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The Blue Germ
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- GenresScience Fiction
103 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 4, 2009
6 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Maurice Nicoll
218 books51 followersMaurice Nicoll (19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953) was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2016
Very pleasant and interesting read, and quite an unknown book at that!
The Blue Germ was published in 1918 under Maurice Nicoll's nom de plume Martin Swayne. Nicoll is better known as a British psychiatrist and noted Fourth Way teacher. He wrote a handful of other fiction stories from 1911 - 1924, mostly short stories. As such he's a bit of an obscure (sf) fiction writer.
Given that the transhuman movement is now quite topical (what with scientific research into all kinds of potentially life-extending technology such as CRISPR gene editing, cellular longevity, nanotechnologies, cybernetic interfaces, etc. moving along at a rapid pace), The Blue Germ was exceedingly ahead of its time.
No matter that the book's scientific premise is obsolete--that all disease and even aging are caused by harmful germs--The Blue Germ focuses its attention on the effects of immortality on the society, and the individual rather than on the underlying science. Frederik Pohl once said that “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” The Blue Germ does exactly that. Even though the agent of immortality (the blue germ itself) is known to be scientifically wrong today, the consequences of immortality are validly explored.
The tone of The Blue Germ, its chosen voice, its pacing, its language is aimed at a general public readership, and as such (and hailing as it does from early in the 20th century), strikes me as very similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes works. The blue germ is created by a pair of doctors, Harden and Sarakoff. Dr. Harden plays the role of narrator and, being the more conventional and less talented of the two partners, can be seen as the story's Dr. Watson. His Russian partner, Sarakoff--brilliant, passionate, impulsive, ambitious--is much more the Holmes (though Sarakoff’s character is much more of a minor character than Holmes ever was). Much like Doyle’s rather fanciful tales, The Blue Germ plays fast and loose with science (being hit on the head can cause brilliant ideas to gestate in a person's mind, for example), and glosses over details that today authors might feel compelled to explain (how to create a designer germ, for instance--a rather prescient thing to include in a story from 1918!--as well as how to produce one germ to rule them all and in the darkness bind them).
The least satisfying thing in the story is the ending, which wraps up zippity quick and with little discussion--boom, done, we're outta here, mate. There is also a fair bit of repetition of ideas throughout, but all that said, The Blue Germ in my opinion is a far more insightful look into the future of both science and science fiction than, say, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Its pulp qualities are in story conventions and tone rather than in conceptualization. It makes interesting and insightful observations and postulates a truly unique (for its time) supposition of what medically provided immortality might bring about.
A truly interesting and delightful read (and the eBook is FREE!).
The Blue Germ was published in 1918 under Maurice Nicoll's nom de plume Martin Swayne. Nicoll is better known as a British psychiatrist and noted Fourth Way teacher. He wrote a handful of other fiction stories from 1911 - 1924, mostly short stories. As such he's a bit of an obscure (sf) fiction writer.
Given that the transhuman movement is now quite topical (what with scientific research into all kinds of potentially life-extending technology such as CRISPR gene editing, cellular longevity, nanotechnologies, cybernetic interfaces, etc. moving along at a rapid pace), The Blue Germ was exceedingly ahead of its time.
No matter that the book's scientific premise is obsolete--that all disease and even aging are caused by harmful germs--The Blue Germ focuses its attention on the effects of immortality on the society, and the individual rather than on the underlying science. Frederik Pohl once said that “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” The Blue Germ does exactly that. Even though the agent of immortality (the blue germ itself) is known to be scientifically wrong today, the consequences of immortality are validly explored.
The tone of The Blue Germ, its chosen voice, its pacing, its language is aimed at a general public readership, and as such (and hailing as it does from early in the 20th century), strikes me as very similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes works. The blue germ is created by a pair of doctors, Harden and Sarakoff. Dr. Harden plays the role of narrator and, being the more conventional and less talented of the two partners, can be seen as the story's Dr. Watson. His Russian partner, Sarakoff--brilliant, passionate, impulsive, ambitious--is much more the Holmes (though Sarakoff’s character is much more of a minor character than Holmes ever was). Much like Doyle’s rather fanciful tales, The Blue Germ plays fast and loose with science (being hit on the head can cause brilliant ideas to gestate in a person's mind, for example), and glosses over details that today authors might feel compelled to explain (how to create a designer germ, for instance--a rather prescient thing to include in a story from 1918!--as well as how to produce one germ to rule them all and in the darkness bind them).
The least satisfying thing in the story is the ending, which wraps up zippity quick and with little discussion--boom, done, we're outta here, mate. There is also a fair bit of repetition of ideas throughout, but all that said, The Blue Germ in my opinion is a far more insightful look into the future of both science and science fiction than, say, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Its pulp qualities are in story conventions and tone rather than in conceptualization. It makes interesting and insightful observations and postulates a truly unique (for its time) supposition of what medically provided immortality might bring about.
A truly interesting and delightful read (and the eBook is FREE!).
September 23, 2024
In 1922, this VERY interesting piece was written to give the readers something to think.
We all know how we crave immortality, it's our wildest dream since forever!
But did we EVER stop to think of the consequences?
Of course, the premises here didn't age well at all, but the author can be frankly excused -not to mention that this speculative sci-fi work compensates with a stream of considerations and smart that you'll love as it was written just yesterday!
Unfortunately, it does present two problems: First, given the author's profession, the psychiatric aspect of immortality prevails by large and far and it tends to become tedious. Second, the finale: The author didn't have the courage to go all the way and conveniently the Blue Germ extinguishes by itself.
But "The Blue Germ" remains a piece to be read!
We all know how we crave immortality, it's our wildest dream since forever!
But did we EVER stop to think of the consequences?
Of course, the premises here didn't age well at all, but the author can be frankly excused -not to mention that this speculative sci-fi work compensates with a stream of considerations and smart that you'll love as it was written just yesterday!
Unfortunately, it does present two problems: First, given the author's profession, the psychiatric aspect of immortality prevails by large and far and it tends to become tedious. Second, the finale: The author didn't have the courage to go all the way and conveniently the Blue Germ extinguishes by itself.
But "The Blue Germ" remains a piece to be read!
March 21, 2016
A clever and imaginative book on the effects of a manufactured germ that confers immortality to any organism it colonizes (and emits a blue glow as an after-effect of its metabolism leading to it being dubbed "The Blue Disease"). The story is very much a product of its time and the period's fascination with the invisible, microscopic world around us.
A British doctor and a Russian scientist co-invent and release the eponymous microbe, observing its spread throughout England and the reactions it causes in the populace. Those reactions and the secondary effects of the germ form the main narrative of the book as various characters, including the protagonists, ponder the philosophical, psychological, and legal changes that will result from an immortal humanity.
As the "Disease" takes hold, the book begins to make clear philosophical and socio-economic arguments on the various divisions that separate human beings. (Also, he puts in a plug for the superiority of dogs to other creatures, including their masters.)
As an aside, for any Firefly/Serenity fans, the unintended and unforeseen secondary physical effects of the bacillus will certainly bring to mind the effects of the G-23 Pax compound on the Miranda colony inhabitants.
A British doctor and a Russian scientist co-invent and release the eponymous microbe, observing its spread throughout England and the reactions it causes in the populace. Those reactions and the secondary effects of the germ form the main narrative of the book as various characters, including the protagonists, ponder the philosophical, psychological, and legal changes that will result from an immortal humanity.
As the "Disease" takes hold, the book begins to make clear philosophical and socio-economic arguments on the various divisions that separate human beings. (Also, he puts in a plug for the superiority of dogs to other creatures, including their masters.)
As an aside, for any Firefly/Serenity fans, the unintended and unforeseen secondary physical effects of the bacillus will certainly bring to mind the effects of the G-23 Pax compound on the Miranda colony inhabitants.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews