tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7857882.post4509833767247278196..comments2023-11-17T11:08:31.857-06:00Comments on Michael May: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)Michael Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12514945570212261283noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7857882.post-17169324944463678382008-12-01T16:22:00.000-06:002008-12-01T16:22:00.000-06:00You're welcome! For the movie it definitely made s...You're welcome! <BR/><BR/>For the movie it definitely made sense to add a romantic subplot as well as the intrigue with Saknussemm's descendant. In the novel, as in many of Jules Verne's Extraordinary Voyages it's mainly about the journey and informing the (young) readers about as many geographic and scientific facts as can be stuffed between the covers (in this case from geology and paleontology, with a little cryptology at the start when they still had to decypher Arne Saknussem's coded message). Of course at that point, dinosaurs and evolution were much more "new" at the time the novel (only Verne's second) was written. <BR/><BR/>It was published in 1864, five years after "On the Origin of Species" and seven years before "The Descent of Man", although Verne must have been aware of pre-Darwinian evolutionary theories such as that of his compatriot Lamarck). In 1864 featuring living dinosaurs and mammoths may have been excitement enough, but by 1959 you needed a little more "oomph".<BR/><BR/>One thing that may have led to the creation of Gertrude by the way was that in the novel Hans is a collector of eiderdown, a profession which meant he had to do a lot of climbing to reach eider ducks' nests on top of cliffs, which predestined him to become Lidenbrock's and Axel's mountaineering guide...Menshevikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07112873248418375924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7857882.post-90931339748795560802008-12-01T09:13:00.000-06:002008-12-01T09:13:00.000-06:00Ooh! Thank you so much for that information. I kne...Ooh! Thank you so much for that information. I knew that there had to be differences between the two versions, but it was going to be a long while before I got around to reading the book. Now I'll have a clearer vision of Verne's original as I watch the other movie versions.<BR/><BR/>Thanks again!Michael Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12514945570212261283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7857882.post-49468763798667327362008-11-30T09:27:00.000-06:002008-11-30T09:27:00.000-06:00Actually, the 1959 movie rather "sexed up" the sto...Actually, the 1959 movie rather "sexed up" the story compared to the original novel, but then Jules Verne was a 19th-century author writing for the children of 19th-century parents and there is usually precious little romance in of his books. In the novel, there is just a little romance between Axel and the professor's goddaughter, but Arlene Dahl's character (Professor Göteborg's widow), Arne Saknussemm's descendant and even Gertrude were additions made by the screenwriters.<BR/><BR/>Oh yes, the novel also does not start in Edinburgh either, but in Hamburg, the Professor's name is Otto Lidenbrock, Axel is his nephew, and Axel's sweetheart, Lidenbrock's goddaughter from the Vierlande (a rural area near Hamburg known for producing fruit and vegetables), is only known as Grauben. Lidenbrock, professor of geology and mineralogy at the Johanneum, is also a rather different character from Lindenbrook, perhaps an early example of the Mad Scientist and certainly to some extent a caricature of a German academic as seen by a Frenchman who was heavily influenced by reading the strange tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann. James Mason's character is worldly and suave compared to the dry and irascible Lidenbrock of the novel (in the first chapter it is mentioned that his lectures are well-visited because people hope to witness his famous fits).Menshevikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07112873248418375924noreply@blogger.com