From Oliver Sacks
James Shreeve’s fine essay on human-animal chimeras brings out not only the scientific and medical importance of such chimeras, but the profound moral, legal and emotional problems their creation may engender (June 25, p 39). While he speaks of The Island of Doctor Moreau, he does not mention the equally remarkable 1944 novel Sirius by Olaf Stapledon, a poetically imaginative “biography” of a neurosurgically produced “super-dog” with human intelligence, aspirations and values, combined with an irrepressible doggy nature.
While Sirius is at first full of the joys of his double life – the exuberance of a dog, combined with the powers of a man – he then finds himself hopelessly torn between his two natures, and finally, tormented by finding himself (in Shreeve’s words) “so unspeakably alone in the world”. Human-animal chimeras figure in many science-fiction works, but no one has captured the pain and wonder as delicately as Stapledon.
New York, US
