From the Earth to the Moon
by Jules Verne
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Is Jules Verne the father of science fiction? Too bad they don’t
have a DNA test to settle this paternity case. With an offspring so
successful, there is no shortage of candidates seeking custody. Yet
alongside Verne’s claim, one needs to assess the cases for H.G.
Wells or Hugo Gernsback as pater familias of the genre.
Verne sometimes seems to have more in
common with the travel and adventure
writers of his day, such as Richard Burton
(no, not Liz Taylor’s husband), Mary
Kingsley and Isabella Bird. But with this
difference: Verne preferred to write
accounts of imaginary trips beyond
anything these others had ever dared—
to the center of the earth or the bottom
of the sea, around the world in eighty
days, or to the moon. To quote the
famous infinitive-splitting, gender-
insensitive boast, he aimed “to boldly go
where no man has gone before.”
From the Earth to the Moon, Verne’s account of a lunar expedition
penned more than a century before the Apollo mission, is the
closest thing to hard science fiction one will find in this author’s
oeuvre. You may think that this writer is just an escapist storyteller
constructing modern fables for adolescents, but at least half of the
book is devoted to discussing, debating and hypothesizing on
scientific matters. The plot moves slowly to make room for all the
tech talk—so much so that the most interesting character in the
work, the French “astronaut” Michel Ardan, doesn’t appear until
halfway through the novel.
By then Verne has meticulously outlined how the launch date was
determined, where the launch should take place, the construction
and materials for the capsule, the chemical nature of the propulsion
and the safety hazards involved in its manufacture and use, the
financial arrangements for funding the project, the duration of the
journey, the nature of the telescope that would monitor the trip
from Earth, and a hundred other details. When I was studying
journalism years ago, I was told that my accounts needed to answer
the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and the one H (how).
Verne, in this book, is very H-heavy.
The early portion of the story moves with—in that grand bit of
judicial doubletalk—“all deliberate speed.” In other words, it plods
along. Yet Verne gets high marks for how much he anticipated the
details of the later Apollo journey, from the starting point (he
launches his astronauts within a two hour drive of Cape Canaveral)
to the size of the capsule and the duration of the trip. Not all the
science here adds up—when I tried to check some of the sources
cited by Verne, I came up empty-handed, so he clearly bent his
“facts” to match his story. And you will be amused to find the
launch team counting up to forty rather than down to zero for
blastoff into space, while five million bystanders sing "Yankee
Doodle." Even so, I have a hunch that, if a gathering of leading
technologists and industrialists had been convened in 1865 to come
up with the most realistic plan for a moon trip based in on means
available to them at the time, they would have arrived at a plan
largely similar to the one Verne concocts.
Verne was also sensitive to the cultural and political ramifications
of his subject. His nineteenth century space program is the result of
the armaments industry in the US trying to cope with the end of the
Civil War. They need a new goal to justify their role in a time of
peace. The exact same scenario played out after World War II,
when advances in rocketry were achieved by Werner von Braun
and others who had been closely involved in weapons production.
So Verne not only predicted many of the specifics of space travel,
but also must be seen as one of the first to call attention to what was
later dubbed the “military-industrial complex.”
His book starts with the deliberations of the Baltimore Gun Club,
under the leadership of its President Impey Barbicane, as its
members struggle to address the declining need for big artillery
after the conclusion of hostilities between the North and the South.
Their solution: the construction of an enormous cannon, large
enough to fire a projectile at the moon. The idea is so newsworthy
and exciting that donations pour in from all over the globe to fund
the project.
But soon even this audacious plan is not bold enough for their
tastes. Michel Ardan, a convivial if somewhat implausible
Frenchman arrives on the scene, and volunteers to be a passenger
on the flight to the moon. Soon he engages Barbicane and Barbicane’
s arch-rival Captian Nicholl to join him on the trip. By any measure
they form an unlikely team, and one doubts whether this threesome
possesses much of what Tom Wolfe called “the Right Stuff.” Yet
somehow they form a workable unit.
When he was writing this book, Verne had not yet visited the United
States, yet he doesn’t let that stop him from indulging in some sly
cross-cultural commentary. He plays with the prevailing
stereotypes, albeit in a goodhearted manner, and gets as much
mileage as he can from the set-up of a joint Franco-American space
mission. Needless to say, the Yankees bring the weapons, while
their Gallic friend supplies the wine.
Despite the heavy dose of pseudo-science and the comedy of
manners elements to the story, From the Earth to the Moon
maintains a fair degree of suspense throughout its unfolding. And
Verne even leaves his audience with a cliffhanger at the end. Some
readers might gripe at the inconclusive final chapter here, but this
was simply one more area in which Verne was ahead of his time.
Long before Star Wars, this skilled storyteller realized that the best
space operas always need to leave room for a sequel—and in this
instance, Verne obliged with his 1870 follow-up, Around the Moon.
by Jules Verne
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Is Jules Verne the father of science fiction? Too bad they don’t
have a DNA test to settle this paternity case. With an offspring so
successful, there is no shortage of candidates seeking custody. Yet
alongside Verne’s claim, one needs to assess the cases for H.G.
Wells or Hugo Gernsback as pater familias of the genre.
Verne sometimes seems to have more in
common with the travel and adventure
writers of his day, such as Richard Burton
(no, not Liz Taylor’s husband), Mary
Kingsley and Isabella Bird. But with this
difference: Verne preferred to write
accounts of imaginary trips beyond
anything these others had ever dared—
to the center of the earth or the bottom
of the sea, around the world in eighty
days, or to the moon. To quote the
famous infinitive-splitting, gender-
insensitive boast, he aimed “to boldly go
where no man has gone before.”
From the Earth to the Moon, Verne’s account of a lunar expedition
penned more than a century before the Apollo mission, is the
closest thing to hard science fiction one will find in this author’s
oeuvre. You may think that this writer is just an escapist storyteller
constructing modern fables for adolescents, but at least half of the
book is devoted to discussing, debating and hypothesizing on
scientific matters. The plot moves slowly to make room for all the
tech talk—so much so that the most interesting character in the
work, the French “astronaut” Michel Ardan, doesn’t appear until
halfway through the novel.
By then Verne has meticulously outlined how the launch date was
determined, where the launch should take place, the construction
and materials for the capsule, the chemical nature of the propulsion
and the safety hazards involved in its manufacture and use, the
financial arrangements for funding the project, the duration of the
journey, the nature of the telescope that would monitor the trip
from Earth, and a hundred other details. When I was studying
journalism years ago, I was told that my accounts needed to answer
the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and the one H (how).
Verne, in this book, is very H-heavy.
The early portion of the story moves with—in that grand bit of
judicial doubletalk—“all deliberate speed.” In other words, it plods
along. Yet Verne gets high marks for how much he anticipated the
details of the later Apollo journey, from the starting point (he
launches his astronauts within a two hour drive of Cape Canaveral)
to the size of the capsule and the duration of the trip. Not all the
science here adds up—when I tried to check some of the sources
cited by Verne, I came up empty-handed, so he clearly bent his
“facts” to match his story. And you will be amused to find the
launch team counting up to forty rather than down to zero for
blastoff into space, while five million bystanders sing "Yankee
Doodle." Even so, I have a hunch that, if a gathering of leading
technologists and industrialists had been convened in 1865 to come
up with the most realistic plan for a moon trip based in on means
available to them at the time, they would have arrived at a plan
largely similar to the one Verne concocts.
Verne was also sensitive to the cultural and political ramifications
of his subject. His nineteenth century space program is the result of
the armaments industry in the US trying to cope with the end of the
Civil War. They need a new goal to justify their role in a time of
peace. The exact same scenario played out after World War II,
when advances in rocketry were achieved by Werner von Braun
and others who had been closely involved in weapons production.
So Verne not only predicted many of the specifics of space travel,
but also must be seen as one of the first to call attention to what was
later dubbed the “military-industrial complex.”
His book starts with the deliberations of the Baltimore Gun Club,
under the leadership of its President Impey Barbicane, as its
members struggle to address the declining need for big artillery
after the conclusion of hostilities between the North and the South.
Their solution: the construction of an enormous cannon, large
enough to fire a projectile at the moon. The idea is so newsworthy
and exciting that donations pour in from all over the globe to fund
the project.
But soon even this audacious plan is not bold enough for their
tastes. Michel Ardan, a convivial if somewhat implausible
Frenchman arrives on the scene, and volunteers to be a passenger
on the flight to the moon. Soon he engages Barbicane and Barbicane’
s arch-rival Captian Nicholl to join him on the trip. By any measure
they form an unlikely team, and one doubts whether this threesome
possesses much of what Tom Wolfe called “the Right Stuff.” Yet
somehow they form a workable unit.
When he was writing this book, Verne had not yet visited the United
States, yet he doesn’t let that stop him from indulging in some sly
cross-cultural commentary. He plays with the prevailing
stereotypes, albeit in a goodhearted manner, and gets as much
mileage as he can from the set-up of a joint Franco-American space
mission. Needless to say, the Yankees bring the weapons, while
their Gallic friend supplies the wine.
Despite the heavy dose of pseudo-science and the comedy of
manners elements to the story, From the Earth to the Moon
maintains a fair degree of suspense throughout its unfolding. And
Verne even leaves his audience with a cliffhanger at the end. Some
readers might gripe at the inconclusive final chapter here, but this
was simply one more area in which Verne was ahead of his time.
Long before Star Wars, this skilled storyteller realized that the best
space operas always need to leave room for a sequel—and in this
instance, Verne obliged with his 1870 follow-up, Around the Moon.
| conceptual fiction |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
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Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.