Darkness and the Light

by Olaf Stapledon

An extraordinarily perceptive analysis of two possible future paths of humanity.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Excerpted from wikipedia:
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.

Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up specifically for the retro-Hugo read for this year.

I had no idea what I was setting myself up for, never having read Olaf Stapledon but having heard of him.

At first, I began complaining about the utter lack of even a basic storytelling premise that included things like actual CHARACTERS, but soon I fell into the writing because Stapledon's world-building chops are pretty amazing.

Imagine picking up The Silmarillion for your first taste of JRRT. Practically all of it is distant exposition and broad sweeps of history. The entire Lord of the Rings takes about 30 pages and it's only a footnote.

Now make a future history and write it like old-school utopian novels and less like SF, showing us the Darkness which is the end of humanity in a vast dystopia across a vast stretch of years, and then switching tracks again and showing us the Light which is an outright Utopia.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I'm reading Hobbs and Moore with a decidedly SF bent and focus on the rise or fall of Tibet, world-government or world empires. One ends with us being enlightened and the other ends with us being eaten by rats.

The amount of thought and exploration in this novel is frankly mind-blowing. It throws everything at us but carefully neglects any kind of traditional storytelling or characters.

Correction. The whole book is framed from a far distant future historian pouring over the past through multiple timelines and seeing all the "what could have been"s. But that's just it.

This novel might as well be an academic tome. :)

I like that kind of thing, mind you. It's rich as hell and if you don't mind anything BUT exposition, it's extremely rewarding. Jaw-dropping, even. Stapledon predicts the future in an absolutely grand style and doesn't pretend he'll get everything right. He just runs with it.

I want to say KUDOS for his courage and worldbuilding and OMG this should have been turned into a series of 15 traditional SF novels with an interweaving theme. Hell, when I was first reading it, I kept saying to myself... this is no more than 2-star novel. As he continued to build his tower of Babel and his Utopia, however, I had to readjust my thinking completely:

This is NOT an SF. This is an old-school Utopia/Dystopia. :)

That being said, so far it's my favorite contender for this year's Retro Hugo award. (Every year the Hugos award a Best Novel for another year before the Hugos even began. I love the love expressed here. Some rare books of SF should NEVER be forgotten.)

[Danny Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stapledon rarely disappoints, which is a way of saying that if you like him, you'll like him. At turns frighteningly prescient and laughably naive, Darkness & the Light has all the essential Stapledon elements: the understanding of circumstance's role in history, the presentation of eugenics as a moral imperative, the unerring belief in a national "spirit" more stable than geology, and the sense that all types of human beings are good and bad in fairly even mixtures. Always a delight to read, though I doubt there's many that agree with me.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prior to this work, one could consider all of Stapledon’s prior works to be the same vision of the future. “Darkness and the Light” doesn’t fit as easily with his other works, largely because Stapledon’s predictions in “Last and First Men” were already far off the mark. However, predictions are not the main purpose of Stapledon’s works, and if one sets aside that aspect, this could be viewed as a more detailed look at the First Men. That being said, the decision on whether or not to fit this book in with his previous works is one which is left to the reader, as this book can easily stand on its own as far as its content is concerned. Written in the darkest days of World War II, this book focuses on the concept of the Darkness and the Light, and a decision point in the future of which path the human race will take resulting from a Tibetan Renaissance which will take place. If it is successful, humanity moves towards the Light, but if it fails then humanity heads towards Darkness.

The book is divided into three sections. The first is titled “Crisis” and deals with the history (or future as it actually is) leading up to the Tibetan crossroads. This section covers the rise and fall of several world powers, culminating in one power led by Russia, and the other led by China. Between the two comes the rise of tiny Tibet with its Renaissance and its movement towards the Light, its presence causes a massive impact on both of the large empires which now must deal with this new threat to their corrupt way of life.

Section two is titled “Darkness” and it deals with the future history which occurs if the Tibet Renaissance fails. Stapledon details the creation of a world empire, followed by the total collapse of civilization through its various phases. He continues on to the end of Man which results from the world taking this particular path. This is a bleak future, one without hope and it results in the extinction of man and ultimately the destruction of Earth. This future is much shorter for Man than the future which results from the other path. There is a brief period in which a single world government is created, but it is only able to last a relatively short period before the collapse.

The third and final section is “The Light”. In this section Stapledon details the future history if the Tibet Renaissance succeeds. Unlike the “Darkness” future which holds out little positive, the success of the Tibet Renaissance does not result in a future which is completely “Light”. The survival of Tibet still leaves the two other empires in place, and there ensues a long struggle before the world unites, and even then there is a period where regional demands force difficult compromises upon the rest of the world. There are additional challenges even when the world appears to unite, as discoveries about the nature of the universe reveal.

There is no section to sum up these two futures; they are merely presented as two paths which humanity might take, and only humanity can decide which one it will take. Taken literally that decision is also a long way in the future, but one can and should think about this work and the period in which it was written. There are clear parallels to the situation faced by Stapledon’s England at the time this was written. This aspect of the book is significant, and I think it is often lost on readers today. Even when factoring that aspect in, this book falls short of Stapledon’s “Last Men in London” and “Star Maker” which have a similar style of narrative, but it does make the reading of this work more interesting and less like a reworking of the first part of “Last and First Men”.

[Qualia Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanna realize that this guy knew what would be happening in 2017 in the 1920's?

Olaf's ability to accurately predict the paths humanity can take is amazing when you understand its not psychic ability, its sociological, philosophic, and psychological prediction.

This book kind of shook me with how it describes the two paths in front of us.

[Morgan Dhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olaf Stapledon is not, I think, particularly well-known these days, nor is his fiction often read. Most science fiction fans have likely heard his name mentioned as one of the early lights in the genre, but don’t go much further. Stapledon was a philosopher as well as an author of fiction, and much if his fiction is engaged in working out scenarios that illustrate some of the ‘great questions’ that philosophy seeks to explore.

Darkness and the Light is for the most part an exploration of an idea that goes back at least as far as Plato’s Republic, if not further - the question of what are the characteristics of the best society for humans to live in. Stapledon was inclined toward socialism as a basis for a good society, though he did not consider himself a Marxist, and was no supporter of the imperialist and militarist formulations of totalitarian socialism that emerged in China and Russia.

In Darkness and the Light, Stapleton imagines two separate futures for humanity, either of which could happen, depending on the choices we make as a global society. One path leads to tyranny, the other to a functional socialist utopia. He begins with a ‘future history’ describing the path of world politics up to a crisis point, at which tine these futures diverge. He calls this the time of balance, in which things could go either way - a concept reminiscent of the principle behind Isaac Asimov’s ‘historical necessity’ as demonstrated in the Foundation series, whose first chapters were also published in 1942.

In Stapledon’s time of balance, Russia has conquered the majority of the planet, with China the only major power free of its domination, controlling Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. The only country which has maintained independence from both powers is Tibet. It is in the success or failure of a political and social renaissance in Tibet that Stapledon locates his ‘crisis point,’ the point in human history where the future splits into two possibilities which he labels the darkness and the light.

“... the relations of the new Tibet with its two mighty neighbours constituted the occasion on which the great duplication became unmistakable and irrevocable. Henceforth my experience was dual. On the one hand I witnessed the failure of the Tibetan renaissance, and the destruction of the Tibetan people. This was followed by the final Russo–Chinese war which unified the human race but also undermined its capacity. On the other hand I saw the Tibetans create, seemingly in the very jaws of destruction, a community such as man had never before achieved. And this community, I saw, so fortified the forces of the light in the rival empires that the war developed into a revolutionary war which spread over the whole planet, and did not end until the will for the light had gained victory everywhere.”

Stapledon outlines the path toward darkness first. In this future, Chinese psychologists counter the spread of ideas from the Tibetan renaissance by creating a new religion based on acquiescence to the state and the purification of humanity though suffering and cruelty. Both Russia and China wage war against Tibet, which cannot withstand the assault and ultimately capitulates. The country and its people are destroyed. The two superpowers then agree to engage in a limited but long-term war intended to keep their respective peoples engaged and committed. However, over time China, where the doctrine of cruelty has taken precedence over the virtue of subservience - the reverse being true in Russia - slowly gains ground until China emerges as the victor and world ruler. Holding power through fear and sophisticated mind control, and glorifying torture and cruelty, the Chinese Empire slowly declines as its population decreases, natural resources are exhausted, scientific progress fails, the economy falters. Eventually the empire fractures, and humanity slips into a dark age if barbarism from which no escape is possible due to the slow degradation of human beings themselves into a species of limited intelligence and motivation. The end of man comes when a change in the behaviour of rats, making then more aggressive, brings about food shortages and ever increasing numbers of deaths from rat attacks. Thus ends the future of darkness.

Stapledon’s narrator then turns toward the future of the light. In this future, the confidence of those influenced by the Tibetan renaissance gives them courage in the face of persecution and allows them to ridicule and ultimately defeat the religion of cruelty and submission promulgated by the Chinese. The core of the Tibetan renaissance - part philosophy, part faith - which takes hold in the other nations of the world is simple:

“Love, they said, and wisdom are right absolutely. True community of mutually respecting individuals, and also fearless free intelligence and imagination, are right absolutely. And we all knew it. There is one intrinsic good, they said, and one only, the awakened life, the life of love and wisdom.”

Russia wages war against Tibet, but is hampered by numerous rebellions throughout its territories, and by corruption and inefficiency within the war effort itself. Over time the Russian empire disintegrates; many of its territories are seized by China, while a few gain independence and ally with Tibet in the Mountain Federation. Tibet has a more difficult time defending itself against China, but eventually manages, at great cost, to effect a state of truce. During this period, the influence of the Tibetan philosophy continues to spread, quietly eroding the control of the Chinese imperialists over their people. When war came again, despite some serious setbacks, the Federation holds out long enough for the Empire to begin to collapse from within. Much of the world falls into civil and interstate wars and confusion, but over time more and more nations decide to adopt Tibet’s principles and join the Federation. The Light prevails.

Stapledon has his narrator ‘quote’ from the preamble to the new global federation’s constitution:

“We acknowledge that the high goal of all the lives of men is to awaken themselves and one another to love and wisdom and creative power, in service of the spirit. Of the universe we know very little; but in our hearts we know certainly that for all beings of human stature this is the way of life. In service of the spirit, therefore, we the human inhabitants of this planet, unite in a new order, in which every human being, no matter how lowly his nature, shall be treated with respect as a vessel of the spirit, shall be given every possible aid from infancy onwards to express whatever power is in him for bodily and mental prowess, for his own delight and for service of the common life. We resolve that in future none shall be crippled in body or perverted in mind by unwholesome conditions. For this end we declare that in future no powerful individual or class or nation shall have the means, economic or military, to control the lives of men for private gain.”

I must acknowledge here that as a socialist and social justice advocate, these words appeal greatly to me, as does the general shape of the emerging global society the Stapledon goes on to describe in the penultimate, and most political, section of the book - with one very important exceptions.

A recurring theme in the novel is a strongly eugenicist argument that the downfall of civilisations results from intelligent and industrious people choosing to have fewer children while the ‘dullards’ of the world procreate indiscriminately. Stapledon incorporates eugenicist policies in his global utopia, including the forced sterilisation of “defectives and certain types prone to criminality” - a policy that is not only abhorrent, but without any scientific basis.

But Stapledon does not end with his socialist-syndicalist global utopia. The end of the novel delves deeply into metaphysics, positing a vast uncaring and chaotic universe underlying our material one, that resembles more the darkness deemed vanquished than the prevailing light. Humanity engages upon a final struggle, with the very nature of this universe substrate, seeking to bring light to existential darkness. Despite many setbacks, a new form of human evolves to wage this metaphysical war, and our narrator, unable to comprehend the minds of this advanced humanity, can no longer see where the future leads.

This is not a novel as we ordinarily understand the term. There are no characters, no narratives based on personal actions and relationships. Stapledon’s narrator simply offers a sustained description of the events that occur in the two futures he has seen, and of the societies that emerge as a consequence of these events and the forces at work behind them. The metaphysical ending seems rather out of place with the sense of material, historical forces that drive the details of these futures, but does fit into the underlying image of an ongoing struggle between darkness and light.

It’s an interesting read, but not a particularly satisfying one.

[MichaelK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Stapledon's 'lesser works', which has been out of print (except recently as an ebook) for many decades, and is the first of Stapledon's novels not to fit in his 'Last Men' universe. This is another Stapledonian future history, similar in theme and style to Last and First Men and Star Maker, but not as groundbreaking, and the prose never reaches the glorious heights of the earlier works. 'Darkness and the Light' is a sort-of reworking of the 'First Men' section of Last and First Men, inspired by the events of the decade since its publication. In the preface, Stapledon points out that in his earlier work he completely failed to anticipate the rise of fascism, and part of this work is a corrective to that failure.

'Darkness and the Light' presents two futures for mankind: one where 'the Darkness' triumphs, the other where 'the Light' triumphs. The narrator explains that in his vision of future history (a journey which is similar, though smaller in scale, to the journey in Star Maker), he sees the history of earth split into two timelines, depending on the outcome of a future Utopian revolution.

The premise of 'Darkness and the Light' feels like an expansion of this passage from Star Maker:

The whole planet, the whole rock-grain, with its busy swarms, I now saw as an arena where two cosmical antagonists, two spirits, were already preparing for a critical struggle, already assuming terrestrial and local guise, and coming to grips in our half-awakened minds. In city upon city, in village after village, and in innumerable lonely farmsteads, cottages, hovels, shacks, huts, in all the crevices where human creatures were intent on their little comforts and triumphs and escapes, the great struggle of our age was brewing.
One antagonist appeared as the will to dare for the sake of the new, the longed for, the reasonable and joyful, world, in which every man and woman may have scope to live fully, and live in service of mankind. The other seemed essentially the myopic fear of the unknown; or was it more sinister? Was it the cunning will for private mastery, which fomented for its own ends the archaic, reason-hating, and vindictive, passion of the tribe.

In the 'Darkness' timeline, the ruling elites of the world counter the Utopians by sending out fake anti-establishment figures to win over the masses with tribalism and xenephobia, turning them away from the Utopians. The Utopians are defeated, and a Totalitarian World Government is formed.
Scientists discover how to read minds, and suspected dissidents are given implants to monitor their thoughts. Eventually the implants become compulsory. Thoughtcrime is punished. Society stagnates because creativity is suppressed; civilization collapses; humanity goes extinct; intelligent life never again evolves on Earth; the Sun expands and destroys the Earth.

In the 'Light' timeline, the Utopians manage to win over the masses against the forces of tribalism, cruelty, and xenephobia. Eventually they form a Benevolent World Government. Over many centuries they reform the world's political and economic systems to prioritize the personal freedom and expression of every individual human. Towards the end of this timeline, we get the usual Stapledonian ideas of 'the spirit', the racial mind, etc etc. The timeline ends with the humans creating a superior species to replace them, the Second Men.

Stapledon doesn't include a conclusion to reflect on these alternate timelines; we are just left to make up our own minds about which is more likely. Reading the work in 2016, it is hard to believe in the 'Light' timeline: it is hard to believe in benevolent rulers, in a Utopian revolution. This year, we have had fake anti-establishment types ride to victory on a wave of xenophobia, tribalism, and callousness, which looks set to make the Western world rather more authoritarian. This year, we've seen the UK's Snooper's Charter passed into law. The 'Darkness' timeline is worryingly believable; the 'Light' timeline, while it has its conflicts and its difficulties, seems too much of an idealistic fantasy.

While this book is a satisfying enough read, it isn't for people who want to try out Stapledon. It just doesn't cut it compared to his four major works - Last and First Men, Star Maker, Odd John, and Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord. While Stapledon's best works are full of wonderfully quotable passages and paragraphs, the only part of 'Darkness and the Light' which stood out to me was:

The great majority consisted of minds in which the darkness and the light were still equally balanced, but upon which the impact of circumstance overwhelmingly favoured darkness. Though not themselves inherently perverse, but merely weak and obtuse, they were wholly incapable of resisting the climate of their age, in which darkness was persistently presented in the guise of light. Many of them indeed might reasonably be called true servants of the light, true to the flickering light in their own hearts, but utterly bewildered by the prevalent ideas which they had neither the wit nor the courage to reject. In personal relations with their children, wives, husbands, friends, and workmates they were still intermittently and timorously faithful to the ancient light which had entered them from a more lucid age. But in public affairs they meekly accepted the perverse conventions of their society, either withdrawing their attention and making a virtue of acquiescence, or surrendering themselves to the tribal passion of hate and cruelty against unfortunate individuals whom they dared not recognize as their fellows.

[Nihal Vrana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, compared to his standards it is a weak book. There is this apologetic tone to it coming from the times it was written (when a Fascist victory was still dreadingly possible). Also, it makes some too sweeping generalizations about cultures. But Stapledon's standards are so high that for an average writer this would have been their lifetime achievement work. Actually, reading Stapledon is a humbling experience as he calmly (in few paragraphs by the way, very efficiently) describes Cold War to come, then 90s lopsided but stabilized world and the current turbulence we are going through as if he has seen them all. Then he throws in all our pop-culture obsessions to come such as zombies, post-apocalyptic worlds, dystopias/utopias, even fake news for god's sake... And he does all this in an academic, distant language which still stays somehow engaging. If I'm allowed to bring back 3 living things from death I would ask for my grandfather, my cat, and Stapledon. And Tesla...And Kurt Godel but I'm sure he will kill himself again; so it is a bad choice. This is a nice mental exercise actually.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3009482.html

I'd read Star Maker and Last and First Men by the same author; Darkness and the Light is on the same lines, but not as good. It's a story of two parallel future histories of humanity, which bifurcate at a decision point where a movement of spiritual and political awakening in Tibet either is crushed, in the timeline that leads to the human race being defeated by rats, or leads the world to new levels of civilisation, in the timeline that ends with humanity's transcendence. You can't accuse Stapledon of having small ideas; however, this is not really a novel, in that I don't think there is a single named character or a line of actual dialogue. There are six better-known Stapledon books (the two above-named, also Odd John, Sirius, Last Men in London and Nebula Maker) and there are good reasons why this is not in the top half dozen.

[James W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two Choices

Mankind can choose growth and overcome the challenges of stagnation and evil or we can submit ourselves to our baser natures and fall apart. This is very much still true today and perhaps more urgent than ever with emerging and powerful technologies.

The book predicts certain tech such as cryogenics, cybernetic enhancement which is incredible for 1942 when the book was published, massive city scale tanks, artificial wombs, and so on. It’s entertaining but told in a documentarian way so don’t expect specific characters and the like. The story itself however is an important one and I’m better for having read it. I feel more focused on my mission and what I should be seeking in my day to day as I interact with other people.

We can choose paradise but first we have to create it. This book explores what that potential paradise can look like, but also the most painful of dystopias. Only we can choose and we make this choice daily.

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a novel in any sense. It is a long essay written as a historical text showing two possible futures. As the title indicates, one future is dark (dystopia) and the other is light (utopia). Most of the predictions seem implausible, but there are a few nuggets that are believable. But I don't think the specifics are what's as important as the general trends. As with most great science fiction, this book shows us possibilities that we can choose to take or choose to ignore. For example, there are sections of the book that deal with propaganda and the manipulation of news, topics that are very relevant today. Let's hope we heed some of Stapledon's warnings, or our species may very well end up going extinct by being eaten by giant rats as in the darkness section of the book.

Note: I read the ebook version published by eBooks@Adelaide, The University of Adelaide Library.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

(1.5 Stars)

A long thought experiment where a guy tells of two possible futures for humanity, neither of which make particular sense or are all that different.

I don't mind a far future speculation, but this book had no characters or arc. It had no message as far as I could determine. It was a lot of ascribing characteristics to national populations over millennia, despite dramatic political and technological changes. The climactic event being the invasion of Russia by Tibet was pretty funny.

The author's foreword notes that his previous book was criticized because people didn't know why he wrote it. Irony ensues.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excruciating

Excruciating bone dry interminable future history with absolutely no dialogue nor characters; abandon all hope ye who enter here .
If this is science fiction then so is The Republic

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually a reasonably interesting concept from Stapledon let down by his offensiveness of his racial views and the tediousness of some of the descriptions he feels necessary to give.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Stapledon's most famous books -- Last and First Men and Star Maker -- this is not a novel, but a visionary future history -- in fact, it is two visionary future histories.

In the first part (of three), Stapledon envisions a near future in which two imperial powers -- Russia and China -- conquer most of the world. (Note that the success of the Chinese Revolution was still years in the future.) The one holdout is, oddly, Tibet, which successfully plays the two empires against each other to retain its freedom, aided by their creation of, and seeding their borderlands with, a microbe that infects and causes idiocy in anyone who attempts to cross those lands.

At this point, the vision splits in two.

In the second part, the Darkness in the human soul takes over and Tibet is finally overrun. The two empires war with each other until China holds a World Empire in its iron fist. (Note that this was written nearly a decade before the publication of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.) Many thousands of years pass, stagnation and decay set in, and eventually the human race dies out.

In the third part, the Light in the human soul is victorious. Tibet becomes the rallying point for other parts of the world to rebel against the empires, which are, finally, destroyed by their own evil. A world government is formed and a Golden Age ensues, lasting thousands of years. The nature and conditions of the human race continually improve until mystics discover something evil beyond the Universe in which we live, and try to rally the human spirit to defeat it.

Stapledon's creativity is on full steam here, as he invents one twist of history after another, as well as technologies bad and good. There are no characters in this book; or rather, there is only one: the human race as a whole.

At the emotional climax at the end of the film of H.G. Wells's Things to Come Raymond Massey's character, Cabal, asks: "If we’re no more than animals, we must snatch each little scrap of happiness and live and suffer and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done. Is it this—or that: all the universe or nothing? Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?" I can't help wondering whether Stapledon had seen the film, for Darkness and the Light very much seems to me as if it were a direct reply to that question.