Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010

Re: Forum

From: Craig Weatherhill <craig~at~agantavas.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:30:03 +0100
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

That's a sad story, J-M. Being Cornish, I can't give an Anglo-Saxon
response, but here's a Celtic one. I see the same sort of thing going
on around me, where the rich heritage and culture of my native former
kingdom, is being turned into "plastic Cornwall" for the tourists by
external organisations. Just about everything about our history and
culture is being warped and fictionised, with even the most sensitive
details transformed into trivia. It's hard to understand, when the
unaltered truth is vastly more fascinating than what these people are
presenting.

Jules Verne the man deserves better than to be misrepresented, if that
is what is happening. From what I understand of him, he was a modest
man, who would have hated being turned into an icon.

Craig






On 30 Mer 2010, at 00:23, Jean-Michel Margot wrote:

> On 3/29/2010 7:54 AM, Walter J Miller wrote:
>>
>> Yes, I would like someone of J-M's stature to give us a "brief
>> traduction" of what happened, Walter James Miller
> Ok, ok... You got me once more, Walter...
>
> ;-) ;-) ;-)
>
> Here is the short story, for our Anglo-saxon friends.
>
> In the seventies, Daniel Compère created the "Centre de
> documentation Jules Verne" in Amiens. It was in the family garage
> and its objective was to offer information and documentation about
> JV, the man and his works, just the opposite of a gift shop!
>
> His parents, Cécile and Maurice took over and in more than 20 years,
> putting all their free time into it, they created an entity which
> served the whole world, accumulating around 20000 documents of all
> kind.
>
> It was THE place where anybody, scholars and general public, could
> get true and reliable information and bibliographic references about
> the REAL JV.
>
> Cécile and Maurice were very close friends and I use this
> opportunity to state that the Vernian scholarship today wouldn't be
> what it is without them.
>
> I worked closely with Cécile and Maurice, helping them to increase
> the documentation at the Centre: about 50% of the documents of the
> Centre are xeroxes of documents I had in my own collection (which is
> now publicly availabe in Switzerland, at the House of Elsewhere).
>
> Around the Centre was created a society of friends to support the
> Centre, which, after a few years, was housed in JV's house - Rue
> Charles Dubois, the house with the tower.
>
> In the nineties, JV's house and the Centre were recognized as THE JV
> entity in Amiens. It was so successful that some people wanted to
> use it for their personal promotion.
>
> The name "Documentation" was dropped and replaced by
> "International", which gives the following title: "Centre
> International Jules Verne" or CIJV. In fact, it's not international,
> but remains typically French. Some years ago, the CIJV dedicated an
> issue of the REVUE JULES VERNE to "Jules Verne in America". Two
> articles written in English by two American scholars were translated
> and published in French!
>
> Today the CIJV is a shiny entity, serving the icon JV, not the real
> writer and his works. No JV specialist works there anymore, and the
> documentation collection is abandoned. The JV house has been
> transformed in a gift shop promoting the name more than the works.
>
> The last exchange of "nasty" emails in the JV Forum (mainly in
> French) is due to the exasperation of the European JV scholars who
> see the CIJV leaving the area of Verne scholarship and taking more
> and more the direction of promoting JV as an icon, a symbol - the
> same way ESA took in naming the first ATV Jules Verne.
>
> Jean-Michel Margot
> 226 Thomas Ruffin Str.
> Hillsborough, NC 27278
> USA
> Tel: (919) 644-7327
> Fax: (919) 640-8794
> jmmargot~at~mindspring.com
> www.ajmm.net
> www.najvs.org
> www.verniana.org
> www.against-the-tide.org

--
Craig Weatherhill

Received on Tue 30 Mar 2010 - 10:30:09 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2010/03/30 12:00:03 $$