I don’t remember much about the movie “Around The World In 80 Days.” But I am certain I watched it as a kid because my sister and I pretended we were flying in hot air balloons not long after the movie ended. We stood on the living room coffee table. It was our basket.
Of course, the movie was based on the book by Jules Verne. Today is his birthday, born February 8, 1828, in Nantes, France.
There is a lot to this man, besides the fact that he was a nifty writer. He is regarded as one of the founders of science fiction. He wrote some of the most well-known adventure novels of all time, including the groundbreaking Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Maybe he wrote to escape. It seems, early on in life, his heart was broken. A young Jules fell in love with his cousin, Caroline Tronson. She was an older woman — a year and a half older than him. Albeit, he was 12 years old at the time. He began writing poetry and dedicated them all to Caroline. He gave her presents and attended dances with her. But old Caroline didn’t reciprocate his amorous feelings. In 1847, when Verne was 19, she married a man twenty years older than her. And Jules was sick with heartbreak.
Verne’s father wanted him to be a lawyer. He insisted on it in such a big way that Jules got a law degree. However, he stayed true to his heart and became a writer instead. Dear old dad was livid, always pushing him toward law. But Jules loved to write.
His writing held predictions. First, there was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which was published in 1870. Verne describes Captain Nemo’s ship as an electric submarine and an amazing one at that. This technology wouldn’t come along and be invented for another 25 years. But Verne’s description got it almost exactly right. When the first submarine was officially created in 1886, whoever did the naming called it the Nautilus after the one in Verne’s book.
It didn’t stop with the electric submarine. He also predicted quite a few other things we have today — newscasts, solar sails, lunar modules, skywriting, video conferencing, and splashdown spaceships.
In 1863, Verne wrote a novel based in the 20th century. It contained passages about glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, calculators, and a worldwide communications network. It was eerily accurate. The novel focused on a society in which only business and technology were valued. He titled the book Paris in the Twentieth Century. Apparently, Verne’s publisher thought the story was too unbelievable and had no selling value. It never got to print back in 1863. Luckily, it was discovered in 1989 by Verne’s great-grandson, who published the title in 1994.
The poor guy had loads of health problems during his life. Extreme stomach pain. Terrible cramps. Historians think he may have had colitis or a related digestion disorder. To top it off, Verne suffered from Bell’s palsy, which is a temporary form of one-sided facial paralysis caused by damage to a facial nerve. He had several painful episodes of this.
It goes on. Verne developed type-2 diabetes in his fifties. His health got worse over time, including high blood pressure, chronic dizziness, tinnitus, and more. He eventually went partially blind.
I’m telling you. This guy had a bad luck pendant around his neck. His mentally ill nephew shot him in the leg in 1886. The young man’s name was Gaston, who was then in his twenties. For reasons unknown, he became violent from time to time. One day Jules came home, and there was Gaston, gun in hand. He shot his uncle twice in the leg. But the injury left Verne with a permanent limp.
Despite it all, his imagination carried him away into the pages of his books. And that, my friends, is incredibly deep. Twenty-thousand leagues deep.
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The best way to predict the future is to create it.
— Peter Drucker
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The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
— Alan Kay
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The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
— Eric Hoffer
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Deep down, under the sea and the heart
