"Olaf Stapledon - Starmaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stapledon Olaf)

You may read Stapledon's work for his mysticism; for the social sym-bolism and commentary on man im-plicit in his studies of
other beings; for the bubbling ingenuity of his ideas; for the depth of his tragic sense; for the splendor of his epic sweep. But from
whatever motive, read him."
тАФH. H. Homes, N. Y. Herald Tribune



The Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
A BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOK
COPYRIGHT ┬й 1953 BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY



PREFACE
AT a moment when Europe is in danger of a catastrophe worse than that of 1914 a book like this may be condemned
as a distraction from the desperately urgent defence of civ-ilization against modern barbarism.
Year by year, month by month, the plight of our frag-mentary and precarious civilization becomes more serious.
Fascism abroad grows more bold and ruthless in its foreign ventures, more tyrannical toward its own citizens, more
bar-barian in its contempt for the life of the mind. Even in our own country we have reason to fear a tendency toward
mili-tarization and the curtailment of civil liberty. Moreover, while the decades pass, no resolute step is taken to
alleviate the injustice of our social order. Our outworn economic system dooms millions to frustration.
In these conditions it is difficult for writers to pursue their calling at once with courage and with balanced judgment.
Some merely shrug their shoulders and withdraw from the central struggle of our age. These, with their minds closed
against the world's most vital issues, inevitably produce works which not only have no depth of significance for their
contemporaries but also are subtly insincere. For these writers must consciously or unconsciously contrive to
persuade them-selves either that the crisis in human affairs does not exist, or that it is less important than their own
work, or that it is anyhow not their business. But the crisis does exist, is of supreme importance, and concerns us all.
Can anyone who is at all intelligent and informed hold the contrary without self-deception?
Yet I have a lively sympathy with some of those "intellec-tuals" who declare that they have no useful contribution
to make to the struggle, and therefore had better not dabble in it. I am, in fact, one of them. In our defense I should say
that, though we are inactive or ineffective as direct support-ers of the cause, we do not ignore it. Indeed, it constantly,
obsessively, holds our attention. But we are convinced by pro-longed trial and error that the most useful service open
to us is indirect. For some writers the case is different. Gallantly plunging into the struggle, they use their powers to
spread

v (Note: numeration of pages has been maintained according to the original copy of the book in BERKLEY MEDALLION edition;
page numbers indicate the bottom part of the page)

urgent propaganda, or they even take up arms in the cause. If they have suitable ability, and if the particular struggle
in which they serve is in fact a part of the great enterprise of defending (or creating) civilization, they may, of course,
do valuable work. In addition they may gain great wealth of ex-perience and human sympathy, thereby immensely
increasing their literary power. But the very urgency of their service may tend to blind them to the importance of
maintaining and extending, even in this age of crisis, what may be called metaphorically the "self-critical
self-consciousness of the hu-man species," or the attempt to see man's life as a whole in relation to the rest of things.
This involves the will to regard all human affairs and ideals and theories with as little human prejudice as possible.
Those who are in the thick of the struggle inevitably tend to become, though in a great and just cause, partisan. They
nobly forgo something of that detachment, that power of cold assessment, which is, after all, among the most valuable
human capacities. In their case this is perhaps as it should be; for a desperate struggle demands less of detachment
than of devotion. But some who have the cause at heart must serve by striving to maintain, along with human loyalty,