#20kleaguesunderthefeed

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“Some Guys Traveling a Distance of 20,000 Leagues While Submerged, Periodically Surfacing for Oxygen Replenishment, Provisions and Scientific Study,”

A Voyage Extraordinaire by Jules Verne

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—Captain Nemo

Isn’t water amazing??? You can get in there! Get in there with your whole body! You can float on top of it if your lungs are full of air or you can sink if your lungs are empty! And when you’re floating inside you can look around and the light refracts in different ways and you can see it dance on the surface, everything dances, really, the surface of the water moves and the light on the bottom moves and the shadows move! And it changes colour when you go deeper! Oh, that’s one of my favourite parts. When I go diving in the local lake I like to dive down and then float to the top and watch the surface colour change or the colour of the water change overall — it goes from a dark brown to brown to green to blueish green to light blue and then you’re on the surface again! I wish I floated to the top slower so I could really take it in. And it’s fun to dive down too and see the bottom slowly clear up. You get to go real close and personal with the mussels on the bottom and if you make the flow of the water change with a flick of your hand you can watch them close their shell tightly! It’s always so cool to see a real big mussel that’s deep on the bottom with algae growing on its shell, where the water feels cold to the touch. How cool is it that the water has different layers based on warmth!!???? Water truly has the coolest properties! I kind of get scared when I dive too deep but imagine being like a fish and diving super deep down that layer…. I wish I could enjoy the joys of the ocean with the same intimacy as freshwater! I’m not really even sure if it’s the. same? Although no doubt the light refracts in the most beautiful of ways in the ocean as well — and it’s all blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Captain Nemo, Freedom Fighter

There's a lot of historical and cultural significance in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which is not widely known by modern audiences. Here some some facts I find very interesting:

-> In Verne’s original character notes, he was going to be a POLISH noble whose family was killed by Russians.

Verne’s publisher argued with him about that for a long time because of his large Russian fanbase. Verne reluctantly gave in, but eventually changed Nemo’s backstory to that of an Indian Prince whose family was killed by the British.

With that in mind, that makes the Soviet miniseries more interesting: A Polish revolutionary is actually mentioned by Captain Nemo in the second episode. Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, the actor portraying Nemo, was actually half-Polish himself!

-> Captain Nemo was written as a foil to Confederate Navy Captain Raphael Semmes.

Captain Raphael Semmes had portraits of General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the cabin wall of the CSS Alabama, while Captain Nemo has portraits of Abraham Lincoln and the radical abolitionist John Brown in the cabin walls of the Nautilus.

Semmes was a supporter of slavery while Captain Nemo was an abolitionist.

Raphael Semmes stated that India should never be free from British rule,  while Captain Nemo was an Indian who fought to be free from British rule.

A list of more comparisons between Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and Raphael Semmes' "Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States" can be found on Wikipedia.

Thus, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne was trying to point fingers at the cruelty of the British towards India, the Russians towards the Polish, AND Americans towards people of color.

There are many fascinating rabbit trails to explore in regards to Jules Verne's literary masterpiece. Here are some sources:

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Yes Captain Nemo survived war, but Professor Aronnax survived medical school in the 1800's, so who really suffered the most from earth's man-made horrors?

This man went to medical school, he is stronger than all of us

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Nautilus Twitter feed

#20kLeaguesUnderTheFeed

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I had to do it. It had to be done.

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Oooooh! 👀🦑

under the sea

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Fun with Pinterest's "Shuffles" app.

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That's one of the things that makes the story so great, and something of a pattern I've noticed in many of Jules Verne's stories.

There will be a guy who's like, "YEAH BABY, WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!" (In this case Professor Aronnax)

A guy who's like: "Sure, sounds fun. I'll tag along." (In this case Conseil)

And a guy they're forcibly dragging along, kicking his feet and screaming: "You people are insane!" (In this case Ned)

Think Professor Lidenbrock, Hans and Axel in "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," or to an extent, Phileas, Aouda and Passepartout in "Around the World in 80 Days."

I can think of another iconic SciFi trio which exemplifies this same dynamic:

One thing I’ve really been thinking about is how horrific 20,000 Leagues is from Ned’s perspective. He’s a captive in the alien world he was once king of and his captor is a narcissistic genius with a death wish?!?!

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🦇 It's that time of year again! 🦇

"Dracula" By Bram Stoker is another enthralling, suspenseful 1800's adventure story, and I love the Harkers, Van Helsing, etc. nearly as much as I love Jules Verne's characters. Now there’s a question I’m pondering…

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