Category Archives: Science

Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” – a 19th century science fiction story that has become irresistible 21st century entertainment and more.

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Feature Image: Promotion of a 2008 film adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth in 4D. “Journey to the Center of the Earth 4D Movie Sign” by rmanoske is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Promotional movie sign for a contemporary showing of the 1959 20th Century-Fox film version of Jules’ Verne classic story that tells of a geologist, his nephew, and their guide who descend into the earth and encounter many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is originally a science fiction novel published 160 years ago in 1864 by Jules Verne (1828-1905). His protagonists are hot-tempered German geologist, Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide into the earth’s bowels, Hans Bjelke. On this remarkable subterranean journey they encounter many dangers, including living prehistoric creatures. The story has proven irresistible entertainment over three centuries with several major film, television and radio adaptations as well as theme parks over the decades.

Photograph of Jules Verne in Nantes by Étienne Carjat (1828-1906). In Société de Géographie. Public Domain.

There is the well-known 20th Century-Fox 1959 film production starring James Mason with a score by Bernard Herrmann and the 1967 Saturday morning cartoon series voiced by Ted Knight, Pat Harrington, and Jane Webb which was a favorite broadcast of many growing up, as well as three different film productions of the “Journey…” tale in 2008.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, Bernard Herrmann scored a series of mythically-themed fantasy films, including Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1959. Unknown photographer – Arlington Heights Herald, Arlington Heights, Illinois. Permission details: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of “publication” for public art. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author’s death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
 

The best of those three films made in 2008 is arguable this 4D film by Eric Brevig (above). It stars Brendan Fraser as the professor, Josh Hutcherson as his nephew and Anita Briem as their guide, “Hannah,” and follows the original 1860’s Verne novel with fidelity.

The novel’s first English edition was published in London in 1871. Journey to the Center of the Earth has appeared in various other English translations and has never gone out of print. “journey to the center of the earth” by cdrummbks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

As most journeys are best left to a private world recorded in a not-to-be-read-or-shared diary or journal (and then perhaps discarded), other journeys are or become universal (“classic”). These are often adventure stories where the “I” sometimes, usually, is removed or obscured for imaginary protagonists of a greater experience. Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of these.

The fascination of the Total Eclipse of the Sun.

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FEATURE image: Viewers near Chicago, Illinois, of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, April 8, 2024. Author’s photograph. All rights reserved.

On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse crossed North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The path of the eclipse first entered into Mexico then into the United States in Texas and into Canada in southern Ontario province. In the U.S., the solar eclipse’s “path of totality” traveled through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The central event took less than two hours. See – https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when/ – retrieved April 8, 2024. In the U.S. over 30 million people resided in the path of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse. The next total solar eclipse in the mainland U.S. and Canada won’t be for more than 20 years. See – https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/08/science/total-solar-eclipse#what-to-know-about-the-great-north-american-eclipse – retrieved April 9, 2024. The last total solar eclipse across the U.S. was August 21, 2017 and, before that, one must return to the 1970’s for a total solar eclipse in the U.S. though their paths do not begin to match the 2024 event in terms of crossing the center of the country.

Yet, a “total eclipse of the sun” is, if not one of science’s misnomers, clearly one of nature’s optical illusions. If 1.3 million Earths can fit in the sun (https://www.iflscience.com/how-many-earths-can-fit-inside…) and 50 moons can fit in the Earth (https://www.reference.com/…/many-moons-fit-inside-earth…) then 65 MILLION moons would fit in the sun. That science can learn much from the tiny moon “covering” the sun – more akin to a visual pinprick – can only be limited despite the belief (like the ancients) that it signifies more. Yet as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity demonstrates (i.e., that light bends by gravity) even a limited empirical physical footprint’s significance such as a solar eclipse can be outsized to learned points greater than its intrinsic data range – that is when viewed and processed by the universe’s most vast body – the human imagination.

Total eclipse of the sun from the Trouvelot astronomical drawings (1881-1882). “Total eclipse of the sun from the Trouvelot<br />astronomical drawings (1881-1882) by <a href=’https://www.rawpixel.com/search/etienne leopold trouvelot?&amp;page=1′>E. L. Trouvelot</a> (1827-1895)” by Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Solar eclipse watchers near Chicago, April 8, 2024. Author’s photograph. All rights reserved.

In the media, everything is hyped & what’s important is ignored. As if earth’s tiny moon is going to block the solar system’s sun. At best it’s a dim overcast for 5 minutes where, afterwards, many express some disappointment in the drama of expectations. A lunar eclipse (that happened March 25, 2024) is more interesting for the mass of naked eye, low-tech earthlings. As far as a cosmic event, the solar eclipse is eagerly anticipated whatever its scale as it will contribute to science and scientific knowledge based on its rare natural phenomenon and the development of astronomers’ newest tools. Yet humankind’s imagination by itself is the more interesting aspect of the cosmos, starting here on earth, and ascending to the stars and planets.