Stapledon, Philosophy, and Astroengineering Megastructures

[J-Sun]

Centauri Dreams has to be my favorite blog at this point. For today's fun, they have a sort of extended synopsis of a conference: Star Maker: The Philosophy of Olaf Stapledon. In all honesty, this particular item is too long to be a good simple synopsis, but too short for doing justice to its content. Still, I found parts of it interesting, despite only having probably read one Stapledon book long, long, long ago and not even really liking it, IIRC (I have some books lined up to see about correcting this). The part I found most interesting, even if tangential, was on a variety of "megastructures" in the "Technology and Paradox" section which led to another of those wonderful, though time-draining, Wikipedia fugues. So I thought I'd pass it on.

 

[D_Davis]

Wow - thanks for that link. Looking forward to reading that article.

 

[merritt]

Nice Olaf info!
I am a big fan, I have a copy of a rare printing of Starmaker.

Here is some advice from someone who has read all his stuff over the years.

Starmaker is the masterpiece? I kind of agree, but Sirius is more accessable and may be his best work. Most touching for sure.

Suggested Read Order: Odd John and Sirius first, then tackle Starmaker.

I used to say skip entirely Last & First Men, But I am due to re-read that.
Who knows? I find me and my opinions can still change. :0)