Book Review: Verne, Jules—Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

I first read this book when I was in 6th grade. It was one of the reasons I spent the next five years almost exclusively reading science fiction. There a lot of famous and visually stunning scenes in the book, most of which were incorporated into the Disney movie. But one that wasn't has always stayed with me. When the Nautilus is sailing through the Mediterranean Dr. Arronax sees a man swim up to the observation window in the salon. Nemo tells Arronax that this swimmer lives most of his life floating unprotected in the sea.

How can that even be possible? How can anything in this book be possible? And yet Verne manages to make the reader want it to be possible because it’s just so cool. And he backs it up with enough science so that it’s easy to believe.

I have read that most English translations of 20,000 Leagues were heavily edited and marketed as stories for children. So when I bought a copy to read to my kids I made sure to get the most recent and robust translation I could find.

And I needed to read my kids the real thing because their elementary school only stocks “Great Illustrated Classics” versions, which is to say they are dumbed down and full of pictures. My kids were reading them and spoiling all these great books, including this one, in the process.

In reading this version as an adult, I found that Verne spends a lot, and I do mean a lot, of words detailing the taxonomy of the flora and fauna Dr. Arronax observes while traveling under the sea. And when you’re reading it out loud to your kids it makes for some interesting tongue gymnastics. Some whole chapters are devoted to little more than scientific observations. After a while of reading lists of longitude and latitude coordinates, I asked my kids if they had any idea what those were. They didn’t so we had to discuss what that meant. Also much of the science and speculation of Verne has been superseded by newer developments (the geography of the South Pole, the existence of Atlantis) and resulted in discussion about what people knew then compared to what people know now.

There’s another aspect to the book and that is the adventure. Being trapped in the antarctic ice, fighting giant squids, and exploring the sea floor.

And finally there is the political, revolutionary and even anarchic undertones. These notions are subtle at first but play an increasing role in the story as it progresses. These also led to discussions about everything from the definition of misanthropy to the French revolution.

At the beginning my daughters weren’t to excited to have me read 20,000 Leagues to them. By the end they were begging me for one more chapter every night.

Book Review: Wiest, Andrew—The Boys of '67

I’ve encountered a couple of broad overviews of the Vietnam war before. I picked this book up at the library because I was interested in the day to day experiences of a US soldier fighting in Vietnam.  This book is about “Charlie Company” drafted right at the beginning of the Vietnam war. It goes through their experiences in basic training, the year or so they spent in Vietnam, and  a quick overview of a few of the men’s family they left behind and their experiences after getting home from the war.

When you read about most wars they seem to have some sort of geographical goal. The strategists running things are trying to move the front forward with a final aim of conquering a something. In Vietnam soldiers were sent out to patrol specific areas, kill as many Viet Cong as possible and then come back to camp for a little R&R before going out again. Sometimes they would patrol the exact same area where that they had previously fought a bloody battle only a few months prior.

This aimlessness combined with the normal rigors of war seems to have horrible effects on morale. What is the point to fight and die in order to kill random people in a foreign country that doesn’t really want you there to begin with? Imagine if our police force was tasked, not with sustaining law and order, but with prowling around various neighborhoods and killing as many perceived criminals as possible. The emotional effect on both the police and the people being policed would be enormously traumatic.

The soldiers in Vietnam consequently spent lots of their free time drinking, doing drugs and availing themselves of prostitutes.

On the other hand there seems to be this emotional rush that comes with fighting for your life, and an intense sense of brotherhood for those with whom you fight that can’t be replicated anywhere else and that is extremely compelling. So much so that some men re-enlist because they can’t experience it anywhere else.

The book also describes the bouts with PTSD the soldiers experienced after coming home from the war. One man, once he was diagnosed with PTSD, was kicked out of the army. When he showed up at the VA for PTSD treatment, that same army told him that PTSD was not a recognized condition and therefore they couldn’t help him.

The quality of writing is merely sufficient, and it has a tendency toward being overly sentimental. Nevertheless, it’s a fascinating bit of history from the soldier's point of view.