Olaf Stapledon

Odd John Olaf Stapledon

John Wainwright is a freak - a human mutation with an extraordinary intelligence which is both awesome and frightening to all who come into contact with him. Ordinary humans were just playthings to John - subjects for an endless chain of experiments. Their feelings, and sometimes even their lives, are expendable. John is extremely intelligent even if he is stunted in his physical development. Like Stapledon himself, he believes in communist ideas but is critical of mainstream Marxism. He is also quite vain and highly skillful in the arts of seduction. From a human viewpoint, he can be considered amoral or perhaps to be following a morality beyond human understanding.