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Re: Lottman

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 20:11:28 -0500 (EST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Jan's comments are very perceptive in pointing out the faults of the book
and the danger in giving it certain labels, ie a psychological study,
which may imply a type of literary analysis that the book doesn't even
attempt. Even from the strictly biographical standpoint it provides
little beyond guesswork.

My own hope is, that should English-language publishers again become
interested in a JV biography, that, rather than hire someone to start
afresh like Lottman, translates one of the expert works in the field
such as Volker Dehs's book or one by an equally esteemed authority.

Brian Taves
email: <btav~at~loc.gov>


Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005, [iso-8859-2] Jan Rychlík wrote:

> Dear Art,
>
> I very much agreed with your review of Lottman's book. Thanks for
> adding further thoughts or a kind of summary of your review. I would
> perhaps be less affable and would never call the book a psychological
> and sociological study. It is not very much psychological, because it
> does not - and even didn't attempt to - discover any reflexion Verne's
> psyche in his works. It is not sociological, because it doesn't tell
> the readers that some darker sides of Verne's character (e.g.
> anti-Semitism) were far from being to-one-person-limited phenomena
> (this doesn't mean that I excuse Verne). And it is not a study but
> rather a work worthy of publication in tabloid.
>
> My personal hypothesis about Lottman's aiming at Verne's pesonal life
> is that he never fully read Verne's books (and if so, then didn't
> comprehend and enjoy them). Thus he was limited to the "exploration"
> Verne's personality only in his book. And it's absurd, when the book
> deals with a person known to the world as writer.
>
> Certainly, it is important to know a writer's personal life (even
> character faults), but rather to comprehend how it shaped its writing.
> I was unable to discover anything like that in Lottman's book. Or,
> just one attempt at it: Lottman does not say much about DEUX ANS DES
> VACANSES, only that "readers know the book because of the character of
> Briant, a reminiscence of a victim of Verne's homosexual pedophilia".
> Well, the constant reissues of this book in our country (each 4th year
> of the 20th century statistically) thus must point to an immense
> proportion of sexologists in Czech population!
>
> I am looking forward to Volker Dehs' forthcoming biography of Verne.
> Being a humble researcher, as I always perceived in his articles in
> BSJV, he is the right person to do Verne - the man and the writer -
> justice.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Jan Rychlik
Received on Wed 02 Feb 2005 - 03:11:33 IST

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