Darkness and the Light

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darkness and the Light
Author Olaf Stapledon
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Methuen
Publication date 1942
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBN NA

Darkness and the Light (1942) is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon.

Written in 1941, at the most frightening point of World War II, Stapledon projects two separate futures for humanity, depending not on the outcome of that particular conflict but on the failure or success of a future "Tibetan Renaissance" to influence the temper and ideology of the militaristic empires that threaten it.

[edit] Outline

PART ONE: CRISIS
  1. Man's Two Futures
  2. The Modern Age
  3. Mankind at the Cross Roads
    1. Rise and Fall of a German Reich
    2. North America
    3. Russia and China
    4. The Rise of Tibet
      PART TWO: DARKNESS
  4. The Quenching of the Light
    1. Repercussions in Britain
    2. A Synthetic Faith
    3. The Tibetans Defend Themselves
    4. The Destruction of Tibet
  5. The Reign of Darkness
    1. The Japanese Revolution
    2. A Synthetic War
    3. Diabolic World Empire
  6. The Triumph of the Rats
    1. Economic Decline
    2. Decline of Population
    3. Disintegration of World Empire
    4. Final Degeneracy
    5. The End of Man
      PART THREE: THE LIGHT
  7. The Spark Survives
    1. Harking back to the Tibetan Revolution
    2. War against the Empires
    3. Armed Peace
    4. War Again, and a New Order
  8. Precarious Advance
    1. Difficulties with America
    2. Difficulties with the Bureaucrats
    3. Progress
    4. The Population Problem
    5. Aristocrats and Democrats
  9. New World
    1. A World of Villages
    2. Village Culture
    3. The "Forwards"
  10. Remote Horizons
    1. Peaceful Growth
    2. Behind the Veil
    3. A Phase of Confusion
    4. Preparation for a Great Task
    5. Despair and New Hope
    6. Man Passes On

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Works by Olaf Stapledon
Novels:

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future (1930) · Last Men in London (1932) · Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest (1935) · Star Maker (1937) · Darkness and the Light (1942) · Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord (1944) · Death into Life (1946) · The Flames: A Fantasy (1947) · A Man Divided (1950) · Nebula Maker (drafts of Star Maker, 1976)
Short stories:

"Old Man in New World" (1944) · "Four Encounters" (1976)
Short story collections:

Worlds of Wonder: Three Tales of Fantasy (1949) · To the End of Time: the Best of Olaf Stapledon (ed. Basil Davenport, 1953) · Far Future Calling: Uncollected Science Fiction and Fantasies of Olaf Stapledon (ed. Sam Moskowitz 1979) · An Olaf Stapledon Reader (ed. Robert Crossley, 1997)
Poetry:

Latter-Day Psalms (1914)
Non-fiction:

A Modern Theory of Ethics: A study of the Relations of Ethics and Psychology (1929) · Waking World (1934) · Saints and Revolutionaries (1939) · New Hope for Britain (1939) · Philosophy and Living, 2 volumes (1939) · Beyond the "Isms" (1942) · Seven Pillars of Peace (1944) · Youth and Tomorrow (1946) · The Opening of the Eyes (ed. Agnes Z. Stapledon, 1954)
This article about a 1940s science fiction novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.