Odd John

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Odd John is a 1936 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon which explores the theme of the superman. It tells of the life of John Wainwright, whose superhuman mentality inevitably leads to conflict with normal human society and to the destruction of the utopian colony which John and other supernormal humans found. The supposed destruction is cast into doubt by Stapledon's previous obvious signals that the novel's narrator is very unreliable. An alternative reading would be "They [the novel's super-intelligent characters] just want us to think they are all dead!"

There is a debt to Friedrich Nietzsche evident here - John is, in the eyes of the narrator, not bound by the morality of Homo sapiens. Yet, as a socialist, Stapledon abhorred the misuse of Nietzschean thought in Nazi Germany, as well as the general lack of 'kindliness' that the philosophy seemed to incur. This, coupled with Stapledon's brand of cosmic angst - that the universe may be indifferent to intelligence, no matter how refined - gives the story added depth. Later explorations of the superman theme and the incompatibility of the normal with the supernormal can be found in the works of Stanisław Lem and Frank Herbert, among others.