Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📗
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sun-like star; and looking outwards from this center, I caught sight of
a little point of light, moving, with my movement, against the patterned
sky.4 As I leapt toward it, I saw another, and another. Here was indeed
a planetary system much like my own. So obsessed was I with human
standards that I sought out at once the most earthlike of these worlds.
And amazinsly earthlike it appeared, as its disc swelled before me, or
below me. Its atmosphere was evidently less dense than ours, for the
outlines of unfamiliar continents and oceans were very plainly visible.
As on the earth, the dark sea brilliantly reflected the sun’s image.
White cloudtracts lay here and there over the seas and the lands,
which, as on my own planet, were mottled green and brown. But even from
this height I saw that the greens were more vivid and far more blue than
terrestrial vegetation. I noted, also, that on this planet there was
less ocean than land, and that the centers of the great continents were
chiefly occupied by dazzling creamy-white deserts.
THE OTHER EARTH
1. ON THE OTHER EARTH
AS I slowly descended toward the surface of the little planet, I found
myself searching for a land which promised to be like England. But no
sooner did I realize what I was doing than I reminded myself that
conditions here would be entirely different from terrestrial conditions,
and that it was very unlikely that I should find intelligent beings at
all. If such beings existed, they would probably be quite
incomprehensible to me. Perhaps they would be huge spiders or creeping
jellies. How could I hope ever to make contact with such monsters?
After circling about at random for some time over the filmy clouds and
the forests, over the dappled plains and prairies and the dazzling
stretches of desert, I selected a maritime country in the temperate
zone, a brilliantly green peninsula. When I had descended almost to the
ground, I was amazed at the verdure of the country-side. Here
unmistakably was vegetation, similar to ours in essential character, but
quite unfamiliar in detail. The fat, or even bulbous, leaves reminded me
of our desert-flora, but here the stems were lean and wiry. Perhaps the
most striking character of this vegetation was its color, which was a
vivid blue-green, like the color of vineyards that have been treated
with copper salts. I was to discover later that the plants of this world
had indeed learnt to protect themselves by means of copper sulphate from
the microbes and the insect-like pests which formerly devastated this
rather dry planet.
I skimmed over a brilliant prairie scattered with Prussian blue bushes.
The sky also attained a depth of blue quite unknown on earth, save at
great altitudes. There were a few low yet cirrus clouds, whose feathery
character I took to be due to the tenuousness of the atmosphere. This
was borne out by the fact that, though my descent had taken place in the
forenoon of a summer’s day, several stars managed to pierce the almost
nocturnal sky. All exposed surfaces were very intensely illuminated. The
shadows of the nearer bushes were nearly black. Some distant objects,
rather like buildings, but probably mere rocks, appeared to be blocked
out in ebony and snow. Altogether the landscape was one of unearthly and
fantastical beauty.
I glided with wingless flight over the surface of the planet, through
glades, across tracts of fractured rock, along the banks of streams.
Presently I came to a wide region covered by neat, parallel rows of
fern-like plants, bearing masses of nuts on the lower surfaces of their
leaves. It was almost impossible to believe that this vegetable
regimentation had not been intelligently planned. Or could it after all
be merely a natural phenomenon not known on my own planet? Such was my
surprise that my power of locomotion, always subject to emotional
interference, now began to fail me. I reeled in the air like a drunk
man. Pulling myself together, I staggered on over the ranked crops
toward a rather large object which lay some distance from me beside a
strip of bare ground. Presently, to my amazement, my stupefaction, this
object revealed itself as a plow. It was rather a queer instrument, but
there was no mistaking the shape of the blade, which was rusty, and
obviously made of iron. There were two iron handles, and chains for
attachment to a beast of burden. It was difficult to believe that I was
many light-years distant from England. Looking round, I saw an
unmistakable cart track, and a bit of dirty ragged cloth hanging on a
bush. Yet overhead was the unearthly sky, full noon with stars.
I followed the lane through a little wood of queer bushes, whose large
fat drooping leaves had cherry-like fruits along their edges. Suddenly,
round a bend in the lane, I came upon a man. Or so at first he seemed to
my astounded and star-weary sight. I should not have been so surprised
by the strangely human character of this creature had I at this early
stage understood the forces that controlled my adventure. Influences
which I shall later describe doomed me to discover first such worlds as
were most akin to my own. Meanwhile the reader may well conceive my
amazement at this strange encounter. I had always supposed that man was
a unique being. An inconceivably complex conjunction of circumstances
had produced him, and it was not to be supposed that such conditions
would be repeated anywhere in the universe. Yet here, on the very first
globe to be explored, was an obvious peasant. Approaching him, I saw
that he was not quite so like terrestrial man as he seemed at a
distance; but he was a man for all that. Had God, then, peopled the
whole universe with our kind? Did he perhaps in very truth make us in
his image? It was incredible. To ask such questions proved that I had
lost my mental balance.
As I was a mere disembodied viewpoint, I was able to observe without
being observed. I floated about him as he strode along the lane. He was
an erect biped and in general plan definitely human. I had no means of
judging his height, but he must have been approximately of normal
terrestrial stature, or at least not smaller than a pigmy and not taller
than a giant. He was of slender build. His legs were almost like a
bird’s, and enclosed in rough narrow trousers. Above the waist he was
naked, displaying a disproportionately large thorax, shaggy with
greenish hair. He had two short but powerful arms, and huge shoulder
muscles. His skin was dark and ruddy, and dusted plentifully with bright
green down. All his contours were uncouth, for the details of muscles,
sinews and joints were very plainly different from our own. His neck was
curiously long and supple. His head I can best describe by saying that
most of the brain-pan, covered with a green thatch, seemed to have
slipped backwards and downwards over the nape. His two very human eyes
peered from under the eaves of hair. An oddly projecting, almost
spout-like mouth made him look as though he were whistling. Between the
eyes, and rather above them, was a pair of great equine nostrils which
were constantly in motion. The bridge of the nose was represented by an
elevation in the thatch, reaching from the nostrils backwards over the
top of the head. There were no visible ears. I discovered later that the
auditory organs opened into the nostrils.
Clearly, although evolution on this Earthlike planet must have taken a
course on the whole surprisingly like that which had produced my own
kind, there must also have been many divergencies.
The stranger wore not only boots but gloves, seemingly ol tough leather.
His boots were extremely short. I was to discover later that the feet of
this race, the “Other Men,” as I called them, were rather like the feet
of an ostrich or a camel. The instep consisted of three great toes grown
together. In place of the heel there was an additional broad, stumpy
toe. The hands were without palms. Each was a bunch of three gristly
fingers and a thumb.
The aim of this book is not to tell of ray own adventures but to give
some idea of the worlds which I visited. I shall therefore not recount
in detail how I established myself among the Other Men. Of myself it is
enough to say a few words. When I had studied this agriculturalist for a
while, I began to be strangely oppressed by his complete unawareness, of
myself. With painful clearness I realized that the purpose of my
pilgrimage was not merely scientific observation, but also the need to
effect some kind of mental and spiritual traffic with other worlds, for
mutual enrichment and community. How should I ever be able to achieve
this end unless I could find some means of communication? It was not
until I had followed my companion to his home, and had spent many days
in that little circular stone house with roof of mudded wicker, that I
discovered the power of entering into his mind, of seeing through his
eyes, sensing through all his sense organs, perceiving his world just as
he perceived it, and following much of his thought and his emotional
life. Not till very much later, when I had passively “inhabited” many
individuals of the race, did I discover how to make my presence known,
and even to converse inwardly with my host.
This kind of internal “telepathic” intercourse, which was to serve me in
all my wanderings, was at first difficult, ineffective, and painful. But
in time I came to be able to live through the experiences of my host
with vividness and accuracy, while yet preserving my own individuality,
my own critical intelligence, my own desires and fears. Only when the
other had come to realize my presence within him could he, by a special
act of volition, keep particular thoughts secret from me.
It can well be understood that at first I found these alien minds quite
unintelligible. Their very sensations differed from my familiar
sensations in important respects. Their thoughts and all their emotions
and sentiments were strange to me. The traditional groundwork of these
minds, their most familiar concepts, were derived from a strange
history, and expressed in languages which to the terrestrial mind were
subtly misleading.
I spent on the Other Earth many “other years,” wandering from mind to
mind and country to country, but I did not gain any clear understanding
of the psychology of the Other Men and the significance of their history
till I had encountered one of their philosophers, an aging but still
vigorous man whose eccentric and unpalatable views had prevented him
from attaining eminence. Most of my hosts, when they became aware of ‘my
presence within them, regarded me either as an evil spirit or as a
divine messenger. The more sophisticated, however, assumed that I was a
mere disease, a symptom of insanity in themselves. They therefore
promptly applied to the local “Mental Sanitation Officer.” After I had
spent, according to the local calendar, a year or so of bitter
loneliness among minds who refused to treat me as a human being, I had
the good fortune to come under the philosopher’s notice. One of my
hosts, who complained of suffering from “voices,” and visions of
“another world,” appealed to the old man for help. Bvalltu, for such
approximately was the philosopher’s name, the “11” being pronounced more
or less as in Welsh, Bvalltu effected a “cure” by merely inviting me to
accept the hospitality of his own mind, where, he said,
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