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Re: Verne: invented citations in the VE?

From: Terry Harpold <tharpold~at~acm.org>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 08:13:30 -0400
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

On Tuesday, July 1, 2003, Walter J Miller <wjm2~at~nyu.edu> writes:

>Okay, all, if that's the kind of "invented citation" that
>Terry meant, we can't leave out the "two-volume work, in
>quarto, *The Mysteries of the Great Submarine Depths," which
>Aronnax says he has published in France. And in 20K he is of
>course working on his revised edition. I'm sure that if
>that's the kind of thing Terry wants, we can pile up more
>titles or at least references, allusions, etc. Cheers!
>Walter James Miller

As Bill and Walter surmise, what I'm after is an invented source explicitly cited by the narrator or a character as the authority for some event, process or object in the novels -- in the same way that "real" (extra-fictional) authorities are often cited as guarantors of the verisimilitude of the narrative. (As in _Captain Hatteras_, _Cinq Semaines_, _Vingt Mille Lieues_, etc.)

Bill's skepticism seems to me spot-on --

>Such a move would, I think, be contrary to both the educational mission
>dictated by Hetzel and Verne's extreme literal-mindedness.

-- but it may be that, somewhere, Verne's recurring sly subversions of constraints imposed by Hetzel might have produced something like this (?) Or would that meta-fictional leap have been a bit much, even for Verne?

Aronnax's writings are, as Walter points out, an especially interesting example of the ambiguities that may be possible in this sort of endeavor.

Aronnax describes Nemo's heavily-annotated copy of Aronnax's _Mystères des grands fonds sous-marins_ in 20M; in IM, Smith has read Aronnax's _Vingt Mille Lieues_, and therefore is able to identify Nemo as the castaways' mysterious benefactor. Is there another case in Verne of invented texts playing so highly-visible or determinate roles in the drama of a novel? (One might, I think, consider the cryptograms of _Voyage au centre de la terre_ and _La Jangada_ to fall under this rubric...)

TH

--------------------------------
Terry Harpold
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Florida

tharpold~at~acm.org
tharpold~at~english.ufl.edu
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/~tharpold
Received on Mon 07 Jul 2003 - 15:29:49 IDT

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