Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a "future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first. The book employs a narrative conceit that, under subtle inspiration, the novelist has unknowingly been dictated a channelled text from the last human species. - Wikipedia

A truly amazing, unique achievement which is not a novel in the normal sense of the word. It tells 2 billion years of human and transhuman history, and I can see how it has been a huge influence on many great science fiction authors.

#olafstapleton #lastandfirstmen #sciencefiction #futurehistory #penguinsciencefiction

The Last and First Men

A beautiful and evocative piece of music by the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. A posthumously released work. Contributors included Yair Elazar Glotman, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Viktor Orri Árnason and the Theatre of Voices.

The film adds Tilda Swinton narrating edited quotes from the book by Olaf Stapleton. The film was shot by Sturla Grøvlen. Images of some of the large brutalist monuments that were erected in the former Yugoslavia, some of them set in quite spectacular landscapes. There are no humans (or their analogs) in the film, just their remains.

https://johannjohannsson.bandcamp.com/album/last-and-first-men-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

#music #film #JóhannJóhannsson #LastAndFirstMen #ScienceFiction #SciFI #Grief #YairElazarGlotman #HildurGuðnadóttir #ViktorOrriÁrnason #TheatreOfVoices #OlafStapleton