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Bezig met laden... The Coming Race (origineel 1871; editie 1874)door The Right Hon. Lord Lytton
Informatie over het werkThe Coming Race door Baron Lytton Edward Bulwer Lytton (1871)
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Elements of this book were used to create a nazi cult to which most of the top nazis's were members. But thats not the authors fault, except that he wrote something way ahead of its time. I mean consider the fact that it was written in 1871 and at times i felt like i was watching an episode of startrek. I'd break it down into 3 parts, the start is decent the middle drags a bit as the author goes into too much detail concerning languages and other boring stuff but the last third is great. The main character starts having delusions of grandeur which are quite funny, then finds himself in a deadly if also somewhat amusing state of peril. ( ) Well worth a read. The superior race, the real "terrestrials" who live underground are discovered by a man who is welcomed into their society and learns about their language, religions, social structure, politics, achievements, history, sex, and death. I found myself wondering what the Anas did regarding differing aspects of living and Bulwer-Lytton seemed to answer all my thoughts! I believe my reading of many H G Wells' stories before I read this helped as it followed the same sort of structure as a Wells story, and was set in the same time as most Wells' stories. I was very glad to have read this and glad it had a happy ending too - for the protagonist (though bleak for our humankind survival). SUPER BOVRIL Published anonymously in 1871 this novel follows in the traditions of a hollow earth theory already explored in [Niels Klim's Journey Under the ground] in 1741 and [Symzonia] in 1820. Like the previous two novels the protagonist describes a utopian society living someway below the earths surface, which is hollowed out and contains it's own atmosphere. Jules Verne also described a hollowed out earth in his Journey to the Centre of the earth (1864) but his hero's did not encounter any utopian societies. As in the previous two utopian novels the book is a first person account by a man who penetrates beneath the surface of the Earth and discovers a race of humanoids (the Vril-ya). Their life style, culture and society is one of harmony and ease compared with the life on the surface of the earth, but of course utopia is not for everyone and like the hero's of the previous books our man risks his life to get back to the civilization that he knows. Bulwer-Lytton spends most of his energies describing the society of the Vril-ya. There are 29 chapters and the first five describe the circumstances of the narrators descent and reception by the Vril-ya and it is not until chapter 25 that the story starts up again with the narrator planning his escape. This is not an adventure novel, but a description of a utopian society and although the narrator is never entirely comfortable, for the most part he is on a voyage of discovery. He cannot of course help but compare his own society (he is an American by birth) with what he finds in the underground world. In this respect it is quite similar to Thomas More's Utopia from the early sixteenth century, but the difference here is the substance from which the race takes it's name: vril. It strikes the narrator as being like electricity, but in the form of an all permeating liquid that can do almost anything once properly handled and understood. It lights the underworld, it provides power, it can be harnessed as a death ray by almost anybody, it powers airboats, and individual wings for flight, it runs the automatons that do much of the menial work, it heals and cures, and gives the powers of mind reading and telepathy. This unique substance has enabled the Vril-ya to become masters of their environment and has taken away the need for striving and competition. There is no need for war, there is no crime and the city is run for the benefit of all, with the motto of "A poor man's need is a rich man's shame" However our narrator is not convinced: "I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, or darkness. I began to feel that, whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards a better, and higher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of the upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the very happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire." Generally speaking the females are better at controlling the Vril and they have developed into the most powerful sex, but choose to live in harmony with the males. The females make all the moves in choosing a mate, but once married they settle into domesticity and hang up their wings. Much of the energy in the society comes from a youth culture dominated by the females. Bulwer-lytton paints the society as completely alien to the surface world with the threat once mentioned by the Vril-ya almost in passing that when the time is right they will go up to the surface. The narrator sees a coldness behind the harmony of the Vril-ya and is in no doubt that they see themselves as the master race. His unease even when he is shown kindness and friendship keeps the reader in suspense for what may happen. The majority of the book is however a description of an alien culture, and Bulwer-Lytton seems to be indulging his own interests when he spends a chapter on the development of their language. This may be fascinating to those readers interested in linguistics, but for others that want to get on with the story then it might feel a bit like a cul-de-sac. The story does eventually pick up and the uneasiness felt by the narrator is well justified, but of course we know that he lived to tell his tale. This short novel does have its longueurs, but it is well written and deserves its place in the canon of proto science fiction. It was quite popular in the nineteenth century and the word vril became associated with life giving elixirs. There was a Vril-ya Bazaar held at the Royal Albert Hall in 1891. 3.5 stars (I prefer Marmite) LA RAZA VENIDERA La Raza venidera es una obra maestra de la sátira utópica y un extraordinario logro de la imaginación profética. Anticipa con extraordinaria precisión el moderno surgimiento de la mujer, los desarrollos de la energÃa nuclear y la tecnologÃa láser, y los terribles genocidios étnicos que llevarÃan a cabo pretendidas razas superiores. Una de las primeras novelas de ciencia ficción de la literatura inglesa. «En La Raza venidera, lord Lytton representa a un vulgar hombre de nuestro tiempo atrapado por accidente en un paÃs subterráneo habitado por una raza varios cientos de años por delante de nosotros en la evolución. Y, esta teorÃa de la evolución, introduce algo asà como un método cientÃfico en la novela moderna.» George Bernard Shaw «Hace ya bastante tiempo que hemos aprendido a reverenciar el fino intelecto de Bulwer. Podemos coger una cualquiera de las producciones de su pluma con la seguridad de que, al leerla, las más salvajes pasiones de nuestra naturaleza, nuestros más profundos pensamientos, las más brillantes visiones de nuestra fantasÃa y las más ennoblecedoras y elevadas de nuestras aspiraciones serán, a su debido turno, encendidas en nuestro interior.» Edgar Allan Poe LA RAZA FUTURA La novela La Raza Futura, cuya traducción al castellano ofrecemos a nuestros lectores, es una exploración del porvenir; tanto más sorprendente cuanto fue escrita en 1871, en una época en que la ciencia, la mecánica y la electricidad se encontraban en un estado casi embrionario. Lord Lytton se revela como escritor de clara intuición, rayana en clarividencia; de otra manera no hubiera podido desplegar ante el lector un panorama del desenvolvimiento humano tan avanzado; el cual, si cuando escribió la obra pudo considerarse como fantasÃa irrealizable, hoy, ante los progresos de las ciencias, de la mecánica, de la electricidad aplicada y, sobre todo, de la aeronáutica, nos ha de parecer no sólo realizable, sino en curso de realización. El hecho mismo de situar en el centro de la tierra el escenario y el medio ambiente del relato es, en clerto modo, simbólico; parece como si el autor quisiera indicar que la humanidad, para alcanzar el grado de perfección de la raza futura y más avanzada, cuyo cuadro nos presenta, tendrá que adentrarse más en sà misma. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
Science Fiction.
HTML: This early science fiction novel offers a fascinating vision of a shadowy underworld populated by strange and beautiful creatures who closely resemble the angels described in Christian lore. These beings, known as Vril-ya, live underground, but are planning soon to claim the surface of the earth as their ownâ??destroying humankind in the process. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.8Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Victorian period 1837-1900LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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