butterflydreaming (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
butterflydreaming) wrote2010-06-01 07:57 pm
butterflydreaming) wrote2010-06-01 07:57 pm
20,000 Leagues means distance traveled
I finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea last night. It was the perfect companion to Watt's four book Rifter Trilogy, which I am in the middle of. I don't usually like to read a whole series through in one go, and like to space the books out with something in a different style.
Somehow, I have continually forgotten that the title refers to distance, not depth. (Stop mocking me. At least I *read classics*.) It's a brainy book that would not have appealed to me as a child, not one bit. There were no women in it anywhere, unless you count a photograph referred to all of twice, and not explained. Neither the narrator nor either of his companions had a sweetheart or wife back home, thinking them dead. There was no angst! No, not even Nemo would have been angsty enough for me. Captain Nemo at his organ was no Eric, Phantom of the Paris Opera House. No one longed for anything. (Well, no. The Canadian, Ned Land, would have made a better narrator for me. I'm sure he longed for more than red meat and solid ground.)
The title is a give away for how long they are going to be stuck on the ship. The story goes along tra la la, an adventure of the mind... up until a harrowing part near the end when they seek out the South Pole. Oh! I was actually on edge.
It is amazing to read in the context of when it was written, of course. Overall, it holds up quite well. Still, I wouldn't recommend it to a kid. This is a book, in our times, for an adult appreciation.
Somehow, I have continually forgotten that the title refers to distance, not depth. (Stop mocking me. At least I *read classics*.) It's a brainy book that would not have appealed to me as a child, not one bit. There were no women in it anywhere, unless you count a photograph referred to all of twice, and not explained. Neither the narrator nor either of his companions had a sweetheart or wife back home, thinking them dead. There was no angst! No, not even Nemo would have been angsty enough for me. Captain Nemo at his organ was no Eric, Phantom of the Paris Opera House. No one longed for anything. (Well, no. The Canadian, Ned Land, would have made a better narrator for me. I'm sure he longed for more than red meat and solid ground.)
The title is a give away for how long they are going to be stuck on the ship. The story goes along tra la la, an adventure of the mind... up until a harrowing part near the end when they seek out the South Pole. Oh! I was actually on edge.
It is amazing to read in the context of when it was written, of course. Overall, it holds up quite well. Still, I wouldn't recommend it to a kid. This is a book, in our times, for an adult appreciation.