The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Enkil · Post by **Enkil** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:35 am

I've finished the story at long last. It's definately worth a read, but try and get it from a library, $30 is a bit to expensive for it. The last 20-30 pages were a bit rushed, but not overly rushed so that it's unsatisfactory. You find out what happened to Pym at the end!

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:35 am

Verne was a pioneer.
Until the recent film, the fact that Nemo was an Indian prince was overlooked.
Sadly, a lot of Vernes science doesn't live up to his fiction-especially things like the fellow who deduces that a hot spring is 98.6 because he felt no sensation of heat or cold when he stuck his hand in it.
Hello! That would feel warm to the hand!
He was French, what do you want?

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:29 pm

there's a recent film of 20,000 leagues under the sea?

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:03 pm

Yes, made for the sci-fi channel-and Nemo is a character in 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' complete with turban, talwar and curly toed boots!

Eternities End · Post by **Eternities End** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:50 pm

krakenten wrote:Yes, made for the sci-fi channel-and Nemo is a character in 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' complete with turban, talwar and curly toed boots!

Man that movie sucked

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:06 pm

Yes, it lacked a certain something.
The scifi channel movie was very true to the book, and had a truly lovely female lead, and none of the saccherine sweetness of the Disney version.
Any movie with a giant squid has my attention!

odin2 · Post by **odin2** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:47 pm

krakenten wrote: He was French, what do you want?

Hey, I'm french!
Also Indian...But mostly French!!

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:48 pm

My profound sympathies!

odin2 · Post by **odin2** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:54 pm

Watch it...I just might bake you!

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:56 pm

Tekeli Li!

odin2 · Post by **odin2** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:57 pm

Well when you put it that way...

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:08 pm

odin2 wrote:Watch it...I just might bake you!

And to give the French their due, he would probably turn out very tasty.

odin2 · Post by **odin2** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:09 pm

Thank you!

krakenten · Post by **krakenten** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:15 pm

Lovecraft and his circle of friends loved that device, the lost last chapters, mysterious missing pages and incomplete manuscripts.
Mysterious Island is a POS, one of the novels Verne cranked out when he needed money, it's forced and incoherant, a labor and not a labor of love.
The bit at the hot spring shows the rushed and careless nature of the work-a pool of water at 98.6 would feel warm to the hand, not neutral.
The rest of the plot is just as muddled.
Verne was a pioneer, not a great master-I recently read an examination of 'Around the World in 80 Days' a delightful dissection of that work(Perhaps by J.G. Ballard, I've misplaced the volume, and the title was something like 'The Secret Diary of Philias Fogg').
The careful examination of the many logical holes in the tale, a very interesting examination of the Submarine Nautilus and her piratical crew, a gentle nudge to remind the reader that 'Master of the World' is 20,000 Leagues all over again, great good fun!
I'm about to journey to the Antartic with Messers. Poe and Pym myself, having never read the work.
Wish me luck!