In January, (doesn't seem that long ago -- I was searching in the summer months) I posted about the new Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, illustrated by Jim Kay. and due out in October.

Remember how excited we all were?  Amend:  some of us were.

 

gotta admit, I'm less than thrilled with the cover.  I guess I was expecting something a little more sophisticated, given the above illustration.

 

However, if I were willing to shell out $160 for the collector's addition, it could look like this:

so much prettier.

 

i think I'd rather send the $160 to Rowling's charity.  Seems wrong to spend so much on a book.  I wonder if, if I donated $160 to her charity, the gift could be the collector's edition.  

 

Sorry.  I think I'm feeling bitter.

 

For $100, you can get all seven with the very cool Hogwarts Spine.

Oh well.  

 

I hadn't thought about this book for ages, until the other day when I read Jessica Treat's fine short story Ants. They both start in pretty much the same way. Coincidence?

During the early decades of the 20th century, many intellectuals devoted attention to the idea of what a "Superman" would look like. (George Bernard Shaw is a prominent example). After a while, the emphasis shifted; the Nazis gave the word unpleasant associations, though Professors Siegel and Shuster luckily managed to save it from oblivion with their discovery that the Übermensch would carry a cape and wear his underpants on the outside, an important point that had somehow escaped Nietzsche's attention. A strange example of the cross-over between these two streams was Olaf Stapledon. A professor of philosophy by day, I'm guessing that his conception of the Übermensch probably started off at the Nietzsche end; but his science-fiction, which is the only thing that people now remember him for, also contains elements vaguely reminding you of the Son of Krypton.

Most of Stapledon's books explore the Superman theme in one form or another. In his most famous works, Last and First Men and the sequel Star Maker, we see the future evolution of the human race, and later on the evolution of all life in the Universe, towards its godlike conclusion. Odd John is a more standard guy-with-amazing-powers story, though a considerably more intelligent one than average. And in Sirius, a book that deserves to be better known, he turns it round. It's unfortunately impossible to imagine what a Superman would be like, since we are only human; this is the insoluble problem at the heart of Odd John. But suppose, instead, that human scientists managed to produce an Überhund, a dog with human-like intelligence. What kind of life would it have? How would it relate to other dogs, and to people?

Stapledon did not have an optimistic take on things, and if you've read any of his other books then you've no doubt already guessed that this one is going to be tragic. But it's a surprisingly moving story, and Sirius is one of the great fictional dogs of literature. If you're a dog-lover yourself, consider putting it on your list.