early science fiction

O cestě na Měsíc lidé snili od nepaměti. Do devatenáctého století se ale jednalo jen o realitě velmi vzdálené fantazie. Rychlý technologický vývoj a vědecké objevy začaly situaci měnit.

Jednou z prvních knih, která se pokusila naznačit, jak by úspěšná výprava mohla vypadat, byl slavný román Ze Země na Měsíc, který napsal Jules Verne. Ačkoliv se autor v řadě věcí mýlil, je pozoruhodné, jak navzdory tehdejším minimálním znalostem vesmíru a fyziky se některé detaily jeho příběhu podobají skutečné výpravě Apolla 8, během které došlo k prvnímu obletu Měsíce kosmickým plavidlem s lidskou posádkou.

Dalla Terra alla Luna spesso e’ solo nozionistico ed invece di descrivere l’avventura del viaggio o la permanenza sulla Luna si sofferma sulla preparazione all’avventura.

Restano le grandi intuizioni di Verne.

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This book is bizarre, but (mostly) in a good way. The plot is literally that a bunch of dudes are sad because they like to make guns (they're called The Gun Club), but there are no more wars so no one needs guns and now they are bored, so they decide to go to the moon instead. This might sound extreme but this is just how the average man thinks.

There's a lot of tech babble in the book, which I'm assuming is like 56% inaccurate or so. It just seems that most of it cannot be true, even if it was back when it was written. BUt that's to be expected from something that was published well over a hundred years ago. What was more surprising were some of the assumptions in the book, such as people seriously debating whether or not the moon has inhabitants or that surely there was water there. Did people honestly belive that back then?

Other things hold true to this day. My fave is the guy who just happens to do a production of Shakespeare's "Much ado about nothing", and large crowds assuming it's a jab at the main character and violently going to the theater to protest. It seems exactly like the kind of thing that could happen today, and the fact that Americans WERE the first to walk on the moon should prove that a lot of the hysteria from the book were true a hundred years later, and will probably still be true for many hundred years to come.

I did want to know more about the trip in the spaceship, but there's nothing about that in the book. I guess I'll have to read the sequel for that ... ( )

Wow. I am in shock.
It took me a little while to get into the flow of the book but when I did I really enjoyed it. It's written like a scientific history, with many calculation and numbers that could make anyone believe the book is real. For a second I forgot I was reading science fiction. Not only is expertly written scientifically, I found it quite funny. Wow I can't believe it took me this long to read Verne, will definitely read more! ( )