Last and First Men

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Last and First Men
Author Olaf Stapledon
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction, Novel
Publisher Methuen
Released 1930
Media Type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBN NA

Last and First Men is a science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and most primitive. The story follows a repetitive cycle, with many different civilizations rising from and descending back into savagery, but it is also one of progress, as the later civilizations rise to far greater heights than the first. The book anticipates genetic engineering, and the idea of superminds composed of many telepathically-linked individuals.

A controversial part of the book depicts humans, in the far-off future, escaping the dying Earth and settling on Venus—in the process totally exterminating its native inhabitants, a marine intelligent species. Stapledon's book has been interpreted by some as condoning such interplanetary genocide as a justified act if necessary for racial survival, though a number of Stapledon's partisans denied that such was his intention. Instead, Stapledon was merely showing that although mankind had advanced in a number of ways in the future, at bottom it still possessed the same capacity for savagery as it has always had.

In 1932, Stapledon followed Last and First Men with the far less acclaimed Last Men in London. His other great novel, Star Maker (1937), could also be considered a sequel to Last and First Men, but is even more ambitious in scope, being a history of the entire universe.

Contents

[edit] Human species

  • First Men. (Chapters 1-6) Our own species: the rivalry of America and China, the First World State, its destruction as a result of the waste of resources, followed by the Patagonian Civilisation, with the cult of Youth, and its destruction after the sabotage of a mine which leads to a colossal subterranean nuclear explosion.
  • Second Men. (Chapters 7-9) "Their heads, indeed, were large even for their bodies, and their necks massive. Their hands were huge, but finely moulded... their legs were stouter... their feet had lost their separate toes... blonde hirsute appearance... Their eyes were large, and often jade green, their features firm as carved granite, yet mobile and lucent. ...not till they were fifty did they reach maturity. At about 190 their powers began to fail..."
  • Third Men. (Chapter 10) "Scarcely more than half the stature of their predecessors, these beings were proportionally slight and lithe. Their skin was of a sunny brown, covered with a luminous halo of red-gold hairs... golden eyes... faces were compact as a cat's muzzle, their lips full, but subtle at the corners. Their ears, objects of personal pride and of sexual admiration, were extremely variable both in individuals and in races. ... But the most distinctive feature of the Third Men was their great lean hands, on which were six versatile fingers, six antennae of living steel." Deeply interested in music and in the design of living organisms.
  • Fourth Men. (Chapter 11) Giant brains, built by the Third Men. For a long time they help govern their creators, but eventually come into conflict.
  • Fifth Men. (Chapters 11-12) An artificial human species designed by the brains. "On the average they were more than twice as tall as the First Men, and much taller than the Second Men... the delicate sixth finger had been induced to divide its tip into two Lilliputian fingers and a corresponding thumb. The contours of the limbs were sharply visible, for the body bore no hair, save for a close, thick skull-cap which, in the original stock, was of ruddy brown. The well-marked eyebrows, when drawn down, shaded the sensitive eyes from the sun." When Earth ceases to be habitable, they terraform Venus, but do not cope well after the move.
  • Sixth Men. (Chapter 13) "Sadly reduced in stature and in brain, these abject beings... gained a precarious livelihood by grubbing roots upon the forest-clad islands, trapping the innumerable birds, and catching fish... Not infrequently they devoured, or were devoured by, their seal-like relatives."
  • Seventh Men. Flying humans, "scarcely heavier than the largest of terrestrial flying birds", are created by the Sixth Men.
  • Eighth Men. "These long-headed and substantial folk were designed to be strictly pedestrian, physically and mentally." When Venus becomes uninhabitable, they design the Ninth Men, who will live on Neptune.
  • Ninth Men. (Chapter 14) "Inevitably it was a dwarf type, limited in size by the necessity of resisting an excessive gravitation... too delicately organized to withstand the ferocity of natural forces on Neptune... civilisation crumbled into savagery."
  • Tenth to Seventeenth Men. "Nowhere did the typical human form survive." The Fifteenth and Sixteenth achieve a great civilisation and learn to study past minds.
  • Eighteenth Men. (Chapters 15-16) The most advanced humans of all. "Superficially we seem to be not one species but many."

[edit] Outline

  1. Balkan Europe
    1. The European War and After
    2. The Anglo-French War
    3. Europe after the Anglo-French War
    4. The Russo-German War
  2. Europe's Downfall
    1. Europe and America
    2. The Origins of a Mystery
    3. Europe Murdered
  3. America and China
    1. The Rivals
    2. The Conflict
    3. On an Island in the Pacific
  4. An Americanized Planet
    1. The Foundation of the First World State
    2. The Dominance of Science
    3. Material Advancement
    4. The Culture of the First World State
    5. Downfall
  5. The Fall of the First Men
    1. The First Dark Age
    2. The Rise of Patagonia
    3. The Cult of Youth
    4. The Catastrophe
  6. Transition
    1. The First Men at Bay
    2. The Second Dark Age
  7. The Rise of the Second Men
    1. The Appearance of a New Species
    2. The Intercourse of Three Species
    3. The Zenith of the Second Men
  8. The Martians
    1. The First Martian Invasion
    2. Life on Mars
    3. The Martian Mind
    4. Delusions of the Martians
  9. Earth and Mars
    1. The Second Men at Bay
    2. The Ruin of Two Worlds
    3. The Third Dark Age
  10. The Third Men in the Wilderness
    1. The Third Human Species
    2. Digressions of the Third Men
    3. The Vital Art
    4. Conflicting Policies
  11. Man Remakes Himself
    1. The First of the Great Brains
    2. The Tragedy of the Fourth Men
    3. The Fifth Men
    4. The Culture of the Fifth Men
  12. The Last Terrestrials
    1. The Cult of Evanescence
    2. Exploration of Time
    3. Voyaging in Space
    4. Preparing a New World
  13. Humanity on Venus
    1. Taking Root Again
    2. The Flying Men
    3. A Minor Astronomical Event
  14. Neptune
    1. Bird's Eye View
    2. Da Capo
    3. Slow Conquest
  15. The Last Men
    1. Introduction to the Last Human Species
    2. Childhood and Maturity
    3. A Racial Awakening
    4. Cosmology
  16. The Last of Man
    1. Sentence of Death
    2. Behaviour of the Condemned
    3. Epilogue

[edit] Appearances in other media

The novel appears in the computer game Deus Ex as a reference when a corporation in the game allegedly tries to develop the Second Men in the series, but also in a much broader aspect as the game deals with genetic engineering, the next phase of evolution and human augmentations.

Also similar to the book are the options presented to the player as to where human kind will go next: a fall back into an almost savage state of humanity, or extreme progression with the danger of sacrificing basic rights.

[edit] External links

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