History Creator / OlafStapledon

His first novel, ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' (1930), is a broad study of the future history of mankind, and its descendants, covering millennia in its few pages. Its sequel, ''Literature/StarMaker'', covered all of time and space. His most popular novel, ''Literature/OddJohn'' was one of the first serious studies of what it means to be more than human.

Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and academic who wrote a number of extremely influential ScienceFiction novels in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and academic who wrote a number of extremely influential ScienceFiction novels in the early part of the Twentieth Century. At a time when most SF was mainly focused on simple action and adventure, Stapledon wrote broad stories examining philosophical ideas based on the revolutions in science that were happening at the time. Although they were drenched in philosophy, they were written for a general audience, and were popular enough for him to become a full-time writer.

His first novel, ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' (1930) is a broad study of the future history of mankind, and its descendants, covering millennia in its few pages. Its sequel, ''Literature/StarMaker'', covered all of time and space. His most popular novel, ''Literature/OddJohn'' was one of the first serious studies of what it means to be more than human.

* OddJohn

* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: The use of the name ''Homo Superior'' goes back at least to the 1935 novel ''Odd John" by Olaf Stapledon. It's been used everywhere from pulp sci-fi to MarvelComics to Series/TheTomorrowPeople to refer to superhumans as the "[[EvolutionaryLevels next stage of evolution]]".
* EvolutionaryLevels: In ''Odd John'': The titular character is one of a new species of supermen who happen to be born here and there around the world at roughly the same time. This story is apparently the origin of the term "Homo Superior" for such beings.

* MightyWhitey: ''Odd John'' both subverts and plays this straight. Roughly half of the super-intelligent mutants are of East Asian descent and there seems to be no racial discrimination between them. However, the protagonist and de facto leader is still a white man of mixed European ancestry. Though it's made clear that there are several members of the mutant species/ race with powers and intelligence far in advance of Odd John, including a Tibetan and an Arab, and most of them think of John's venture as another [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Crusade Children's Crusade.]]
* ParentalIncest: It's implied that the title character of ''Odd John'' sleeps with his mother.
* PubertySuperPower: Averted in ''Odd John'', where the title character had special abilities from birth. However, those abilities also came with a cost (including much slower childhood development and physical frailties).
* {{Ubermensch}}" ''Odd John,'' the superhuman mutant from the Olaf Stapledon novel of that name.

* ''Odd John''

* BrainyBaby: [[{{Ubermensch}} John Wainwright]] of ''Odd John'' by Olaf Stapledon is a serious version.

* Xenofiction: ''Sirius'' was one of the first works to try to combine this with UpliftedAnimal, and try to get inside the head of a dog that had been given human-like intelligence.

* {{Ubermensch}}" ''Odd John,'' the superhuman mutant from the Olaf Stapledon novel of that name.

Stapledon is credited with inventing the DysonSphere (Freeman Dyson admits he got the idea from Stapledon, and thought it should have been called a "Stapledon Sphere"). He was also one of the first writers to introduce the concept of "Terraforming" (although Creator/JackWilliamson seems to have independently invented the concept at about the same time). His work has been cited as a major influence by many later SF writers, including Creator/ArthurCClarke, Creator/StanislawLem, and Creator/CSLewis.

Stapledon is credited with inventing the DysonSphere (Freeman Dyson admits he got the idea from Stapledon, and thought it should have been called a "Stapledon Sphere"). He was also one of the first writers to introduce the concept of "Terraforming" (although Creator/JackWilliamson seems to have independently invented the concept at about the same name). His work has been cited as a major influence by many later SF writers, including Creator/ArthurCClarke, Creator/StanislawLem, and Creator/CSLewis.