So, funny story. Going into this book, I thought it was vertical leagues. I've never seen either Disney adaptation of the book, and the only things I knew about Nemo and the Nautilus at the time came from The Mysterious Island and (shudder) The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The movie, not the comic. Hence the shudder.
And I remember thinking as a kid that it was 20,000 vertical leagues. Not sure why. So going into this, I was kinda expecting a nautical version of Journey To The Center Of The Earth.
What I got was a biology textbook.
Not even kidding. I don't know enough about biology to call Jules Verne out on any accuracy issues, but it sure as heck sounded like he knew what he was talking about. The main character is a biology professor, a naturalist, and Verne wrote that character very well. I was impressed.
Granted, when he did start talking about geology or astronomy, two sciences I'm much more familiar with, I recognized that everything he was saying was hilariously bad. Like, almost flat-earth bad. But then I had to remind myself that Verne was a contemporary of Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas, and the book is over a hundred years old. Also, like Hugo and Dumas, Verne was French. And there is just something about French authors 120 years ago... They're all like SUPER long winded, you know?
Anyways, I digress. It's horizontal leagues, not vertical. They cover about every major body of water on the globe in the course of ten months, or something like that, and it's about 20,000 leagues of linear distance. Titles back then were way more straightforward than they are now, guys. Way more.
So the book! It was pretty good. As far as sci-fi goes, there were a number of things that were really quite interesting. I loved the Nautilus. I mean, if only subs were actually that cool. Totally electric, generating power based off of chemicals extracted from the sea. Electric motors of untold strength, and while I'm sure that Verne had no idea how that sort of thing could actually work, I was really pleased with the vaguely correct concepts he illustrated. The design of the thing, the double layered hull, the speed, it was all really cool. So the Nautilus gets a big thumbs up.
And I do love that they went to Atlantis. Yeah, totally fake, but cool. Verne created a pretty convincing sci-fi world just beneath the surface of the ocean, and throughout the story it was easy to forget we've already disproved everything he said. Good stuff.
Downsides for the book include the French-ness of it. If you've ever read anything by Hugo or Dumas, you'll know what I mean. He talks about fish a lot. A LOT. And when he's not talking about fish, he's talking about maritime history, most of it French. The events of the book's actual plot, if condensed without the fish and history lessons, would be like 75 pages. So there's that.
Should you read it? Well, if you have read Les Miserables (the real one, not the abridgment), or The Count of Monte Cristo or Three Musketeers or the like, and you enjoyed all of the seemingly random tangents that the narrator took into the historical context of every tree and building in the story, then you'd probably enjoy this. If reading a biology textbook/French maritime history textbook narrated by a guy in a futuristic submersible doesn't sound like a good time to you, well...
May I suggest an English author? Wells, maybe? Or Doyle?
 |
| Shudder |
And I remember thinking as a kid that it was 20,000 vertical leagues. Not sure why. So going into this, I was kinda expecting a nautical version of Journey To The Center Of The Earth.
What I got was a biology textbook.
 |
| Except no bugs. It was only about fish. |
Not even kidding. I don't know enough about biology to call Jules Verne out on any accuracy issues, but it sure as heck sounded like he knew what he was talking about. The main character is a biology professor, a naturalist, and Verne wrote that character very well. I was impressed.
Granted, when he did start talking about geology or astronomy, two sciences I'm much more familiar with, I recognized that everything he was saying was hilariously bad. Like, almost flat-earth bad. But then I had to remind myself that Verne was a contemporary of Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas, and the book is over a hundred years old. Also, like Hugo and Dumas, Verne was French. And there is just something about French authors 120 years ago... They're all like SUPER long winded, you know?
Anyways, I digress. It's horizontal leagues, not vertical. They cover about every major body of water on the globe in the course of ten months, or something like that, and it's about 20,000 leagues of linear distance. Titles back then were way more straightforward than they are now, guys. Way more.
So the book! It was pretty good. As far as sci-fi goes, there were a number of things that were really quite interesting. I loved the Nautilus. I mean, if only subs were actually that cool. Totally electric, generating power based off of chemicals extracted from the sea. Electric motors of untold strength, and while I'm sure that Verne had no idea how that sort of thing could actually work, I was really pleased with the vaguely correct concepts he illustrated. The design of the thing, the double layered hull, the speed, it was all really cool. So the Nautilus gets a big thumbs up.
 |
| This isn't a real accurate portrayal, but it was the only redeeming aspect of this movie. |
And I do love that they went to Atlantis. Yeah, totally fake, but cool. Verne created a pretty convincing sci-fi world just beneath the surface of the ocean, and throughout the story it was easy to forget we've already disproved everything he said. Good stuff.
Downsides for the book include the French-ness of it. If you've ever read anything by Hugo or Dumas, you'll know what I mean. He talks about fish a lot. A LOT. And when he's not talking about fish, he's talking about maritime history, most of it French. The events of the book's actual plot, if condensed without the fish and history lessons, would be like 75 pages. So there's that.
Should you read it? Well, if you have read Les Miserables (the real one, not the abridgment), or The Count of Monte Cristo or Three Musketeers or the like, and you enjoyed all of the seemingly random tangents that the narrator took into the historical context of every tree and building in the story, then you'd probably enjoy this. If reading a biology textbook/French maritime history textbook narrated by a guy in a futuristic submersible doesn't sound like a good time to you, well...
May I suggest an English author? Wells, maybe? Or Doyle?
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