Write your abstract here.The works of Olaf Stapledon offer a chronicle of personal struggle with revelation and expression.
His non-fictional works describe both the
importance of spiritual vision for personal and social
development and the utter impossibility of adequately conceptualizing or expressing the substance of these perceptions. Stapledon's fictions feature a staggering array of visionary experiences, including a confrontation with the Star Maker, a cosmic view of human history over a span of two billion years, and an exploration of spirit and mind among a cast of characters that includes stars, nebulae dogs, flames, and the cosmos itself.
The uniqueness of Stapledon's fiction lies not simply in the grandeur of his visions, but also in his development of a literary style that enforces a certain attitude toward these insights. Stapledon's simultaneously held beliefs regarding the importance of spiritual discovery and the complete unreliability of attempts to describe its nature or meaning led him to adopt an outlook he termed "agnostic mysticism." This twinning of vision and skepticism also characterizes the rhetorical stance of his fiction, mythic constructions that are heavily qualified and are masterpieces of indirection. Through his fiction Stapledon sought to refine his personal vision, communicate some aspect of it to others, and yet maintain the sense of mystery that inspired and sustained his spiritual quest.