However most people love JV for his litterature. Michel Serres, a noted french philosopher and essayist, has done a terrific job in classifying the multiple emotions one feels about reading a JV Classic. According to him, any Jules Verne story is the sum of three concentric circles:
- The geographic circle, Where people travel the world to come back to their starting point: (Le tour du monde en quatre vingt jours, Un capitaine de quinze ans...)
- The Scientific circle, where a particular technology is discovered,explained and utilized to be destroyed or be hidden. ( l'ile mysterieuse, la chasse aux meteores...)
- the initiatic circle, where a group of individuals are on a quest for an ideal, obtain it and return to their world. (Michel Strogoff, 2000 lieues sous les mers)
The circles are concentric and the center is the hero.
Jules Verne tells more than science fiction stories.
Thierry Roullier
thierry.roullier@pt.teradyne.com