Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: The Mighty Orinoco

From: <rmiller~at~crosslink.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 22:05:59 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

On 30 Dec 02, at 16:56, Walter J Miller wrote:

> 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.

As I've said, please don't misunderstand me: I'm delighted the book
is being published! But I think that calling it "science fiction" is
certainly a stretch. Simply because geography is a science doesn't
by itself necessarily make a book about exploration--even the
exploration of a place not yet discovered--"science fiction". And
we're not talking about Shangri La or Atlantis here, but only the
source of an otherwise well-known river. Forensic medicine is a
science, too, but I'd be hard put calling the Dr. Thorndyke novels
science fiction.

RM
Received on Tue 31 Dec 2002 - 05:06:08 IST

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$