Around the World in Eighty Days - Steven R. Southard (Poseidon's Scribe)

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Should AI Write Your Book Title?

Some writers struggle to come up with titles for their stories and books. Capturing all that text into a few pithy and alluring words seems to confound them.

Yes, I’ve blogged about this problem before, but it’s time for an update based on new technology.

Before I get to that, I recommend reading this post by book marketing expert Dave Chesson. It’s helpful if you experience difficulty with titles.

In his post, Chesson mentioned a new resource to help if you’re stuck thinking of a title—ChatGPT. It’s the conversant AI that’s available to everyone for free, here.

As you know, I’ve blogged before about writers using AI and my opinion remains unchanged, for now. ChatGPT is the equivalent of assigning the same homework assignment to a million junior high school students and getting the best answers back instantly. Yes, it’s instant, but it’s junior high school level. That last part may change in the coming months and years as AI improves.

You can seek help from ChatGPT to come up with a title. You can give it a long description of your story or book (or even input the entire text) and ask for any number of suggested titles. Note: there is some question about who owns content provided by that AI, so check the terms and conditions first.

To test how well ChatGPT can generate titles, I decided to have it come up with alternative titles to a work in the public domain with which the AI is familiar. I chose the Jules Verne novel Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours. The literal translation from the French would be ‘A Tour of the World in Eighty Days,’ but in a bolt of titling genius, an early translator rendered it as Around the World in Eighty Days.

That’s become the most iconic of Verne’s titles in English, played with and altered to suit hundreds of other applications.

Something about that format and word choice struck gold—“Around the [world or other object] in [time period]” gives that sense of encompassing something on a strict schedule. It’s literary magic.

For computers, the rule is ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ What happens when you put literary magic in? I gave ChatGPT this task: “Come up with 10 alternate titles (in English) to Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days.”

Here’s the output:

“Globetrotting in Eighty Days”
“Across the Planet in 80 Days”
“A Journey Around the Earth in 80 Days”
“Around the Globe in 80 Days”
“Eighty Days of World Exploration”
“Circumnavigating the Earth in 80 Days”
“Across Continents in Eighty Days”
“Around the World Adventure in 80 Days”
“Around Planet Earth in 80 Days”
“Expedition: 80 Days Around the World”

See what I mean? They all lack the zing, the flair, the magic of the actual title. In twenty minutes of solitary brainstorming, you could do better. That’s my point.

Before you AI enthusiasts sic a terminator on me, I admit I could have pressed ChatGPT harder. I could have gone on to ask it for more interesting and creative titles—titles that don’t just paraphrase the real one. Maybe the AI could have given me more to work with had I prodded it further.

At present, I think it best to partner with AI but not rely on it. Adopt the centaur model I mentioned in my February 26, 2023 blogpost. ChatGPT can recommend titles and they might be inferior or even so-so, but one or more of them might spark the killer title you’re after. You might not have thought of that title had you not consulted the AI.

My answer to the question posed in this post’s title is probably not, but there’s nothing wrong with using AI as a brainstorming tool. So far, all my titles have come from the unassisted mind of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 10, 2023Poseidon's ScribePermalink

The SF Obsolescence Problem

No matter how much a science fiction writer keeps up with science, the writer’s stories will go obsolete.

As science advances, our understanding of the universe changes. A spherical earth replaced a flat one. A sun-centered solar system replaced an earth-centered one. Birds replaced reptiles as closer descendants of dinosaurs. Continental drift replaced an unchanging map.

SF stories based on outdated science seem backward, passe, naïve. Yet we still read them. Why?

When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, she may have thought the technology to animate dead human tissue lay in the near future since Luigi Galvani had caused frog legs to twitch with jolts of electricity. Two centuries later, we still can’t animate dead humans. How silly it seems to have ever thought it possible at the dawn of the 19^th Century. Yet we still enjoy Shelley’s novel today.

Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days astounded his reading audience at such a short duration for a globe-circling trip. Today, astronauts orbit the planet in just over eighty minutes. How quaint to think of an eighty-day circumnavigation as short. Yet we still enjoy Verne’s novel today.

H.G. Wells’ story The War of the Worlds gave us invaders from Mars. Today we can’t imagine fearing an attack from inhabitants of that planet. How pathetic to think people once swallowed that premise. Yet we still enjoy Wells’ novel today.

Why do we readers find these outdated, naïve, obsolete books—and others like them—still readable? Because science fiction isn’t only about science.

SF, like all fiction, is about one thing—the human condition.

True, readers of SF prefer stories in which authors adhere to the science at the time of writing. But as decades pass, readers know the progress of science may render a work of fiction obsolete. They forgive all of that for the sake of a good story.

They want to read about human characters struggling to achieve a goal, to win a prize, to survive. To live means to suffer, but also to strive against and despite that suffering. The struggle reveals the human qualities of bravery, ingenuity, perseverance, loyalty, love, and others. These timeless truths persist no matter how much science morphs our understanding of the cosmos.

As essayist James Wallace Harris stated in this post, “It’s the story, stupid.” Author Michael Sapenoff put it this way: “So while the language itself remains outdated, the ideas are not.”

You may shake your head, chuckle, or even sneer at the obsolete notions in SF stories, ideas since debunked or overturned by later discoveries. But remember, while looking down your nose, science fiction is more about the fiction than the science.

I encourage you to suspend your scientific skepticism and just enjoy the tale, follow the spinning of the yarn. Set aside the transitory and obsolete parts and appreciate the unchanging, permanent parts.

Maybe, in the end, the SF obsolescence problem isn’t a problem after all, for you or for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 19, 2023Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 80

This, fellow voyagers, marks the 80^th day of Phileas Fogg’s journey around the world, 150 years after the fictional tale. Will Detective Fix finally arrest the bank robber he’s been chasing the whole way around? Will Princess Aouda go on to live with her cousin in Holland? Will Fogg return to the Reform Club in time to win his wager?

In New York, Fogg had missed the departure of the China, and found—from consulting his ‘Bradshaw’—that no other steamer would reach London in time. They stayed overnight at the St. Nicholas Hotel (perhaps a reference to the upcoming Christmas holiday?) on Broadway. In the morning, Fogg found the ship Henrietta about to leave, bound for Bordeaux. The captain never took passengers, but changed his mind when Fogg offered 2000 pounds apiece for the four of them.

Fogg ended up paying off the crew to perform a mutiny and they confined Captain Speedy to his quarters, while Fogg ordered a course change toward Liverpool. When the coal gave out, Fogg purchased the ship from Speedy and ordered everything above the waterline burned. On December 21 at 1:00 am, the Henrietta arrived in Queenstown, Ireland. The four travelers took a train to Dublin and a steamer to Liverpool, arriving at 11:40 am. There, Detective Fix arrested Fogg.

Imprisoned in the Custom House, Fogg waited, without apparent emotion. At 2:33 pm, Fix freed him, saying police had arrested the real bank robber three days earlier. Fogg knocked the detective to the floor. He, Aouda, and Passepartout took a train to London, but arrived at 8:50pm, 5 minutes too late to win his wager. Back in his London flat, he had discussions with Aouda the next day, and she proposed marriage to him. If her proposal seems rather sudden, remember that this novel followed the adventure format, not the romance formula.

Fogg accepted and sent a delighted Passepartout to make arrangements with Reverend Samuel Wilson at Marylebone Parish for a wedding the next day, Monday. When Passepartout found out it was only Saturday, he dragged Fogg to a carriage and they made it to the Reform Club just in time to win his wager. By traveling east, he’d gained a day and hadn’t noticed it. He’d covered 24,544 miles in exactly 80 days.

When Verne had Fogg consult the ‘Bradshaw,’ he referred to Bradshaw’s Guide, a book of railway and steamship timetables, published from 1839 to 1961.

The St. Nicholas Hotel existed, having opened in 1853 as the first NYC building to cost over $1M. It closed in 1884 and luxury condos occupy that site on Broadway today.

The port of Queenstown in Ireland changed its name to Cobh in 1920.

Marylebone Parish existed. An Anglican church, it stands about 1.2 miles NNW of Fogg’s mansion at 7 Saville Row. Fogg asked Passepartout to contact the Reverend Samuel Wilson, but I found no record of that name in connection with that church. Charles Eyre served as its rector from 1857 to 1882.

Fogg’s group required 8 days to travel from New York to London, but today you can fly that route in about 7 hours. Throughout this blogtour, I’ve contrasted Fogg’s trip with modern-day flying times. For the entire circumnavigation, those flight times total 102 hours. If we assume an average layover time of 1.5 hours for each of the 16 stops, the total time is 126 hours, or a bit over 5 days. Of course, if you’re interested in the shortest possible time without mimicking Fogg’s route, that’s a bit over 44 hours, accomplished on commercial flights (including the Concorde) by David Springbett in 1980.

This post completes our blogtour, but need not end your enjoyment of Verne. I recommend almost all of his novels. If you prefer a more modern style, I recommend Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. Just published, it’s the first anthology of fiction ever produced by the North American Jules Verne Society. I also recommend you join that group if you’d like to know more about Verne.

In the end, Phileas Fogg spent about as much money as he won. He’d seen nothing of the world he’d just circumnavigated except the insides of steamships and railway cars, where he’d played countless games of whist. However, he’d won the love of a charming spouse, and Verne asks us to ponder whether we, too, would circle the globe for even less a prize than that. Is love, after all, the greatest adventure?

Thank you for traveling Around the World in Eighty Days with—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 21, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 70

Though a century and a half has passed since the publication of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, that novel still resonates with and delights us today. We’ve been blog-touring along with Phileas Fogg and we’ve just reached New York City.

Fogg had put 20,963 miles behind him since leaving London on October 2, which was 85.4% of the total distance. However, he’d used up 87.5% of the wagered time. He had to board the steamer to Liverpool on time to have a chance.

From Chicago, Fogg and his group took the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railway to NYC. For once, nothing much happened. Verne spent little time describing the trip, which concluded at 11:15pm. Sad to say, the Cunard steamer China had left the pier 45 minutes earlier.

The PFW&C Railway did exist. It formed in 1862 as a result of a reorganization of a predecessor railroad that had foreclosed.

The Cunard Line steamer China existed as well. A three-masted steamship, she made regular New York-to-Liverpool runs. Some 18 years after her 1862 launching, Cunard sold her to the Spanish Government who renamed her “Magallanes.” In 1889, Spain sold her to Norway, who renamed her “Theodore,” and converted her to a four masted bark. In 1906, she went missing on her way from Tampa to Yokohama.

In 1872, New York City reigned as the most populous city in the U.S., with over 942,000 residents. Abraham Oakey Hall served as its 79^th mayor. Today, NYC remains the most populous city in the country, with a population exceeding 8,467,000 people. Eric Adams is the mayor.

It took Fogg around 31 hours to ride the train between Chicago and New York. Today a 2-hour flight shortens that trip by a lot.

In previous posts, I’ve listed my first and second favorite screen adaptations of Verne’s novel. I’ve chosen the most recent as my third favorite, the 8-episode 2021 BBC TV miniseries starring David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch. This adaptation really tried to give the story a modern flair—perhaps too much—but succeeded in putting the characters into more trying circumstances, dire straits, and hopeless situations than the novel did.

Things may look hopeless for Phileas Fogg since he missed sailing aboard the China, but a slim chance may remain for him to win his wager. One way you can find out if he’ll succeed is to keep reading blogposts by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 11, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 69

Welcome back, fellow literary adventurers. We’re traveling Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after the publication of Jules Verne’s famous novel. Today, we’re in Chicago, but it wasn’t exactly a breeze to get to the Windy City. Well, in a way it was…

We left Princess Aouda and Detective Fix at the Fort Kearney station in Nebraska, waiting the return of Phileas Fogg. He’d left with thirty soldiers to rescue Passepartout from the Sioux. At dawn on the 9^th, Fogg returned, having rescued his servant and the other missing passengers. However, he’d have to wait until that evening for the next train. Fix made arrangements with a man named Mr. Mudge to ride a sail-powered sledge over hard-packed snow from Fort Kearney to Omaha.

They arrived there in time to board a train of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. That took them past several Iowa towns—Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Iowa City, and Davenport. At 4:00pm on the 10^th, they arrived in Chicago, having come 20,063 miles on their journey, or 81.7% of the distance. Trouble was, they’d used 86.3% of the time.

What about Mudge’s wind-powered sledge? Verne made it sound like Nebraskans used them all the time when heavy snow delayed the trains. Ice boats existed then, but I found no record of their use in the Midwest.

However, this site and this one both mention a wheeled wind-wagon built by Samuel Peppard of Oskaloosa, Iowa, who planned a trip to Pike’s Peak and visited—guess where—Fort Kearney in Nebraska.

Drawing from *Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper*

An article in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, dated July 7, 1860, contained an article on page 104 titled “The Wind-Ship of the Prairies,” datelined Fort Kearney, May 27, 1860. The wind-wagon’s four-man crew declared Pike’s Peak as their destination. Could Verne have read a French translation of that article and replaced wheels with sled runners?

The company Verne called the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad had changed its name in 1866 to the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company. That railway became the inspiration for the song, “Rock Island Line.” The company ended in 1980.

Fogg spent little time in Chicago, and Verne noted the city had “already risen from its ruins.” That refers to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, an event no doubt fresh in his readers’ minds.

By 1872, Chicago’s population numbered nearly 300,000 people and Joseph Medill served as its 26^th mayor. Today, some 2,756,546 people call it home and Lori Lightfoot is its 56^th mayor.

Fort Kearney no longer exists, but you can take a two-hour flight from nearby Lincoln to Chicago. Or you could drive ten hours along Interstate 80. I’ve mentioned that highway a few times now, and you might think it traces the route of the Transcontinental Railroad. It does. According to this site, the following routes form almost identical paths: California Trail, Mormon Trail, Pony Express Trail, Transcontinental Telegraph Line, Transcontinental Railroad, Lincoln Highway, the First Transcontinental Telephone Line, the First Transcontinental Airmail Route, and Interstate Highway 80.

Regarding screen adaptations of the novel, see my previous post for my favorite. For my second favorite, I’d pick the 1989 NBC TV miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle, Julia Nickson, and Peter Ustinov. It’s been years since I saw it, but I recall being pleased with it.

With the four travelers reunited, they still stand a chance of arriving in New York in time to board the steamer to Liverpool. Watch this space for further updates from your entertaining and informative correspondent—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 10, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 67

Excitement builds as we continue our blogtour Around the World in Eighty Days, a commemoration of the publication of Jules Verne’s classic 150 years ago. We left Medicine Bow, Wyoming just yesterday and already we’re at Fort Kearney, Nebraska.

We’ve accompanied Fogg for 19,417 miles and covered 79.1% of the total distance, but we’ve taken 83.8% of the time, so he may well lose his wager.

After just making it over the bridge at Medicine Bow on the 7th, the train passed Fort Saunders, then Cheyenne Pass, Evans Pass, Camp Walbach, and Lodge Pole Creek. After entering Nebraska, they passed near Sedgwick, then Julesburg, Colorado (then a territory). Jules Verne must have loved writing that town’s name—Julesburg. They passed Fort McPherson and then North Platte, Nebraska.

At that point, Colonel Stamp Proctor (the ruffian first encountered in San Francisco) came upon Fogg playing whist. They recognized each other, exchanged heated words, and challenged each other to a duel. Proctor proposed they conduct the duel at the upcoming Plum Creek station, but the conductor said the train wouldn’t stop there, so they must conduct the duel while enroute, in an empty car.

Just as the duel was about to commence, a band from the Sioux tribe attacked the train. Fogg and Proctor joined together, shooting at the attackers. The Sioux had them outnumbered and outgunned. If the train could stop at Fort Kearney, a garrison of troops could protect them. At that moment, the conductor fell from a gunshot wound. Passepartout worked his way to the linkage between the locomotive and the cars, and disconnected them. The locomotive steamed on, but the cars slowed to a stop near Fort Kearney. The soldiers rushed out and the Sioux fled. A muster showed three passengers missing—one being Passepartout.

Thirty men from Fort Kearney volunteered to accompany Fogg to rescue Passepartout. Unlike in Hong Kong, when Fogg abandoned a missing Passepartout, here Fogg delayed his journey to find his servant, a sign he’s changing, gaining sympathy for others. After they left, the locomotive backed into the station from the east. The engineer and stoker hooked up the cars and left, after Aouda and Fix refused to board. They waited at the station, hoping for a sign of Fogg’s rescue party.

Verne must have seen a map of the Union Pacific Railroad line, such as the one on this website, since all his place names appear on the map. When naming their town, the founders of Julesburg thought, not of Verne, of course, but of Jules Beni, a Colorado stagecoach robber.

During their argument, Colonel Stamp Proctor called Fogg a “son of John Bull.” John Bull appeared in newspapers as a recurring cartoon character, a symbol of the English commoner, sort of a British Joe Sixpack.

The duel seems to me an unnecessary and contrived plot device, lacking in credibility. Few actual duels occurred in the mid- to late-1800s, and the notion of dueling over which card to play in a game of whist seems to diminish Fogg’s character.

However, an attack on a train by Native Americans was plausible. Indeed, according to this website, at least two such attacks occurred at Plum Creek in 1867, one by capturing the train and the other by pulling up rails.

Railworkers call the linkage between train cars a ‘coupler.’ The original illustration from the novel shows Passepartout draped over what looks like a screw-tensioned three-link coupler.

Though Fogg required a day to get from Medicine Bow to Fort Kearney, you could fly from Casper to Lincoln in four hours, including a one-hour stop in Denver. Or you could just drive six hours along Interstate 80.

My blogtour has you interested in Verne’s book, I see. If you haven’t read it, I recommend you do. However, there exist several screen versions as well. One of the best is the 1956 movie produced by Michael Todd and starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton and Shirley MacLaine.

For now, we must leave Fogg and Aouda at Fort Kearney, with the fates of Fogg and Passepartout unknown. What happens next? To find out, keep reading blogposts by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 8, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 66

150 years have passed since the publication of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, and we’ve been making the trip in blogpost form. Today, we’ve wound up in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Phileas Fogg and his group have come 19,017 miles since leaving London on October 2, about 77.5% of the distance, but 82.5% of his time has elapsed, putting him in danger of losing his wager.

They left Ogden, Utah on the 5^th and stopped at Fort Bridger in Wyoming Territory at 10:00am on the 6^th. Early on the 7^th, they stopped at Green River Station, where Princess Aouda saw Colonel Stamp Proctor riding the same train. Fogg had endured an altercation with Proctor back in San Francisco. At 11:00am, the train reached Bridger Pass, at the continental divide. By 12:30pm they passed in sight of Fort Halleck.

Not long after that, the train stopped. A signalman from Medicine Bow declared the bridge a mile ahead too weak to bear the train’s weight. The train’s engineer proposed to cross the bridge at high speed. Here, Verne portrayed Americans as overconfident and rash. Passepartout (the stand-in for Verne’s French reading audience) tried to propose sending passengers ahead on foot across the bridge first, followed by the train, but nobody listened to him. Instead, they backed up the train, accelerated to 100 miles an hour, and screamed across the bridge, which collapsed just behind them.

All the stations mentioned by Verne existed. Fort Bridger closed in 1890 and Fort Halleck had been abandoned in 1866. Medicine Bow, of Carbon County, Wyoming, grew around the railroad. Small at the time, it still contains less than 300 people today. Just to the north runs the Medicine Bow River, and several dozen miles to the south you’ll find the Medicine Bow Mountains. The lodgepole pine trees on these mountains made fine railroad ties.

Why the name ‘Medicine Bow?’ Native Americans considered the site ideal for disease-prevention ceremonies, and valued the trees there because the wood produced excellent bows and arrows. Upon learning this, European settlers combined the two thoughts into one name.

Medicine Bow achieved some fame when paleontologist William Harlow Reed discovered the bones of Dippy the Dinosaur there in 1898. A year later, Butch Cassidy and his ‘Wild Bunch’ pulled off a famous train robbery nearby.

Was Verne’s dramatic bridge collapse possible? He cited a train speed of 100 miles an hour. At that time, trains in the U.S. traveled around 25 mph due to the poor condition of tracks laid in haste. No steam locomotive attained 100 mph until the Flying Scotsman did it in 1934. Also, Verne wrote that the bridge collapsed just after the train crossed. Engineers know that collapse occurs when imposed stresses exceed a structure’s ability to withstand them. However, 100 mph is 147 feet per second, so a train traveling at that speed would cross a 147-foot bridge in just one second. It does take a little time for a bridge to collapse, so if the train traveled at that speed over a bridge of that length, it might just clear the far side before the bridge lost its ability to support the train’s weight. The scene is not inconceivable.

In 1872, it took two days for Fogg’s party to travel by train from Ogden to Medicine Bow. Today, you could drive that distance in a little over five hours along Interstate 80. Or you could fly to nearby Casper in just over an hour.

Soon, you Jules Verne fans will be able to purchase an anthology by the North American Jules Verne Society. When published, Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne will contain stories by modern authors, each based on novels by the famous French author. All I have is the cover image now, but keep checking my blog for news.

With the bridge-jumping incident behind him, Fogg shouldn’t encounter any more problems as he tries to regain lost time. Nothing but clear, problem-free track from here through Omaha and on to Chicago. The two of us better keep an eye on things, you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 7, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 64

Thank you, loyal readers, for joining me on this sesquicentennial journey celebrating one of Jules Verne’s greatest novels. We’re traveling Around the World in Eighty Days along with Phileas Fogg and his companions. Since leaving San Francisco by train, we’ve reached Ogden, Utah and nearby Salt Lake City. We’ve traveled 18,673 miles, 76.1% of the distance. However, we’ve taken 80% of the time, so we’re running behind.

In 1872, a large network of rail lines connected cities in the eastern U.S. states. However, only one route snaked its way from the west coast. The Central Pacific joined San Francisco with Ogden, Utah. From there, the Union Pacific brought eastbound travelers to Omaha, Nebraska.

Fogg’s party left San Francisco at 6:00 pm on December 3 and reached Sacramento at midnight, Cisco at 7:00am on the 4^th, the Nevada border at 9:00am, and Reno at midday. Following that, a vast herd of buffalo delayed the train by 3 hours. Later, they entered Utah territory (not yet a state).

Verne must have assumed his reading audience shared his curiosity about the then-new religion of Mormonism. Passepartout attended a lecture about it while aboard the train, giving the author a chance to lecture readers about the faith’s history, including the practice of polygamy.

At 2:00pm on December 5, the train reached Ogden. Since the train to Omaha wouldn’t depart for 6 hours, they took a branch line for a 2-hour visit to Salt Lake City.

Ogden claims the motto: ‘Still Untamed’ and the nickname ‘Junction City.’ No city lies closer to Promontory Summit, where the Golden Spike first linked the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. This connection, along with the Suez Canal and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, made Fogg’s journey possible. In 1872, Lester J. Herrick served as Ogden’s mayor, and Mike Caldwell does so today.

Salt Lake City, the state’s capital, saw its first Latter-day Saints arrive in 1847. They began building the Salt Lake Temple in 1853, but wouldn’t complete it until 1893. Its population in 1872 likely fell short of 20,000 people. At the time of the novel, Daniel H. Wells was the mayor (the city’s third), and he did his share to contribute to the population. He had 7 wives altogether, 6 of them concurrently, and 36 children. Today, Erin Mendenhall serves as the city’s 36^th mayor.

Traveling from San Francisco to the Ogden/Salt Lake City area today takes two hours by plane, not the 44 hours Fogg needed, and buffalo herds rarely delay airlines.

If you’ve never read Around the World in Eighty Days and are looking for a good English translation, the North American Jules Verne Society recommends the translation by William Butcher published in 2008 by Oxford University Press.

Unless some other unforeseen events occur, Fogg and his companions should reach Omaha without further incident well before the 9^th. Care to wager that they will? You might as well write your check now, payable to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 5, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 62

It’s been awhile, but we’re back on course with my blog-trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after the novel’s publication. Phileas Fogg and his companions crossed the Pacific and reached San Francisco, after sailing from Yokohama.

So far, they’ve traveled 17,967 miles. That’s 73.2% of the distance, but they’ve consumed 77.5% of the wagered 80 days, so Fogg is behind schedule.

They sailed aboard the SS General Grant of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. That company existed, though it closed down in 1949. Their fleet never included a ship named SS General Grant. Verne could have picked a real ship, but didn’t. Of note, a three-masted ship by that name existed, though not as large as Verne’s fictional one. It wrecked off the Auckland Islands in 1866.

In the story, the ship arrived at 7:00am but the train to Ogden, Utah wouldn’t depart until 6:00pm, so they visited San Francisco. Fogg got his passport visaed, as he’d been doing all along at British consulates. Passepartout, fearful of attacks on trains by Native Americans, suggested the purchase of some firearms. Detective Fix, who’d taken the same ship across the Pacific, asked Fogg if he could accompany the group back to London. Fogg agreed, not knowing Fix intended to arrest him. They ate at the International Hotel.

The group got caught up in the clamor of election day riots on Montgomery Street. A candidate named Camerfield ran against an opponent named Mandiboy. The disturbance turned violent and Fogg had a run-in with a ruffian named Colonel Stamp Proctor. Later, Fogg learned the election concerned, not a president or even a mayor, but a justice of the peace—Verne’s little joke about American democracy.

American elections typically occurred, then and now, in November, not December. The country had elected Ulysses S. Grant on November 5, with votes just tabulated on the 29^th. San Franciscans had elected William Alvord as mayor the year before. Citizens of that city numbered about 150,000.

Today, Montgomery Street stretches from Pioneer Park and the Coit Tower in the north, past Telegraph Hill, then the TransAmerica Pyramid, to Market Street at the south end. The U.S. President is Joe Biden. San Francisco’s mayor is London Breed, and the city’s population exceeds 815,000.

The International Hotel, or I-Hotel, existed and enjoyed a rich history. Built in 1854 on Jackson Street, it moved to Kearny Street in 1873 (just after Verne’s story), was rebuilt in 1907 after the earthquake, and demolished in 1981.

In 2022, you don’t need to spend nineteen days aboard a ship to travel from Yokohama to San Francisco. You can fly from nearby Tokyo to San Fran in about thirteen hours.

As a reminder, you may now buy my book, 80 Hours, in paperback form here. It’s my tribute to, and modern take on, Jules Verne’s classic tale.

Back when he made the bet, Fogg stated, “The unforeseen does not exist.” This trip has included almost nothing but the unforeseen. Our party now boards the train and heads for Ogden, Utah. They should reach that city in a couple of days without any excitement or adventure. Let’s sneak aboard and join them, shall we? Just you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 3, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 43

Glad you’re back. We’re just past the halfway mark of our sesquicentennial trip Around the World in Eighty Days. Phileas Fogg has reached Yokohama, having traveled 12,819 miles. That’s 52.2% of the distance he must cover, and 53.8% of his time has elapsed.

Back on November 6 in Hong Kong, Detective Fix got Passepartout drunk and drugged in an opium den, then left him there. Waiters carried the servant to a bed. After waking and wandering in a stupor, he boarded the steamer Carnatic, then collapsed. Sailors carried him to his cabin. He awoke on the 7^th, glad he’d made it to the ship, but dismayed to find neither Phileas Fogg nor Princess Aouda aboard.

Passepartout arrived in Yokohama on the 13^thand joined an acrobatic troupe. The performers wore wings and headgear with fake noses of bamboo about six feet long or longer, in tribute to the god ‘Tingou.’ As its final act, the troupe imitated the ‘Car of Juggernaut,’ with acrobats balancing four levels high.

Meanwhile, having transferred to the SS General Grant in Singapore, Fogg and Aouda arrived in Yokohama on the 14^th and found Passepartout had sailed on the Carnatic. By chance, they saw the performance of the acrobatic troupe. Passepartout recognized his master and ran to him, collapsing the Car of Juggernaut. Still wearing his wings and nose, he boarded the General Grant with his master and the princess.

The Carnatic existed, an actual ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In 1869, (before the time of Verne’s story) she ran aground on a coral reef in the Red Sea and broke apart with the loss of 31 lives. Rediscovered in 1984, the wreck now serves as a popular scuba diving site.

Where Verne got his information about acrobats with wings and long noses, I don’t know. By the term ‘Tingou,’ he likely meant Tengu, legendary creatures of Japanese folklore, often imagined with bird-like features. Why they’d form a ‘Car of Juggernaut’ arrangement, I can’t imagine, as that term owes its origin to India, not Japan.

By 1872, Yokohama had grown from a fishing village to Japan’s primary port, with 64,000 people. Only recently had the country ended its seclusion policy of Sakoku (chained country), and opened up to foreign trade. Emperor Meiji, the 122^nd Emperor of Japan, ruled the nation. During his reign, he presided over the ‘Meiji Restoration’ which industrialized and modernized Japan.

Between that time and ours, Yokohama got destroyed twice, once by the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and later by World War II air raids from 1942 to 1945. Today, as the second most populous city in Japan, it’s home to 2.3M people. The Emperor (the 126^th) is Naruhito, and the Prime Minister is Fumio Kishida.

Fogg required 3 days to sail from Shanghai to Yokohama, but today you could fly that route in 11 hours, with a stop in Shenzhen and arriving in nearby Tokyo. Passepartout’s 7-day trip from Hong Kong reduces to a 4-hour direct flight to Tokyo today.

On a related topic, my book 80 Hours is now available in paperback. For those of you who waited, or for those of you who prefer print books over ebooks, now is your chance. You can only get this version through Amazon. You’ll love the story, and it makes a great gift for the other Vernians in your life.

We don’t know where Detective Fix got off to, but Fogg and Aouda reunited with Passepartout and boarded the SS General Grant, bound for San Francisco. If it arrives on December 3, as scheduled, that’s the day you’ll read the next blogpost entry by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 14, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink