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Re: The Mighty Orinoco

From: Walter J Miller <wjm2~at~nyu.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 16:56:36 -0800
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Cc: wjm2~at~nyu.edu

Dear RMiller et al: It's not at all "a bit too much" to call The Mighty Orinoco "science fiction." Verne was as futuristic in this book as in Five Weeks in a Balloon, and for similar reasons. The source of TMO had not yet been determined exactly when JV wrote TMO, and its precise source was not finally determined until 1951. We must remember that in JV's time geography was a major science in the public eye. See my intro for fuller explanation. What is really puzzling is wespress's obstinacy in insisting they'd have this book out in 2002. If my worst fears come true, it will appear in January 2003 with a 2002 copyright: the inanity of putting out a book already a year old, according to copyright date! I would also see JV here as futuristic in social science too: the book is an interesting study in androgyny, again more than half a century ahead of its time. For me the odd assignment was to do an introduction that, because of the plot twists, forced me to postpone m!
ost of my major points until the Notes. The great pleasure was in working with Arthur Be Evans (yes, use the imperative---BE Evans!), an excellent series editor for an author at odds with publisher. Walter James Miller
----- Original Message -----
From: rmiller~at~crosslink.com
Date: Monday, December 30, 2002 4:10 pm
Subject: Re: The Mighty Orinoco

> On 30 Dec 02, at 17:33, Skravitz~at~aol.com wrote:
>
> > I called Wesleyan University Press at 800-421-1561 (a U.S. phone
> > number) and I was assured that The Mighty Orinoco would be available
> > sometime in January.
> > This is a book in the Early Classics of Science Fiction series, the
> > first
> > English edition, translated by Stanford L. Luce, edited by
> Arthur B.
> > Evans, with an introduction and notes by Walter James Miller.
> >
>
> Excellent news, since this is one of the only two Verne novels
> I've
> never read.
>
> A question, however: I wonder exactly how Wesleyan justified this
> as part of their "Early Classics of Science Fiction" series? Verne
> was certainly a seminal SF author, but not everything he wrote was
> science fiction . . . including "The Mighty Orinoco". I would be
> hard
> put to describe it as science fiction . . . and as a "classic" of
> early
> science fiction? That seems to be a bit much.
>
> RM
>
Received on Tue 31 Dec 2002 - 02:57:01 IST

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