joy in their service. In all of them the will for darkness was a perversion of the will for the light. In all but a few maniacs the satisfaction of the will for darkness was at all times countered by a revulsion which the unhappy spirit either dared not confess even to itself, or else rejected as cowardly and evil.”

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Book:Darkness and the light
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“[T]he individual in whom the will for the light is strong and clear finds his heart inextricably bound up with the struggle of the forces of light in his native place and time. Much as he may long for the opportunity of fuller self- expression in a happier world, he knows that for him self-expression is impossible save in the world in which his mind is rooted. The individual in whom the will for the light is weak soon persuades himself that his opportunity lies elsewhere.”

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Book:Darkness and the light
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“It seemed to me that I now saw the Star Maker in two aspects: as the spirit's particular creative mood that had given rise to me, the cosmos; and also, most dreadfully, as something incomparably greater than creativity, namely as the eternally achieved perfection of the absolute spirit. Barren, barren and trivial are these words. But not barren the experience.”

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Author:Olaf Stapledon
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“In that instant when I had seen... the Star Maker, I had glimpsed, in the very eye of that splendor, strange vistas of being; as though in the depths of the hypercosmical past and the hypercosmical future also, yet coexistent in eternity, lay cosmos beyond cosmos.”

EyePastStarsStrangeEternityLaysDepthInstantCosmosMakersSplendorVistas
Book:Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels
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