Monday 24 October 2011

Unit Two: Space

For Unit Two I have been assigned three extracts from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a story with which I am only vaguely familiar but a quick TV Tropes search has told me that it's a lot darker than I thought it would be. I already have a handful of initial thoughts, so here they are in muddled, bullet-point format to be referred back to as the unit progresses.

- The Nautilus (the submarine on which the protagonists travel) is both a grandiose, wondrous place and a prison; Captain Nemo will not let the three main characters leave for fear that they will reveal his existence. The submarine becomes a gilded cage, and nearly drives one of the protagonists  mad. These layers of the Nautilus will definitely be interesting to look at.
- Nemo claims to loathe despots an yet, in a way, becomes one himself - I may look at fascist aesthetics and propaganda to get that upbeat yet horrifying-in-retrospect feel.
- Real submarines are incredibly cluastrophobic and tight-pressed for space, like ships but more so. Sure, the Nautilus is this magnificent spectacle, but it might be interesting to consider it as a more conventional sub.
- Everybody takes a very Victorian/steampunk-with-electricity look at the story - why not try a cyberpunk or dieselpunk aesthetic?

2 comments:

  1. Heya Meg the book that I have been assigned with is; “The Journey to the Centre of the Earth” written by Jules Verne. From the reaction by most people sounds like there jealous haha I’m glad to have this book, no nothing about it though nor have I seen the movies about it, got to do some hardcore research on this book.

    I got to get rid of those fish now :( unit 1 is over lol

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  2. a great story! you're very lucky :D
    I love your initial responses, and definitley the idea of looking into fascist environment aesthetics. There's LOADS around how Hitlers mansion "work" - i.e. from the very first step pa person would feel a mere dust within the structure and the system, and how this is all created employing particular arrangements

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