The
mission statement of this blog is an Olaf Stapledon quote, pre-WWII. The writing on the wall as far as he was
concerned, Stapledon challenged writers and artists regarding the purposes and
intent of their creations. Europe facing another major conflict, he felt authors
should use the power of their voices to speak out against warfare, and
injustice in general. The war came and
went, leaving in its wake a great deal of doubt whether the civilization
humanity had supposedly created was just an illusion, or indeed a shattered
vase. A Stapledonian shot in the arm
needed to refocus humanity’s collective spirit in the aftermath, Arthur C.
Clarke provided one in 1953 with his first novel, Childhood’s End.
Humanity
on certain path to nuclear self-destruction, Childhood’s End opens with an alien group, dubbed the Overlords by
Earthlings, arriving in space ships and parking themselves above the world’s
major cities. Never revealing themselves,
they rule passively via technology and other means from their massive, floating
ships, and in the process prevent mankind from further damaging itself. The eventual result a utopia on Earth,
humanity’s journey toward self-actualization in the universe is, however, only
just beginning.
