Lio by Mark Tatulli for May 30, 2022

Was it really fiction?

So Jules Verne is the grandfather?

I thought it was Percy Shelley (author of “Frankenstein”).

that eye is from which of Herbert George’s novels?

He is slighting Jules Verne because the “eye” from War of the Worlds is more recognizable than Captain Nemo’s Nautilus.

Jules Verne came far earlier. Also Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley was before even Verne.

I spy with my not-so-little eye…

Verne was writing amazing sci-fi decades before Wells.

How about Leonardo Da Vinci as father of science fiction. His science and engineering were impeccable but his designs were beyond the technology of the day. That’s what good sci/fi is all about.

Jules Verne is my vote.

Jules Verne would like a word.

What difference does it make to anyone who invented science fiction? This is the kind of stuff people waste so much time on instead of doing anything productive. Get a life!

Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in 1818, decades before the birth of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. Even Edgar Allen Poe had not yet reached his tenth birthday.

A few years ago I read the Jules Verne novel, “From the Earth to the Moon” (I know that’s supposed to be underlined). Although the amount of accuracy impressed me, the one thing that stuck out in my mind is the organization responsible for launching the ship to the moon. It wasn’t Verne’s equivalent of NASA or any other government agency — it was “The Gun Club — the most influential organization in America” and furthermore states the “… the President of The Gun Club is more powerful than the President of the United States.” Frighteningly accurate prediction from over 150 years ago.

If you are in the mood for “War of the Worlds” give this a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJrbz0wiT28

One of our favorite concept albums.

funny!

That looks like the ‘eye beam weapon’ from the original War of the Worlds. Watch out Lio!

I liked the Spielberg version of WoTW (2005) quite a bit though I found the ending hard to swallow. If someone wants to make me lose control of certain body functions, blast the alien sound from this movie within earshot of me. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTvD6ZQJ3WI

Robert Heinlein, Philip Dick, and Issac Asivov were the real fathers of SciFy

So is this before, or after, visiting his mother’s?

Jules Verne was the first person to write a number of different books that used known science and technology and extrapolated into the (relatively near) future to produce accounts in which the elements of science and technology continued to play a role in the wonders revealed and adventurous challenges encountered. All previous contenders (and many later works) were one-offs, and/or had a heavy emphasis on fantasy, horror, philosophical pedantry, or other aspects that were the main point while any science or technology involved was incidental or a device to set up the main point or theme of the tale. Verne’s work was the first to show that an entire genre might be built on trying to foresee what science and its applications might produce.

If you include fanciful tales about other planets and their inhabitants visiting Earth, we would also want to include the tales of Voltaire and others.

That worm looks more like a Dune character