Overview

In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder child's insights prove devastating. In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder child's insights prove devastating. Science fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces The Hampdenshire Wonder, one of the genre's first treatments of superhuman intelligence. Victor Stott is a large-headed ""supernormal"" mutated in the womb by his parents' desire to have a child born without habits. Known as ""the Wonder,"" Victor surveys humankind's science, philosophy, history, literature, religion-the best that has been thought and said-and dismisses it brutally- ""So elementary . . . inchoate . . . a disjunctive patchwork."" Rejecting ""the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time,"" the Wonder claims that life itself is merely ""a disease of the ether."" Unable to deal with the child's disenchanting insights, his adult interlocutors seek to silence him . . . perhaps permanently.

Full Product Details

Author:   J. D. Beresford ,  Ted Chiang
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Weight:   0.369kg
ISBN:  

9780262551410

ISBN 10:   0262551411
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   04 March 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Series Foreword - Joshua Glenn Introduction: “The Idea is Inconceivable” - Ted Chiang Part 1: My Early Associations with Ginger Stott 1 The Motive 2 Notes for a Biography of Ginger Stott 3 The Disillusionment of Ginger Stott Part 2: The Childhood of the Wonder 4 The Manner of his Birth 5 His Departure from Stoke-Underhill 6 His Father’s Desertion 7 His Debt to Henry Challis 8 His First Visit to Challis Court Interlude Part 2 (Continued): The Wonder among Books 9 His Passage through the Prison of Knowledge 10 His Pastors and Masters 11 His Examination 12 Fugitive Part 3: My Association with the Wonder 13 How I Went to Pym to Write a Book 14 The Incipience of my Subjection to the Wonder 15 The Progress and Relaxation of my Subjection 16 Release 17 Implications Epilogue: The Uses of Mystery

Reviews

""However you interpret Beresford’s touching short novel, it remains, like its protagonist, a wonder."" —Washington Post ""One of the earliest exemplars in SF of the genius unbound, the more-than-human intellect whose insights are sublime and terrible . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder has more than just historical value, and earns this latest reprint."" —Locus Magazine ""What makes the Radium Age series so valuable is how it illuminates the origins of science fiction tropes we take for granted. . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder tackles transhumanism decades before it became a preoccupation of science fiction and posthumanist philosophy."" —Boing Boing

Author Information

J.D. Beresford (1873-1947) was an English dramatist, journalist, and author. His proto-science fiction novels include The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911), A World of Women (1913), and The Riddle of the Tower (1944, with Esme Wynne-Tyson); he also wrote in the horror and ghost story genres. A great admirer of H.G. Wells, he wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915. His daughter, Elisabeth Beresford (1926-2010), was creator of the literary and TV franchise The Wombles.

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