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Re: Journey and Journey 2

From: wbutcher <wbutcher~at~netvigator.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:55:26 +0800
To: "'Jules Verne Forum'" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Dear Art,

 

Yet another Hollywood film, then, where the book is travestied. Is it just
me, or are they getting worse? Can't the descendants sue given that their
moral rights have been trampled on?

 

The idea that the Voyages are real was first introduced in Hatteras and
Journey, via the citing of the title of the book within the novel. In both
cases the idea is absent from the original manuscript; for Journey, it
appears in the margin, and so may have been influenced, if not more, by
Hetzel's reading of the manuscript. As you say so pertinently, yet another
irony...

 

Best wishes

 

Bill

 

From: owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il [mailto:owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il] On Behalf Of
aevans2 tds.net
Sent: 20 February 2012 23:11
To: Jules Verne Forum
Subject: Journey and Journey 2

 

Dear Vernian friends,

This weekend I went to see the film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island with
Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson and the young actor named Josh Hutcherson who
appeared in Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D with Brendan Fraser.
It was mildly entertaining but, of course, has nothing to do with Verne
(although the volcano spitting out gold reminded me of The Golden Volcano).

One important feature shared by both films, however, is the notion that the
events in Verne's novels *really happened* and were not just fiction. This
is the supposed secret shared by most "Vernians" around the world. So the
films' protagonists (ironically) follow in the footsteps of Lidenbrock,
Axel, Cyrus Smith, Nemo et al. and, during the course of their many
adventures, confirm the real existence of these original Vernian characters.


In one way, this notion is a useful gimmick to avoid direct comparisons
between the films and Verne's novels (which would be very unflattering to
the films). But I also found it fascinating as a verisimilitude-building
device. And I remember Verne doing exactly the same thing in _Le Sphinx des
glaces_ (The Ice Sphinx). In this novel Edgar Allan Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym
is treated as a *real* person whose adventures at the South Pole *really
happened* according to Captain Len Guy. Yet another irony.

Best,
Art
Received on Tue 21 Feb 2012 - 02:55:37 IST

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