The Elysian Fields

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The thing I found myself wondering most often while reading this was how much of the various scientific names and so forth thrown about was cutting edge for the time it was written, and how much - beyond the Nautilus itself - was fiction.

As one of the earliest science fiction novels, it doesn't skimp on the science: much of the text in quite a few chapters is spent describing the lifeforms seen swimming past the viewing window - or rooted firm to the corals and such.

Although those same descriptions will likely turn some off, those not interested in oceanography or, at least, the classification of marine biology, can still enjoy the adventure. For those with interests in anachrotech, this is an in-depth study of the imagination and the technology of an earlier period.

Book #31: White Fang by Jack London

Justin read this for school last year, and they decided to check out the movie. After watching the movie, he couldn't remember what parts were accurate or less than so, and I wondered. So I read (re-read, if you want to count my first read x decades ago) it last night.

The book and the movie, I decided, barely know each other. They may have met in a bar one night, somewhere in the Yukon, and shared a drink or two. The movie is a fun, upbeat adventure story. The book talks a lot about gods, and how mankind are gods to the dogs. It's an old book, two years younger than the boat I'll be eating dinner on tomorrow night, and it most certainly carries many of the prejudices of the time.

But that is what it should do - it was not written for today, and it should not be sanitized, nor should some of those attitudes be idolized. Figuring out which parts can be learned from, and, more importantly, how they should be learned from, is the key.

Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge and me own journal