Of course, the monster turns out to be a submarine. Professor Aronnax appears to accept the more traditional idea that fossils were largely laid down by a worldwide flood, though he says he subscribes to the day-age theory: that the days of creation in the Bible refer to eras, not literal 24-hour days.Īronnax is recruited by the United States Navy to help it investigate reports of a sea monster that has been sinking even ironclad steam vessels. Though written after the Origin of Species, there is no reference to Darwinism. It even discusses the laying of the Transatlantic cables.Ģ0,000 Leagues, for example, mentions Darwin three times, twice in reference to the Beagle voyage and once concerning his theory about coral atolls. The novel, for example, mentions hundreds of explorers from the sixteenth century to the 1860s. It is clear that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is not only an adventure story but also a research paper. It becomes easy to see how Marie-Laure, who read the novel repeatedly, would learn a lot about sea creatures.īetween Aronnax and Captain Nemo, we also learn a lot about sea exploration and the naturalists who described many of the creatures. The rock and sea floor formations, the seaweed and algae, the mussels and crustaceans, the fish and cetaceans, the seals and seabirds are all described in detail according to each location the boat spends time in. Very frequently our narrator, Professor Aronnax, describes the marine geology and life he encounters. Why not sea water? It makes more sense than hyperspace or wormholes for space craft. In Verne’s day, people experimented with batteries using a variety of solutions. The Nautilus’s batteries are somehow refreshed by salt water and carbon. All submarines use batteries, whether they have diesel engines or nuclear reactors to charge them. Verne describes the propulsion of the Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s underwater craft, as coming from batteries. It describes underwater travel before anyone had actually done it (1871) with propulsion that at least works on paper and which tells about some things that submarines actually have used since they were invented. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is not that different. Today we often think of science fiction of having to involve space travel and hypothetical means of propulsion. Though we can point to other writings-the author Cyrano de Bergerac wrote about travel to the moon and sun while Verne here credits Poe-but Verne really brought science into fiction to create a plausible if slightly fantastic story. Jules Verne is often rightly called the father of science fiction. ![]() But 20,000 Leagues is a great story in and of itself. There are actually a few connections that make this novel an appropriate backdrop to All the Light. In honor of Marie-Laure of All the Light We Cannot See, I had to read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |