Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

From the Earth to the Moon--Does it require a sequel?

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 19:33:28 -0500 (EST)
To: jvforum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

The cartoon image of the lightbulb appearing above a character's head is
familiar to all of us, and is in fact to my mind a rather amusing but also
accurate portrayal of how a fresh idea may suddenly illuminate our thinking.

Such occurred to me, a few days ago, and I'd like to share it with the Forum
for the reactions of others.

I first read a (no doubt watered-down) Scholastic Press version of From the
Earth to the Moon as my first Verne book, in the fifth grade, age ten, in the
spring of 1969. I found it singularly unsatisfying; nowhere in the little
paperback was there any mention of a sequel. Nonetheless, some months later, I
had entered my own lifelong thrall to Verne and discovered Around the Moon,
discovering that the story of FEM had a more satisfactory conclusion.

Yet, in subsequently realizing the five year span between the composition
of the two stories, something has always remained unsatisfactory about the
relationship between the two works. And it may be linked to that need for
closure, for "a happy ending" that AM offers. Judged purely as a literary
achievement, FEM outweighs AM, when the two are measured as separate
novels.

Much has been written on this Forum about Verne's choice of a cannon, and
whether he was indeed likely aware that his solution to the problem of lunar
travel was ultimately no more practical than that of Poe's Hans Pfaal.

That, however, seems to me a matter of secondary interest. More to the
point, as highlighted in Walter James Miller's Annotated JV translation of
FEM (the fabulous version I have just been rereading), is the fact that
the whole background of artillery serves as a perfect launch pad for
Verne's own ironic commentaries on militarism, nationalism, capitalism,
and sectionalism. FEM may be best understood as satire, rather than, more
conventionally, a scientific novel.

And it is with that in mind that it seems to me it is quite possible to
read FEM, not as the first part of the story of a lunar journey that it
became, but a stand-alone volume. One which is open-ended, yet seems to
indicate that nature has intervened and the ambition of man has been
thwarted. Just as Herr Schultz sought the destruction of Franceville and
instead launched a satellite, so too did the Gun Club fail in their aim,
instead creating yet another satellite. The Club has failed, just as they
will again in the ultimate volume of the trilogy, which returns to the
tone of FEM. A later team of American astronomers hunting for a
meteor--whether or not having the help of an interfering French
scientist--similarly find nature overwhelming their dreams. Thanks to
modern literary reappraisals of Verne, we can recognize in him a writer of
much greater depth, and the seemingly sudden, "surprise ending" of FEM is
indeed inevitable, and the implied death of all the protagonists (despite
the hopes of Maston, who has been foolish throughout the novel), an
experiment with a different type of ending. So too were such other early
Verne novels as Hatteras and Paris au XX Siecle intended to end in the
death of the protagonist.

Vernian sequels don't always merge together easily Indeed, the addition of
Around the Moon rather distorts FEM, losing the materialist view of
American culture that formed the first volume. The futher adventures of
the Gun Club to change the Earth's axis lacks the lightness of FEM, or
Around the Moon. Reading FEM and AM together results in emphasizing the
science, just as making the background of Captain Nemo concrete in L'Ile
mysterieuse robs 20K of its ambiguity and universality of experience.
Maitre du monde does not answer the questions raised by Robur le
conquerant; instead it multiplies them, and if it ends the life of Robur,
it leaves his true motivations and background never to be known.

Perhaps, then, it is not so unfortunate that at least in English, FEM has
often appeared separately, far more times than its sequel has, and indeed
the two are surprisingly rarely published together.

Given the above, I see that my own one-time belief that FEM demanded a
sequel may have been a result of an incorrect reading, or only one way of
reading of FEM. Perhaps a sequel was possible, but certainly not
essential, from a literary standpoint, any more than L'Ile mys. had to
resolve the open ends of 20K and Les Enfants du Capitaine Grant. My
assumption has always been that Verne always planned FEM to have a sequel,
but I open the question to our expert biographers on that more practical
point. And, I would suggest the notion that FEM is indeed a singular
volume, able to stand alone.


Brian Taves
Motion Picture/Broadcasting/Recorded Sound Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20540-4692
Telephone: 202-707-9930; 202-707-2371 (fax)
Email: btav~at~loc.gov


Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.
Received on Tue 07 Feb 2006 - 02:48:22 IST

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