Cori-Beth's Books

Do you have a favourite author that you like to read? Any and all books that they've written? Or maybe just a few? Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, Alexandre Dumas. Or how about Dianne Chamberlain, or even Stephen King? How about lesser known authors such as G.P Taylor or even Janette Oke? Those names aren't known in a whole lot of circles. How about even Jack London? He's more well known. So you like the Call of the Wild, huh? Well, how about Jules Verne, my favourite author?

Now you would think my favourite book by him would be something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. But, no. My favourite by him was the last one that was actually discovered by his great-grandson called Paris in the 20th Century. They also call it the Lost Novel. He never had it published, but his great-grandson did when he found the handwritten manuscript.

Follow along in the book as a young man named Michel who very much so is into the arts such as reading and books and writing poetry. Except in Paris in the 20th Century, that's frowned upon. Any form of art is frowned upon. Dancing, singing, writing, reading, you name it. You wouldn't think that reading is a form of art. Writing books, yes, but reading, no. Also, anything such as paintings. Oh, you don't think of paintings like billboards being part of the arts, but they are. Think of

Well, think about it, like I just said, billboards, they're a form of art. How about those street signs? The ones that you see while you drive to work. Oh, wait a minute, building, creating, and designing a car, it's a form of art. If we didn't have art, you wouldn't have your car.

In the book, things like sciences and math, those things are more important than art. Not to say that they are not needed, of course. But to be mocked and ridiculed, criticized because you write a poem, that's just wrong. Yes, I know, I know. Sciences and math are art forms in and of themselves, but bare with me as that wasn't the point of the book. Nor how a lot of people see them. Most see art as painting, writing, singing, etc. including the society in the book.

Michel is shunned. He has to sneak into a hidden library just to read books, because books have been completely banned. Any and all books that are considered literature. Now that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Think of all the art we have in our world. We have fibre art, we have paintings, we have music, we have singing, we have dancing, we have television, even. Comedies, musicals. We even have plays. Think about a world without Broadway for example. Could you imagine? A world without art is not a world at all that I want to be in.

We have so much art. But, think about it again, that you would be mocked, ridiculed, shunned, even considered obsolete if you even wrote a poem, wrote a book or even read a book. Or even if you sang a song or whistled a tune. Oh, again with those street signs, you don't consider that they're art? Well, they are. Someone had to design them. Street signs that you see, while you are driving in your car that was designed by somebody, who had an eye for art, to those jobs that you consider more important than anything to do with the arts.

How about the clothes that you wear? Those were designed by somebody. Yes, designed, created. Those are art. Event the colour that was picked for them. How about photographs? Those are art. How about the technology you have now? Those are a form of art, with creators and designers. How about the food that you eat? That is a form of art. Created, even if it's bland, even if it's tasty, it's a form of art.

In this book, Michel is shunned from society. Laughed at even though he received an award for his poem. He was still an outcast, a pariah in society. His uncle just wanted him to be an accountant. There's nothing wrong with being an account, just to be clear. But that's all his uncle wanted him to be, nothing else, because any form of art was considered wrong.

Now think about this, again, all books about literature were banned. All books, but anyone, any author. Authors that you may like to read. All banned. Destroyed. Considered obsolete. Not important by the powers that be, and soon by the majority of society because they soon believed the powers that be.

Jules Verne definitely was ahead of his time. He didn't mention in his book all the things that I mentioned that are forms of art such as technology, street signs, and what not. But he was ahead of his time. He mentions skyscrapers in the book. Skyscrapers had to have been created by architects who are artists. Yet, artists weren't important according to the society in the bo
ok. Those skyscrapers that the scientists and accounts work in . Now, it sure sounds like modern times, doesn't it? Paris in the 20th Century, Jules Verne knew what he was talking about, even 100 years ago.

Now the next time you think that they arts should be cancelled, that they shouldn't exist, that they should be cut from our schools, from our society, think about how much art that we actually have. So much. So much. Heartbreaking how Paris in the 20th Century is now.