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Re: Masters of the Sea: The Adventures of Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf

From: Tom McCormick <jambuvijaya~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:32:15 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Just to play devil's advocate: If naming the genre constitutes being the genre's "father", H.G. Wells would seem to have a better claim to the title Father of Science Fiction than Jules Verne does. After all (speaking of naming the genre), Wells called his tales "scientific romances", and that phrase is much closer in meaning to "science fiction" than Verne's description of his own works as "voyages extraordinaires".  While many of Verne's books, including the one under discussion, qualify as scientific romance (=scientifically speculative fiction="science fiction"), they ALL qualify as adventure stories in the context of journeys or voyages. Ergo, if (I say "if") an author's own definition of his genre is to be respected, perhaps we should honor Verne as SOMETIMES a writer of scientific fiction, but ALWAYS a writer of adventurous travel stories. Strenghtening the argument for this position is the fact that many of Verne's fictional journeys are intentionally not
 scientifically sound but openly fantastic, e.g. the cannon of the Moon novels or the hollow earth of Voyage au Centre or the impossible ecology of L'Isle Mysterieuse. By this criterion (the author's own moniker for his collection of works), Verne certainly gave scientific speculation in fiction a great boost, but is he THE parent of the genre?   Tom McCormick ________________________________ From: Lionel Dupuy <lioneldupuy~at~wanadoo.fr> To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il> Sent: Sun, June 27, 2010 5:49:18 AM Subject: Re: Masters of the Sea: The Adventures of Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf Bonjour, Si la traduction est au niveau de la présentation, on peut la laisser aux oubliettes... Comment peut-on écrire aujourd'hui encore : Jules Verne, père de la Science Fiction ? Combien de fois faudra-t-il rappeler que l'auteur lui-même ne se considérait pas comme le père de ce genre ? Lionel. > Message du 27/06/10 03:31 >> De : "wbutcher" >> A : "'Jules Verne Forum'" >> Copie à : >> Objet : Re: Masters of the Sea: The Adventures of Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf >> >> >Good morning, If we are to believe the blurb, Verne coined the term “science fiction”: quite an achievement!  >Billhttp://www.ibiblio.org/julesverne/1A, Kai Kuk Shue Ha, Luk Keng, North District, NT, HONG KONG  >From:owner-jvf@Gilead.org.il [mailto:owner-jvf@Gilead.org.il] On Behalf Of Peter Ikin >> Sent: 27 June 2010 09:17 >> To: jvf@Gilead.org.il >> Subject: Masters of the Sea: The Adventures of Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf Hello all, >> >> I check Amazon every so often for new Verne works and I came across this one today. >> >> It was released this month published by iUniverse. >> >> Here is the Product Description: >Product Description >Jules Verne, the "Father of Modern Science Fiction," is indeed immortal and eternally young across three centuries. In Masters of the Sea: The Adventures of Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf, we pay tribute to Verne who inspired pioneers throughout the world for generations. Here, we take Verne's ultimate prediction of communication with our friends of the watery deep to its outer limits. In fact, communication with these friends was heralded throughout the world when in 2003, America used dolphins to clear mines designed to hamper the invasion from the port of Unn Qasr in southern Iraq. For the first time, a pioneering research Preface underscores why and how Verne proclaimed Mathias Sandorf his greatest epic science fiction masterpiece. His dedication of the original work claims "...I tried to make of Mathias Sandorf my Monte Cristo of extraordinary science fiction adventures." >> Verne drew his Austrian heroic character, Dr. Mathias Sandorf, from the reality of the battleground of Germany's conquests of Austria and France during the 30-year period prior to World War I. >About the AuthorGeorge J. Rios, M.P.A., Ph.D. has distinguished himself with nine Public Service appointments including three White House assignments spanning five presidential administrations and is a former New York City Commissioner. He renders a unique service to science-fiction aficionados with his scholarly researched and adapted translation of Jules Verne's preeminent novel. >> >> I was wondering if anyone had read this translation and had any comments. >> >> Thanks, >> Peter. >Find it on Domain.com.au Need a new place to live? > ________________________________ ________________________________
Received on Tue 29 Jun 2010 - 07:55:55 IDT

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