The ether soul man
Der Ätherseelenmensch is a future novel by the German writer Carl Grunert (1865–1918) from 1913. It is one of his last known stories.
style
“The Aether Soul Man” is a short future story written in the first person. The author himself called this type of story "future novels".
content
With his friend Hintze, the narrator meets the plane Ätherström from Northern Europe at an airfield. This plane lost part of the top of his skull during attempts to fly through a propeller without damaging his brain. The damaged skullcap is protected by soft rubber and a metal cover. When tripping over a tree root, Aetherstrom makes a strange discovery. In the fall, he loses the artificial skull cover and remains on the ground for a short time. His exposed brain comes into contact with the sun's rays, and he has the feeling that his soul is flying into distant dimensions. This stops when the sun's rays move on. In addition, after this strange discovery he notices that he can influence the earth's gravity with his hands and that his feelings and thoughts seem to be much more intense.
The descriptions and experiences should be tested in a credible manner in order to remove any doubts or errors. Aetherstrom reports to those present about his soul journeys through the world ether to distant planets. He can do this with the help of moon or sun rays, which he brings into direct contact with his exposed brain. He flies disembodied on these rays to new worlds in space. In this new world he meets beautiful flower creatures. One of the beings asks him to come back, it is Saivula. Aetherstrom feels drawn to Saivula, he would like to see her again. The experiment begins, a soul flight has always lasted about three hours until now. Aetherstrom promises those present to come back because he feels comfortable in his body.
Ätherström is sitting in an armchair by the open window, his brain is in direct contact with the moonbeams. He breathes calmly and remains immobile, time goes by, the moonbeams disappear and nothing happens, he no longer comes to. The friends put the body in bed. Aetherstrom no longer wakes up. Is he with Saivula?
meaning
Grunert is one of the German pioneers in the field of future literature. It should be noted in particular that he did not write novels, but short stories in which he packed ideas, fantasies or considerations, mostly of a technical nature. This story is about soul flight into the universe, into other spheres, into the world ether, and about thought power and radiation. Longing for death, attempts to explain what comes after death, wanderings of the soul, what happens when the soul leaves the body, that seems to have occupied Carl Grunert in the last phase of his life and inspired literary implementation.
construction
The story is only a few pages long and divided into three sections. In the first part, Mr. Ätherström is introduced with his strange experiences and the background to these incidents. In the second part, the experiment is prepared in Mr. Ätherström's house and the former aviator reports on further details of his soul flights as well as on the lovely flower creature Saivula. Part 3 is short, the experiment is started and ends with the soul wanderer not coming back.
Publications
The story was only rediscovered in 2004/2005.
- Arena, 1913