David Newgreen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
4thofeleven) wrote2011-04-07 05:12 pm
4thofeleven) wrote2011-04-07 05:12 pm
Entry tags:
Mobilis in Mobili
Finished reading Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; cannot help but feel the book would have been greatly improved, not to mention noticeably shorter, if he’d managed to resist the urge to offer the complete taxonomy of what seems like every species of fish the Nautilus encounters.
Surely someone must have written an essay on the use of Americans as a sort of ‘savage’ archetype in nineteenth century European literature? The French-Canadian harpooner, Ned Land, spends most of the book obsessed with hunting every animal he encounters, and his primary motivation in escaping the Nautilus seems to be a desire to taste red meat again. For that matter, when the ship comes under attack by New Guineans, he ends up being shocked by the same electricity Nemo uses to drive them away. He’d be an almost painful stereotype if he’d been Black or American Indian…
Captain Nemo is the real stand-out element of the book; the actual story is practically non-existent, little more than an excuse for Verne to describe the wildlife of various oceans. Nemo, though, is a fascinating character. I understand Verne originally planned to have him be a Polish revolutionary but this was rejected by his publisher, and a later novel reveals him as an Indian prince – honestly, though, I prefer Nemo mysterious, the little intriguing hints about his past dropped here and there which never really form a complete picture. His vendetta against the surface world is, honestly, more interesting if it’s not directed against any nation in particular but against all great powers and empires.
(It took me a moment to notice, but when Nemo claims Antarctica in his own name, it seems like a display of arrogance well in line with what we see of his personality – except ‘Nemo’ is an alias, it’s Latin for ‘no-one’… If Nemo’s claiming land in that name, then it’s really the exact opposite of an imperial claim…)
Oddities: I do wonder why Verne apparently believed the south pole would be in the ocean – just fudging details for a better story, or was the Antarctic landmass really not believed to extend that far south then?
I was also a little surprised that Melbourne was apparently already a major enough port to be mentioned several times.
Surely someone must have written an essay on the use of Americans as a sort of ‘savage’ archetype in nineteenth century European literature? The French-Canadian harpooner, Ned Land, spends most of the book obsessed with hunting every animal he encounters, and his primary motivation in escaping the Nautilus seems to be a desire to taste red meat again. For that matter, when the ship comes under attack by New Guineans, he ends up being shocked by the same electricity Nemo uses to drive them away. He’d be an almost painful stereotype if he’d been Black or American Indian…
Captain Nemo is the real stand-out element of the book; the actual story is practically non-existent, little more than an excuse for Verne to describe the wildlife of various oceans. Nemo, though, is a fascinating character. I understand Verne originally planned to have him be a Polish revolutionary but this was rejected by his publisher, and a later novel reveals him as an Indian prince – honestly, though, I prefer Nemo mysterious, the little intriguing hints about his past dropped here and there which never really form a complete picture. His vendetta against the surface world is, honestly, more interesting if it’s not directed against any nation in particular but against all great powers and empires.
(It took me a moment to notice, but when Nemo claims Antarctica in his own name, it seems like a display of arrogance well in line with what we see of his personality – except ‘Nemo’ is an alias, it’s Latin for ‘no-one’… If Nemo’s claiming land in that name, then it’s really the exact opposite of an imperial claim…)
Oddities: I do wonder why Verne apparently believed the south pole would be in the ocean – just fudging details for a better story, or was the Antarctic landmass really not believed to extend that far south then?
I was also a little surprised that Melbourne was apparently already a major enough port to be mentioned several times.