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03-20-2013, 09:22 AM | #1 |
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March 2013 Discussion: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(s) by Jules Verne (spoilers)
It's time to discuss the March 2013 MobileRead Book Club selection, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(s) by Jules Verne. What did you think?
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03-20-2013, 09:29 AM | #2 |
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I think I'm confused. The title says this is a discussion of Persuasion.
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03-20-2013, 10:18 AM | #3 |
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03-20-2013, 10:32 AM | #4 | ||
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Fixed now. Thanks for the catch, crich. |
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03-20-2013, 10:34 AM | #5 |
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What's the problem? Surely someone has written a spoof of Persuasion, set under the sea? No? They should.
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03-20-2013, 10:45 AM | #6 |
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Any who...
Did anyone read a copy with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas"? The title in French is, after all, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. The decision by early translators of the book into English to call it Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea makes it sound as if the Nautilus was making dives 20,000 leagues deep under the ocean's surface; a clear impossibility. |
03-20-2013, 10:57 AM | #7 |
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Growing up I didn't really know what a league was so it never really had an effect on me. I've been reading the old 'under the sea' version I think though. I have heard that Verne even had to do some editing of his manuscript in his time because it was critical of (I think) Poland where Nemo was supposed to have hailed from and France was trying to improve their relations with the country of Poland at the time.
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03-20-2013, 11:20 AM | #8 |
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That's true about editing out the politics. I believe his publisher insisted on it.
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03-20-2013, 11:29 AM | #9 | ||
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Making it, of course, a great choice for the Travel/Adventure category. |
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03-20-2013, 11:30 AM | #10 |
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Goes to show both how some things haven't changed since Verne's day (politics are still a hot potato) and the popularity of Verne as a writer in his own time. That they would have a worry that his writing could be widely enough read to have caused an incident I mean.
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03-20-2013, 12:31 PM | #11 |
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The book got a big meh from me. I think it was best read by an 11-year old boy, and one no later than mid-20th century at that. What was imaginative and even predictive when it was written is flat now, so what we're left with is less than Homeric lists of fish and no plot.
I ended it with the feeling, "I wuz robbed." All the time I slogged through it, I thought Verne was taking longer and longer to develop the Nemo story and was waiting for a big reveal. Oy! I've read since that Nemo's backstory was given in The Mysterious Island, but I'm not that interested that I'll put myself through another such. So between the lack of plot and the long tease, I think the book fails on a qualitative level. Verne did have a way with words and the imagery was the best thing about the book. Most entertaining to me was not the battle with the octopus, but the discovery of the South Pole. Essentially Nemo beached the Nautilus, went for a stroll, and said "This must be the pole!" Shame Amundsen and Scott didn't know it was so easy. I was highly tickled by the notion of something somewhat larger than an atoll, that very handily just popped up right on the pole. I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm glad I was able to read it in odd moments and that it didn't take up any serious reading time. |
03-20-2013, 01:49 PM | #12 |
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Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it Issybird. I think it isn't so much Verne's fault as the fault of readers today being more sophisticated than readers were at the time he wrote it. I mean back then much of what we take for granted was unknown or experimental technology.
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03-20-2013, 02:50 PM | #13 |
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03-20-2013, 02:54 PM | #14 |
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Personally I find it fascinating to see what he envisioned in an era when electricity was still a novelty and submarines were in the earliest experimental stage of their development.
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03-20-2013, 03:14 PM | #15 | |
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Yes, a lot of time spent discussing whales. That, and as I recall, there is entire chapter devoted to the debate as to whether or not whales are mammals or fish, with Melville creating an elaborate argument for the wrong answer. Actually when Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was nominated I thought about nominating Moby Dick in response. Maybe next time a travel/adventure book will be selected? |
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