We cannot travel to the centre of the Earth because it would be too hot. No, Jules Verne's Dr Lidenbrock rejects the theory of inner heat! Another sf character denying what is thought to be true.
Verne writes a travelogue from Hamburg to Iceland, eventually recounting the composition of a volcano. The characters do not start to penetrate the Earth until nearly p. 100. This pace does not suit me but I am interested to find out how the descent is described as it is made to read like a real expedition.
Verne would never have thought of time travel. He wanted to base everything in current reality.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
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I agree that Anderson's descriptions of how the Technic FTL hyperdrive works (as in ENSIGN FLANDRY) is among the cleverest fictional depictions of a FTL (or Other Than Light?) drive.
I would argue that the too leisurely pace of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH was simply a characteristic of how many Anglo/American/European writers wrote down till about 1914. Once current day readers mentally adjust to that then what seems excessively slow stories becomes more enjoyable.
Jules Verne did not write time traveling stories, but he did live, I think, till about 1905. I hope he read translations into French of some of H.G. Wells' works, such as THE TIME MACHINE and WAR OF THE WORLDS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
He is quoted as disliking Cavorite because it is a mere invention.
Paul.
At that time, there was no undeniable experimental evidence on the molted-core theory. Now there is, but at the time, it was a legitimate hypothesis.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I don't quite understand that attitude of Verne. One of the greatest things about 19th century Western civilization was precisely its openness to innovations and new inventions. Even fictional ones like Cavorite!
Mr. Stirling: I sort of had that idea in mind as well, that evidence for a molten core in our Earth was not conclusive circa 1870.
Ad astra! Sean
I suppose the really definitive evidence for much of the core of the earth being molten is the behaviour of earthquake waves going through the interior. P-waves (Primary or Pressure) go through both solids & liquids, S-waves (Secondary or Shear) do not go through liquids. The absence of S-waves passing through the outer core tells us that is liquid.
However, It seems hard to see how anyone who knows about the existence of volcanoes would not think the interior of the earth is very hot.
Kaor, Jim!
But we should make allowances for what geologists knew or thought they knew when Verne was in his prime.
Ad astra! Sean
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