tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6052354295538236031..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Ballooning with the dummy in the top hat, or Around the World in Eighty DaysAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-73086601805939030932011-07-25T11:13:16.344-05:002011-07-25T11:13:16.344-05:00Nothing wrong with risen hackles; mine bristle at ...Nothing wrong with risen hackles; mine bristle at Verne's platitudes.<br /><br />And, yes, his books seem to have been meant frankly as schoolboy edutainment; in his publisher's words: "to outline all the geographical, geological, physical, and astronomical knowledge... in an entertaining and picturesque format." Nice enough, but, as you say, shallow.<br /><br />I surfed about a bit, and found that BearManor Fiction is publishing some previously untranslated Verne, including the play. Sounds like fun.Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-15792311414387495902011-07-24T17:56:40.475-05:002011-07-24T17:56:40.475-05:00Not raising hackles - coming up against the highes...Not raising hackles - coming up against the highest standards. If <i>Eighty Days</i> was written for a children's magazine, particularly one with such a dreary title, much is explained.<br /><br />I, too, would love to read about the play.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83474482159188500552011-07-24T17:42:27.064-05:002011-07-24T17:42:27.064-05:00Oh dear, poor Verne is raising hackles here. Well...Oh dear, poor Verne is raising hackles here. Well, it's true "Around the World" hasn't aged well. I do take exception to the idea that he wasn't trying to write children's books: most of his books were serialized in the "Magasin d'Education et Récréation," which was strictly for the youngsters. But he did cross over, like Lewis Carroll and countless others...<br /><br />I never had any interest in seeing the movie, but I am intrigued by the fact that Verne turned the book into a play, which ran for two years. I wonder what that was like.Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-73230691915125139492011-07-24T15:33:09.361-05:002011-07-24T15:33:09.361-05:00And thus Verne skips the eastern half of America, ...And thus Verne skips the eastern half of America, after the encounter with Indians is resolved - nothing interesting there. No wind-powered snow sleds in Ohio, I guess - wonder where Verne read about those?<br /><br />It is a shallow book. Good to hear that <i>20,000 Leagues under the Sea</i> is better.<br /><br />I read that myself, decades ago, in a version edited for young'uns, which is also how I first read <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>. The dullest stuff was certainly omitted - most of Part 3 - but I wonder how much of the amazing Part 4 could possibly have survived?Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84495644374529226862011-07-24T14:45:48.665-05:002011-07-24T14:45:48.665-05:00Oh yeah, the history of Mormonism! - I'd forgo...Oh yeah, the history of Mormonism! - I'd forgotten that bit. Why was it they diverted through Salt Lake City again? Wasn't it because to Verne, America only consists of democracy, Mormons and Red Indians, so he had to shoe-horn it in somehow?<br /><br />I think Swift's Gulliver's Travels would fit your Children's Books project rather well.obookihttp://www.mjiles.com/obookispage/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-12989802119679820552011-07-24T14:37:11.676-05:002011-07-24T14:37:11.676-05:00I too read this in my bad French and found it fair...I too read this in my bad French and found it fairly tiresome. It is though a masterpiece of lazing stereotyping: the Englishman is impeturbable, the Indians burn their woman alive along with their dead husbands, America is democracy gone mad, the Frenchman is a hero.<br /><br />I'm now reading 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, which so far is much better. Perhaps this is because Verne has inverted the master/slave relationship: this time the master is the enthusiastic and active partner, while it is the valet who is cold and impeturbable.obookihttp://www.mjiles.com/obookispage/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84812444316660611562011-07-24T10:41:19.016-05:002011-07-24T10:41:19.016-05:00I agree with Doug and Sylvie - whatever genre Eigh...I agree with Doug and Sylvie - whatever genre <i>Eighty Days</i> has slipped into now, Verne was most interested in the details of travel and the geography. Goncharov, in his actual travel book, keeps telling his correspondent that he is omitting all of the stuff you can just go look up. That's just what Verne includes!<br /><br />Then the rest of the scenes are a hodgepodge - the "adventure" at the Indian temple, the history of Mormonism. And adding more adventure, as Sylvie sees in the movies, is no help. Travel for the sake of travel - that's what the book is.<br /><br />My next run at <i>Pinocchio</i> will try a new translation, the <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/pinocchio/" rel="nofollow">NYRB Geoffrey Brock</a> version, which ought to be complete. One hopes.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-8158545511538125512011-07-24T01:22:14.044-05:002011-07-24T01:22:14.044-05:00I just read this in French and thought it moved at...I just read this in French and thought it moved at a brisk pace, but, no, it's not really about adventures--more about how technology is making the world a smaller place, mixed in with a bit of nostalgia for the glory days of adventure travel (rather than tourism). The movie tries to add more "adventure" into the story, but I found it utterly boring, even with the balloon.Sylviehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12894115691475045438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-9533201366986869762011-07-23T11:21:52.182-05:002011-07-23T11:21:52.182-05:00I've been rediscovering Verne recently. I'...I've been rediscovering Verne recently. I'm not sure how well he's served by his translators; in French, his style is cheery and vivacious (he started out writing stage comedies), but he's often stuffy in English.<br /><br />I don't think of his books as adventure novels, really. Many of them were written under the rubric of "Voyages Extraordinaires"; to me, they're more like travel fiction, for kids with wanderlust. Nowadays, the descriptions of traveling and foreign lands seem like padding, but I think they were the hook.<br /><br />I always saw Fogg as a Frenchman's caricature of an Englishman, a cartoon of a phlegmatic Anglo-Saxon. Of course, that doesn't make him more engaging.<br /><br />"Pinocchio" is indeed wonderful, richer and more intense than those who only know the Disney version would imagine. Collodi hasn't always been well translated, either: Pinocchio is a very Italian little creature, who prays to the saints when scared, and gorges himself on Italian candies, references often omitted in versions meant for American kids.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm enjoying your blog; cheers!Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48851016708173878952011-07-22T23:55:39.791-05:002011-07-22T23:55:39.791-05:00The problem with the kiddie lit readalong would be...The problem with the kiddie lit readalong would be defining the category in a feasibly narrow way. I.e., is <i>Little Women</i> really a children's book? Or <i>Ivanhoe</i>? Some books have drifted into the category.<br /><br />I am assuming, of course, that the challenge is following <a href="http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2010/01/wuthering-expectations-scottish.html" rel="nofollow">Scottish rules</a>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-2906825975530075072011-07-22T20:09:21.135-05:002011-07-22T20:09:21.135-05:00An "old-timey kiddie lit readalong challenge&...An "old-timey kiddie lit readalong challenge"--now that sounds like one I could actually complete. I may even have a short list around somewhere--and I'm sure there are many more I'm not familiar with.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-40572748039827804982011-07-22T11:57:02.995-05:002011-07-22T11:57:02.995-05:00Many viewers might be surprised at how dark Walt D...Many viewers might be surprised at how dark Walt Disney's <i>Pinocchio</i> is! But the Collodi novel really dives right into the Slough of Despond. It is <i>Struwwelpeter</i> gone existentialist.<br /><br />Now I want to read it, too. Maybe I'm the one who should organize the old-timey kiddie lit readalong challenge.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-18143531900792158182011-07-22T10:55:19.858-05:002011-07-22T10:55:19.858-05:00After that short teaser, I now find I must read Pi...After that short teaser, I now find I must read Pinocchio, soon. I have a copy, even. I'm not surprised that the Disney treatment should be much different, just taking <em>The Little Mermaid</em> as an example. My vague (very vague) familiarity with some of the classics of children's stories/fairy tales is that not a few are much darker than the contemporary reader might expect, at least in their earliest versions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-69321818353636913522011-07-22T10:10:44.944-05:002011-07-22T10:10:44.944-05:00book around the corner - some children's class...book around the corner - some children's classics preparatory reading - that's a great idea. It would make a good challenge or readalong, too, if it were defined narrowly enough (maybe published before 19xx).<br /><br />Verne was, of course, not <i>trying</i> to write children's books, but the characterization and style are so simple, that that is what they have become. It would be fun to read the book with a child and follow the trip on a world map.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84309978926153222762011-07-22T06:55:42.796-05:002011-07-22T06:55:42.796-05:00Oddly, I've never read Verne.
But now I'm...Oddly, I've never read Verne.<br /><br />But now I'm thinking about reading "children" classics I haven't read. I want to catch up with this and also be able to know which book I can buy to my children and when, according to their age.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-88098875711252805382011-07-21T22:30:24.390-05:002011-07-21T22:30:24.390-05:00I could also enumerate the mild virtues of Verne&#...I could also enumerate the mild virtues of Verne's book. The main one is that it motorvates, to quote Chuck Berry - I understand Bellezza's bated breath. It's not exactly efficient, but Verne keeps up the pace.<br /><br />And then Passepartout is good, a cartoon character but a good one. The novel would be unread now if it were not for him.<br /><br />I had not read this before. It was, as they say, vacation reading, and useful for low energy, low concentration.<br /><br />Lord of the Flies without the lord of the flies could be <i>hilarious</i>. And I love the idea that people hated kids in the 1880s. They certainly did not mind if the imparted lessons were <i>strong</i>.<br /><br />Anna - it's actually an interesting book as a sort of weird novel hybrid. There's the adventure story, but it is mixed with a sort of digested geographical encyclopedia. It's the opposite of Goncharov's travelogue - Goncharov deliberately omits all of the statistical and dempgraphic - you can look that up, he says. Verne packs it in - that's the part of travel Verne likes.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-62921322615699585722011-07-21T21:19:53.804-05:002011-07-21T21:19:53.804-05:00I felt compelled to read this classic when one of ...I felt compelled to read this classic when one of my third graders, a boy from Russia, was reading it during our silent reading time. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, half wondering if he would succeed in his bet with bated breath, and half wondering myself where the balloon was. :)Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-5205657833554263172011-07-21T19:47:14.837-05:002011-07-21T19:47:14.837-05:00I'm 80% certain I read this when I was a kid. ...I'm 80% certain I read this when I was a kid. I read a bunch of Jules Verne stuff based on how much I enjoyed the movies based on his books. Remember the 1960's versions. Those were cutting edge special effects in their day. <br /><br />Now I couldn't tell you much about any of them except that my favorite was The Long Vacation which is about a bunch of school boys marooned on a desert island. Lord of the Flies basically but without the lord of the flies. <br /><br />You're spot on about Pinocchio. How could that ever have been considered a children's book. Maybe people really hated kids in the 1880's.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06906212382849291562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-52980939707761611062011-07-21T18:59:59.157-05:002011-07-21T18:59:59.157-05:00I tried to read "Around the World" three...I tried to read "Around the World" three summers ago in its original French but put it down due to how slowly I had to read it. I enjoyed the beginning; maybe one of these days I'll pick it up again.Annahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00961332983813359209noreply@blogger.com