Journey Through the Impossible (25 page)

In Verne's first version of the book, which was never published, Hatteras
fell in the volcano and died at the North Pole. However, because Verne's
marketplace was the educated French family (able to read and write), Hetzel
believed such a conclusion might shock young readers, so he asked Verne to
revise the end of the novel. Verne did so, but with an artistic and solemn
pirouette, leaving Hatteras afflicted by polar madness, walking always north.
A hundred years after the discovery of the North Pole by Captain Hatteras,
the College de Pataphysique in Paris celebrated this anniversary with a huge
banquet and many speeches. Members of the College de Pataphysique included Boris Vian, Eugen Ionesco, Paul-Emile Victor, and Raymond Queneau (see Viridis Candela, Cahiers acenonetes du College de Pataphysique, no. 16
(July 11, 1961).

5. One of the two comical characters of the play. In The School ofRobin-
sons, published in 1882 by Hetzel, the dance master is named T. Artelett. The
connection is obvious.

6. Written "Lidenbrock" inJourney to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au
center de la terre), published in 1864 by Hetzel in Paris. This geology novel
of Jules Verne begins in Hamburg, in 1863, where an eminent mineralogist,
Professor Otto Lidenbrock, discovers a cryptographic manuscript hidden in
an old Icelandic book. Not without sorrow, and with the help of his nephew
Axel, he manages to decipher it. The short note-written by Saknussemm,
an alchemist of the sixteenth century-shows the way to the center of the
earth. In spite of the reservations of the peaceful Axel, snatched from his
comfort and from his fiancee, the professor decides at once to follow the
traces of the traveler who tried the adventure three hundred years before.
The "entry door" indicated by the parchment is Snaeffels (in Icelandic, Snae-
fellsjokull), an extinct volcano in Iceland. Accompanied by Hans, their Icelandic guide, the two men go down in one of the eruptive chimneys and
begin their underground progression by the glow from the Ruhmkorff
lamps. The entrails of the globe reveal fairy-like visions, and the advance of
the explorers is slowed down by dramatic incidents. First a lack of water
makes them suffer cruelly, until Hans discovers a providential creek; then
Axel is lost in the total darkness of a granite labyrinth and loses consciousness, after having fallen down the slope of a "vertical gallery, a veritable well"
(William Butcher's translation). Found by his companions, he awakes in a
cave of gigantic dimensions; the ceiling rises as far as the eye can see, and the
cave contains an entire sea. In this sea and on its shores, the flora and fauna
of an ancient geological time still remain, to the great amazement of the professor. The crossing of the sea on a raft is disturbed by a fight between an
ichthyosaurus and a plesiosaurus, and by an appalling storm. On the other
side, the travelers find a sign left by Saknussemm. The way is blocked, and
they use explosives to open a passage, which turns out to be a catastrophic
initiative. The raft is lifted by a tidal wave into a volcanic chimney and
pushed to the surface of the earth by the molten magma. At the end of a distressing rise, the three men, bruised but safe, find themselves on the slopes
of Stromboli, a volcano in full eruption. From Iceland to the Eolian Islands,
they traverse twenty-four hundred miles and live a fabulous Plutonian adventure. Professor Lidenbrock becomes world-famous, but regrets not having been able to reach the center of the earth. Axel is finally able to marry his
betrothed.

7. Latin word meaning "nobody" or "no man" (in Homer's Odyssey,
Odysseus declares his name to be "Noman," when he encounters the
Cyclops Polyphemus). Nemo is used by Jules Verne as the name of the captain of the Nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Mysterious
Island. The first novel begins in 1867, in New York. The French professor
Aronnax embarks on board a frigate of the American navy, with the objective
to hunt and destroy the giant narwhal whose aggressiveness toward ships
concerns ship owners. After a long journey, the frigate approaches the monster, but the encounter turns bad and, during the short confrontation that
follows, the scientist is thrown into the sea with his servant Conseil and the
harpooner Ned Land. The three climb on the back of the narwhal and
quickly note that it is not an animal, but an enormous steel machine. Taken
aboard, they are greeted by the enigmatic Captain Nemo who designed and
built this extraordinary submarine, the Nautilus. This man, whose nationality
and identity remain unknown, seems to harbor violent hatred for a country
that is never identified in the novel. The involuntary guests of the captain
cannot be released because they now know the secret of the Nautilus.
Aronnax deals well with the detention, because it allows him to satisfy his
passion for ichthiology under exceptional conditions. The port-holes of the
Nautilus reveal to him the wonders of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
During a tour of the underwater world, he feels the emotions of underwater
explorers, visits the fisheries of Ceylon, and contemplates the ruins of
Atlantis. He also lives dramatic moments during the crossing of the ice-barrier of the South Pole, where the ship escapes being crushed by ice. With
Ned Land, he fights against the giant octopuses that attack the crew and the
ship, and admires the bravery of Nemo on this occasion. In spite of the sympathy he feels for this exceptional man, the scientist is indignant when the
Nautilus rams and pitilessly sinks a warship. Pushed by Conseil and Ned
Land, Aronnax agrees to try to escape. When the Nautilus is sucked down in
the Maelstrom, the three escape in a dinghy and avoid the deadly pressure of
the flow. They are rescued by Norwegian fishermen, but the Nautilus is not
seen again. Did Nemo succumb? Will his true name and his nationality
remain unknown? These questions remain unanswered for Aronnax.

According to Adolphe Brisson, who visited Jules Verne in 1898, and on
Verne's own confession, the idea of an underwater voyage was suggested to
him by the novelist George Sand, an assiduous reader of his novels. Brisson
published Sand's letter in extenso in his interview. Paul Verne, brother of the novelist and captain in the merchant marine, was consulted for the technical
questions about the Nautilus. In 1874, Jules Verne reintroduced the character
of Nemo in Mysterious Island and provided his true identity and his biography. Verne had initially created Nemo as a Polish prince fighting against
Russia. Hetzel asked him to modify Nemo's nationality for commercial and
political reasons: France was an ally of Russia and Verne's translations in
Russian were a good market. Verne accommodated his publisher by making
Nemo an Indian prince fighting against the British.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Nemo is in his forties; in Mysterious Island, he is seventy, even though the first novel happens in 1866 and
the second in 1869. In writing Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Verne
knew he would have to bring Nemo back in a later novel, to unveil his
nationality and identity. He planned to do it when Nemo would be seventy,
but Hetzel asked him to put Nemo in another novel much earlier than he
had planned. Hence Nemo's appearance in Mysterious Island. Verne and
Hetzel both knew the problem this would cause but they didn't correct it.
They merely placed two footnotes in Mysterious Island making the reader
aware of their decision to leave the dates as they were.

8. Michel Ardan is one of the three passengers of the bullet going From
the Earth to the Moon. In Verne's novel, he comes from France just in time to
ask the Gun Club to modify the projectile, saying in his telegram, "Modify
it, I will travel inside." Ardan is also the anagram of Nadar, alias Felix Tournachon, photographer and balloonist friend of Jules Verne.

9. Aalborg, a city in northern Denmark (www.aalborg.dk), contains the
world's largest Viking burial ground, a cathedral, a monastery, large Renaissance buildings, and a castle. The Andernak Castle, is based on the castle in
Aalborg. During the spring of 1881, Jules Verne traveled from Rotterdam to
Copenhagen on his yacht, Saint-Michel III, with a crew of ten mariners. With
him was his brother Paul, who wrote a report of this journey under the title De
Rotterdam a Copenhague a bord du yacht Saint-Michel. Hetzel added the report to
the end of the in-octavo edition of the novel The Jangada (La Jangada, also
known as Eight Hundred Leagues over the Amazon). Was it this trip that inspired
Jules Verne to set the beginning ofJourney Through the Impossible in Denmark?
In a letter to Hetzel, written from Rotterdam on June 8, 1881, Jules Verne cites
the town of Frederickshaven, north of Aalborg Bay, on the Kattegat, a gulf of
the North Sea bounded by Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

10. In 1872, Verne published a short story titled "An Imagination of Dr.
Ox," serialized in three issues of Le Musee des Familles. The small town of
Quiquendone is wisely managed by the burgomaster Van Tricasse and his friend and adviser Niklausse. The Quiquendonians are phlegmatic and placid
people, living in a perpetual slowdown. But everything changes with the arrival
of the vibrant Dr. Ox, who offers to install gas lighting throughout the town,
at no charge, with the agreement of the burgomaster. A plant is built, the gas
pipes are run under the pavement, and the standard lamps grow like mushrooms in the streets. What is the true objective of Dr. Ox and his assistant,
Ygene? The personality and the character of the Quiquendonians change drastically: they become speedy and aggressive. Van Tricasse and Niklausse start a
violent fight, compromising the wedding of their children. The town declares
war on the neighboring town over a minor litigation several centuries old. A
drama seems imminent at the time the whole population attacks the supposed
enemy, when an enormous explosion destroys the gas plant. The excitement
disappears as the Quiquendonians, calm again, walk peacefully back home. The
reader learns that all the upset was caused by Dr. Ox, an eminent physiologist
who circulated pure oxygen in public places to observe the effects on the inhabitants. Quiquendone is left without lighting, but once again has peace and quiet
after the headlong escape of the scientist and his assistant. Verne jokes with
words: Ox plus Ygene makes oxygen. The story inspired an opera-bouffe in 1877
with a libretto by Philippe Gille and music by Jacques Offenbach.

11. Verne's (or Nemo's?) submarine was named after the Nautilus of
Robert Fulton, the American inventor of the steam engine. In 1800, Robert
Fulton (1765-1815) presented to the French Directoire a submarine to sink
British ships. During the demonstration in Rouen, on the river Seine, Fulton
himself was aboard and his Nautilus dove to a depth of 7.6 meters (25 feet).

12. In Greek mythology, the Titans ruled the universe for ages. They
were massive and strong, and were the twelve children of Uranus (heaven)
and Gaea (Earth). The best known are Chronos (Time), who ruled the universe until he was dethroned by his son Zeus; Oceanos was the river flowing
around the earth. Oceanos's wife, Tethys, was the goddess of the Mediterranean Sea. Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory and the mother of the
nine Muses. Themis was the goddess of divine justice, and Atlas, of course,
carried the world on his shoulders.

13. A volcano close to Naples.

14. Italian town at the foot of the volcano Vesuvius. Lidenbrock and his
two companions came out of their journey to the Center of the Earth through
Stromboli, not through Vesuvius. Parisian spectators were more familiar
with Naples and Vesuvius than with Stromboli.

15. A suburb northwest of Paris, on the river Seine.

16. There is no such place as Asnieres de Bigorre. But in the Pyrenees (a mountain range between France and Spain), above Tarbes, on the Adour
River, is a resort called Bagnieres de Bigorre.

17. In journey to the Center of the Earth, Axel was professor Lidenbrock's
nephew who traveled with him and the Icelandic guide Hans underground
from the Snaeffels to the Stromboli.

18. Jules Verne loved to play with names and words. He invented Babichok to be hilarious and ridiculous. Valdemar's fiancee had to have a name
that would add comical effects.

19. Verne plays here with the French word "battement," which has a
double meaning: tapping or stamping and palpitation. Tartelet uses it with
the first meaning, while Valdemar uses it with the second, thus creating a
misunderstanding that is always well received on stage.

20. Untranslatable (double meaning) wordplay: In French, "Suisse" is
both a noun and an adjective. In English, we have Switzerland and Swiss, two
different words. In French, the adjective is placed after the noun, so Tartelet
could understand Valdemar saying "... mouton. Suisse..." as "Swiss
mutton" when Valdemar wanted to say: ". . . mutton. Switzerland ..."

21. Another example of Verne's play with words. This name is as comical and ridiculous as Babichok. In the novel serialized by Hetzel in 1882,
when journey Through the Impossible was on stage in Paris, The School of Robinsons (L'ecole des Robinsons) is a character named William W. Kolderup.

22. Verne's expression "carrefour des ecrases" means literally the "intersection of the crushed." Of course, there is no such place in Paris, or anywhere, and the use of the term adds to the comical aspect of the dialogue.
Valdemar means "the crossroads where many people were run over."

23. After successfully publishing four novels by Jules Verne, Hetzel
decided to give them a generic title: Extraordinary journeys. Verne's novels
were extraordinary adventures, but this play makes them impossible. journey
Through the Impossible is, with its summary, the crown of the collection of
Extraordinary journeys.

24. At the beginning of his literary career, Jules Verne wrote Journey to
the Center of the Earth and touched on the topic of evolution. Later he deepened the subject in The Aerial Village, where the members of a safari in the
Congo discover what appears to be a colony of natives living in the trees.