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Long-Lost Jules Verne Short Story 'The Camera-Phone' Found ?!?

From: Daniel Compère <daniel.compere~at~wanadoo.fr>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 18:39:53 +0200
To: <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

What is this ?...

...a joke !

D. Compère

>
>AMIENS, FRANCE—Literary scholars announced Monday that they have
>unearthed a 33-page handwritten manuscript of "The Camera-Phone," a
>short story believed to have been written in 1874 by French novelist
>Jules Verne, the man often considered to be the originator of modern
>science fiction.
>
>"The discovery of this highly prophetic work is exciting in both a
>literary and a social context," Jean-Michel Frelseien of the
>Ecole-Polytechnique said Monday. "This story of a hand-held
>communications and picture-taking device that leads to social upheaval
>in 21st-century France provides yet another example of Verne's
>celebrated prescience."
>
>"Le Telephon-Photographique," which Frelseien identified as having been
>written just after Verne's masterpiece 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, is
>narrated by Gui Cingulaire, the nephew of brilliant but monomaniacal
>professor Bernard Cingulaire. An ambitious, gifted scientist, Bernard
>fails to predict that his invention, a portable telephone that can take
>photographs and send short script messages, will contribute to the
>breakdown of traditional manners among Parisians.
>
>Frelseien said the manuscript was found among the belongings of Verne's
>publisher, Pierre-Jules Hertzel, along with an uncompleted letter
>rejecting the work as "pessimistic, preposterous, and unappealing in
>premise."
>
>"Verne's view of a 21st-century Paris overrun by camera-phone-toting
>nabobs is indeed dismal," Frelseien said. "But in all of its
>particulars, the story is classic Verne. The main character is a
>strong-minded and brilliant scientist-inventor, symbolizing the
>ambition and drive of the Industrial Age. The clever but wide-eyed
>narrator's breathless appetite for knowledge pulls the reader along.
>And the technological centerpiece of the story—as usual, powered by
>Verne's beloved electricity—sets the stage for conflict between the
>characters."
>
> "Where the story departs from a typical Verne piece, however, is in
>the level of devastation wrought by the innovation," Frelseien added.
>"The infuriated victims of the camera-phone-dominated society
>eventually put all of Europe to the torch."
>
>The story, which has yet to be translated into English, has been lauded
>by literary scholars around the world.
>
>"It's an absolutely wonderful and engaging piece of work," Harvard
>professor of French literature Neil McGraw said. "Professor Cingulaire,
>a noted eccentric, is convinced by his unscrupulous creditors to patent
>and market his long-distance-communications and image-transmission
>device, in spite of his misgivings. At first, use of the phone is
>prevalent only among the bourgeois, but it soon spreads throughout
>social strata."
>
>As use of the device becomes commonplace, McGraw said, normal societal
>relations between citizens break down.
>
> "Rudeness becomes ubiquitous, as the device's infuriating
>notification-chimes invade every corner of public life," McGraw said.
>"When the ethically bereft begin transmitting images obtained under
>questionable circumstances, espionage becomes so prevalent as to
>threaten the integrity of the French populace."
>
>Frelseien and other scholars at the Ecole-Polytechnique are searching
>for other unpublished stories mentioned in the recently recovered
>papers, including "The Massaging-Chair," "Incident At A Café Of
>Thinking-Machines," and "The Satellite Initiative For Strategic
>Defense."
>
>http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4041&n=2
Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 - 18:39:50 IST

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