This is a novel I have been working on for many years — drafting, re-structuring, rewriting. What follows is a brief synopsis of the story so far.
Rüdiger Wilhelm is a theoretical geneticist in Düsseldorf throughout the time of the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
He has two goals in life. The first is to write — articles and stories in many different genres and formats — teaching the concepts of both theoretical and practical genetics to the wider world of human readers. Rüdiger once remarked to his father Otto, “Genetics is about sex, father.”
A highly intelligent and creative scholar, Rüdiger melds the science of genetics with neuroscience, physics, anthropology, and philosophy. His second goal is more dangerous: to develop a way to produce the legendary Übermensch — a human being superior in intelligence. Despite cultural norms at the time and the relationship between Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch and the Third Reich's racial interpretation of it, Rüdiger considers the concept to be far less racial in content and far more concerned with intelligence and the expression of intelligence.
Rüdiger begins his genetic experiments to produce the Übermensch in the midst of post-World-War-II obstacles. The story opens in Germany in 1933, shifts time and place to the U.S. East Coast in the mid-twentieth century, and then shifts in time again to the year 2007.
Under construction
More chapters and excerpts will appear here as the manuscript is polished. If you'd like to follow along or send notes, get in touch.