It must be added that these dauntless Yankees did not confine themselves to theory; they also acquired direct, practical experience. Among them were officers of all ranks, from lieutenant to general, soldiers of all ages, some who had grown old over their gun carriages. Many fell on the field of battle, and their names were inscribed on the Gun Club’s honor roll. Most of those who came back bore the marks of their unquestionable valor. Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms with iron hooks at the wrist, rubber jaws, silver skulls, platinum noses- nothing was lacking in the collection. The aforementioned Pitcairn calculated that in the Gun Club there was not quite one arm for every four men, and only one leg for every three.
The preceding excerpt is found on page 4, Chapter 1, The Gun Club, the first chapter of Jules Verne’s novel, From The Earth To The Moon. It was published at the end of our Civil War in 1865 and Verne’s characters of the fictional Gun Club, located in Baltimore, were veterans of that war. They were not just any soldier but valiant artillery men! From this club Verne introduces us to characters looking for the next adventure that would highlight their genius for producing larger canons and robust mortars, the most modern weapons of mass destruction at that moment in time. Suddenly in 1865 there was no war to showcase their latest inventions of thunderous destruction. So bereft of action some members even contemplated starting a war with Mexico.
At the peak of the veteran members’ post war malaise, ripples then waves of excitement washed over the thousand and thousands of Gun Club members across the nation. Their Gun Club President, Barbicane, announced his dream. It was an idea and challenge for his fellow artillery men to combine their talents and acumen to forge the largest canon ever designed for the singular purpose of launching a projectile to the moon! Barbicane introduced his dream of leading his fellow artillery men in the conquest of the moon and he finished by stating that its name will be added to those of the thirty-six states that form this great nation! (Excerpt found on page 15, From The Earth To The Moon.)
I have read that Jules Verne was a children’s story author. In fact I first was introduced to Verne’s wonderful imagination and true to life facts as a youngster in the 1950s by my exposure 20,000 Leagues Under The SEA. Not by reading his 1869 novel but instead, by watching Walt Disney’s movie adaptation of it! My theater critique then, as it is now: The movie was must see as was the Wizard of Oz, Dumbo, and Pinocchio movies. Seriously though, Jules Verne was so much more than a children’s author. Many opine that he was the father of serious science fiction along with H.G.Wells.
This month as I reflect at my metaphorical lighthouse, I wonder about the irony of a Frenchman living in Paris during the French Revolution of 1848 choosing to write one of his Voyages extraordinaires, (Wikipedia), focused on the after-math of the United States Civil War. However it makes sense as you read Verne’s story layered with so much color of the mind set of American military men of that time. This french novelist understood the military mind set, the industrial American mite, the growing financial wealth, the theoretical mathematics supported by world class American Universities of the nineteenth century needed to design the logistics to land their projectile on the moon. Evidently Verne believed that military hubris was not to be found in France or Europe, but only in the United States of America.
Jules Verne’s uncanny knack of weaving a story line with fiction of his time that becomes fact long after his life is studied by critics and scholars. I will just mention two here. The two locations studied by From The Earth To The Moon‘s main characters to build the massive cannon to launch their projectile into space and ultimately the moon were Texas and Florida. One hundred years later America caught up to Verne and launched men into space and the moon from Florida, with control from Texas!
All well and good you might say, but does any one else find it a bit concerning that here in our United States of America we still live under a blanket of military hubris, (exaggerated pride or self- confidence).
President Dwight Eisenhower during his short farewell address in 1961 warned, we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions….This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience….yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications…. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Here we are some sixty four years later. Have we achieved a balance where our national humanity tempers our apparent need to use our military as the hammer of our influence around the world? I think not!
Enough already with my rant! Before I leave this month I have to share with you my love of science fiction. Of course it is an understatement that I love to read all literature. But science fiction just might be my favorite. I take a moment here to mention a few of Jules Verne’s colleagues who have taken their pens to paper inspired by their creative genius of imaginations and maybe even the Akashic Records. I have had the blessing to read the following authors H.G.Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Voltaire, Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Jonathan Swift, Arthur C. Clarke, and C.S.Lewis. If you take a moment to Google a list of authors who are listed under the genre of science fiction it is huge. I estimate over 1200 authors listed on Wikipedia.
Next month I am reading one of John Steinbeck’s wonderful novels. Science fiction? I believe not. I couldn’t find him on the list.
Thank you for reading.
Be in peace and joy!
Mark