Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Author: Jules Verne
Rating: â 4/5
Date Read: 2013/11/30
Pages: 164
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is kind of the anti-Moby Dick (why am I making this comparison? Because theyâre both set in the ocean and I read them both recently and Iâm so sleep deprived from a red-eye flight that you really shouldnât expect this review to make sense. Really.). Moby Dick is long and awesome and full of biblical references and generally makes you believe in the ephemeral joy of humanity. Moby Dick also makes you hate fcking whales, and hate the fcking bible, and really really fcking hate fcking [a:Herman Melville|1624|Herman Melville|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1361337904p2/1624.jpg]. Dense poetic prose and all that.
Verne, on the other hand, just comes up with cool ideas and fun adventures that are quick to read, even though the characters are fairly forgettable. I mean, give me like three weeks and I will not be able to tell you anything about Professor Aronnax. Actually, ask me about Professor Aronnax and Iâll probably only have the vague sense that I took some sort of biology class with him or something. Captain Nemo is cool, I guess, but I didnât find him all that mysterious. The Captain Nemo from Star Trek is much more mysterious and awesome, so I mostly pictured him driving the ship around.
Anyway, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is silly and generic in a good way. It feels simple and familiar, and sometimes you need that. It can be fun to read about awesome technology and altercations with cuttlefish, especially when youâre on BART in San Francisco and you canât devote too much attention to a difficult book because some crazy has a leashed cat on the train.
Sorry, this review makes no sense. Moral of the story: never try to write about literature after taking a cross-country red-eye flight; also, Jules Verne is awesome.
