Precursor - The day an American journalist in 2890 (XXIX Au siècle ou La journée d'journaliste américain en 2890 a - 1889/1891 [sometimes the title is the date in 2889]) by Jules (1828-1905) and Michel Verne (1861-1925) 
First published in its English translation in February of 1889 the American magazine The Forum, and only in 1891 in France following a public reading made of them by Jules Verne, this story appeared in precisely the signature only Jules, but also according to the writer's correspondence with his French publisher Hetzel, is generally recognized today that the first draft of it is due to his only son Michel (More often referred to as the true author or with minimal co-author of the novels of Jules posthumously), the text of which Jules would see him again, then spoke at length. This early collaboration between the cold and difficult father (who had been a problem child of a problematic father) and his rebellious son makes it difficult and very interesting story in the corpus winter.
Jules Verne is one of the recognized fathers of what was to be the science fiction of the twentieth century, and especially scientific extrapolation of trends as related to the size and adventurous, the action of real technocrats in history. The hard sf , basically. Although he was primarily a writer rather than attentive to current scientific extrapolation, although he invented that little in the scientific field and was limited mostly to bring science to the extreme consequences of his era, the picture is quite true: even by the tare to the fact that he was primarily a storyteller of extraordinary adventure, the most skilled and capable to fascinate. The contemporary writer who I think was the closest as it features Michael Crichton.
Michel and her father Jules Verne
The best novels are a testimony to what Verniani said by Michele Strogoff to XX Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , from Around the World in 80 days to Journey to the Center of the Earth . And among these, even those that clearly contain elements of science fiction to captivate and enthrall the great adventure of the scenario or design, or the magnetism of a star like Nemo: It is not by chance that Verniani novels are published under the label of Voyages extraordinaires : first, in fact voyages. Wherever these freshness of his work Best lacking even the most visionary and science fiction novels of Jules Verne, Hector Servadac , for more contemporary masterpiece Strogoff, lacks to drag the reader from first page to last.
substantially correct and is also the model of a scientific optimism Verne writer, singer of the progressive and human destiny. Verne was not that blind or that the climate of his day had completely occupied the perception of the world, and in the last years of his life, the optimism will be more reflective and mature, he was not simply lose confidence in the potential human (well, the potential of what the man then equip themselves and their fellow goes there ...).
This is why this story, most likely the result of a "subject" of his son Michel welcomed by the father who has undergone a major overhaul, is the best critical stance towards the optimism of Jules science. Criticism, not the contrary. Jules Verne (through the inspiration of her son) seems aware than ever of the force of technological innovation and its ability to change the life of man, while conscious of the price that man pays. And Verne - Parent, child or parent and child that is - seems well aware of the character of inevitability that progress (for better or worse, I repeat) that has already taken in 1889 in which the story was published for the first time.
The text is still devoid of bitterness, and AC awareness of reality filtered through some hyper-realistic representations to the grotesque distortion of an enthusiasm for the technological breakthrough that anticipates the Futurist aesthetic. In addition to some particularly vicious satirical jabs even expressed an airy lightness:
- Parfait. And the case of the killer Chapman? ... Have you interviewed the jurors who must sit in seats?
- Yes, and they all agree on the guilt so that the case will not even referred to them. The accused will be executed before he was sentenced ...
- Run ... Electrically? ...
- Electrically, Mr. Bennett, and painlessly ... it is supposed, because we are not yet Fixé sur ce détail.
Here (and elsewhere) shows Verne conscious observer and analyzer of the close links between innovation, society, economy, law and especially the media. The M. Bennett she is addressing the anonymous caller in the sentence above is Francis Bennett, owner of the world's largest media empire, and through its powerful structure, the Earth-Herald newspaper (the accuracy of the estimates of sf is a myth irrelevant) is in fact the most powerful man in the world, from which all money or beg for attention, from brilliant scientist at the Plenipotentiary of foreign nations to the representative of the people enslaved. Bennett is a reification of power as Verne saw him in the distant future and to us it seems all too contemporary: a sort of Frankenstein assembles but same-gender: from Pulitzer to Hearst - and Citizen Kane - up to Murdoch and Berlusconi. A Frankenstein benevolent, it is clear that encourages writers to its soldiers who did not have enough success to take example from those who know how to give the public what the public wants, that decides the future of nations as sitting in a chair from which administers arbitration international justice, which decides the future of individuals by granting or denying its support. A Frankenstein, frankly, that this gives us Verniana distorting lens in her left hand deformity. A deformity that is not the individual: the kindness of Bennett is clear beyond dell'alacrità bee booty that makes him the epitome of workaholic. The deformity is the role of the concentration of power that man holds. We meet so something that sounds much too contemporary Francis Bennett EUT expedia rapidement que ceux des idées here n'apportaient inutiles ou impraticables. The one I prétendait-il pas faire revivre the peinture, cet art en grave telle que l'Angélus desuetude de Millet venait d'être vendu quinze francs .
A fronte di queste e altre analisi che appaiono – o temiamo siano, come la precedente – profetiche, la miriade di invenzioni azzeccate o meno, disseminate nel corpo del racconto, e per lo più desunte da Robida, ci appaiono come il festoso colore che incornicia e rende più netti e sinistri i contorni di una storia che prefigura un futuro più grigio e problematico della sua copertina e di come la pubblicità sa propagandare. Seppure la sfiori soltanto e la sottostimi anche, l’influenza della pubblicità è chiara a Verne, così come i meccanismi attraverso i quali opera una multinazionale quale's Earth-Herald; egli Scrive: The adjacent room, large walk long half a mile, was devoted to advertising, and one can easily imagine what must be a publicity as the Joumal Earth-Herald. It reports an average of three million dollars a day. Thanks to an ingenious system, moreover, part of the advertising propagates in a form entirely new, due to a patent purchased for three dollars to a poor devil who died of hunger.
Jules Verne as a young
After one hundred and twenty years after its conception and publication of this story sees fade more and more evident and its contents across the surface content that probably made the fortune of the writer. But you see above emerge and become more present, clear, concrete and able to stretch into the future their own shadow content that many, appeared to rest between the folds of the pages Verniana, calling for a careful reading and discussing more awareness.
