The Stairway to the Sun and Dance of the Comets - Paul Scheerbart

The Stairway to the Sun & Dance of the Comets by Paul Scheerbart / ISBN 9781939663214 / small paperback with flaps from Wakefield Press *** The Stairway to the Sun & Dance of the Comets brings together two short books, originally published in 1903, by the anti-erotic godfather of German science fiction, Paul Scheerbart. The Stairway to the Sun consists of four fairy tales of sun, sea, animals, and storm, each set in a different, fantastical locale: from the giant fever-dream palace of an astral star to a dwarf’s glass underwater lair in the jellyfish kingdom. Scheerbart’s sad, whimsical tales provide gentle, simple, though unexpected morals that outline his work as a whole: treat animals as one would treat oneself, mutual admiration will never lead to harm, and if one is able to remember that the world is grand, one will never be sad in one’s own life. Dance of the Comets, though published as an “Astral Pantomime,” was originally conceived as a scenario for a ballet, and one th