KURTEN, Bjorn (Olaf)

(1924-1988)

   Finnish palaeontologist and writer; his fiction appeared in Swedish. His sf novels - Den svarta tigern (1978 Sweden; trans BK as Dance of the Tiger 1980 US with foreword by Stephen Jay Gould) and Mammutens raddare (1984 Sweden; trans BK as Singletusk 1986 US) - fascinatingly apply late-20th-century speculations about EVOLUTION to the old subgenre of prehistoric sf (ANTHROPOLOGY; ORIGIN OF MAN), offering the suggestion that blond and burly Neanderthals fell fatally in love with their Black, beautiful, neotenous Cro-Magnon neighbours, bringing them home to engage in sterile matches. Neoteny can be defined as an indefinite prolongation of childlike behaviour and physical proportions; the notion that our ancestors rose to preeminence through cuteness is intriguing.

   JC