Underground Man Gabriel de Tarde 9781516934355 Books
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It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this momentous event.
Underground Man Gabriel de Tarde 9781516934355 Books
Gabriel Tarde died in 1904. This translation was published in 1905.Looking backward, I think H. G. Wells's "Introduction" serves much better as an afterword, and the brief biographical note at the end would have made a fine introduction. There we learn:
"... According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social milieu, but only some, either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. "
.. which might have served as a guide to this fantasy, this chronicle of the future so far from sci fi, that it barely has fictional characters (there is one: a sort of Napoleon or Eric the Red- the "future" savior of mankind- named Miltiades).
Still the notion of a remnant of humanity living beneath the earth because the sun has dimmed might even work in a modern movie.
Wells says of Tarde's delicate irony that it hardly survives translation from the French. And certainly, if it is funny, it is funny in an unaccostumed way:
... In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the year.
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Underground Man Gabriel de Tarde 9781516934355 Books Reviews
I wasn't going to bother with a review for this but it was so bizarre I just couldn't help it.
An absurdly silly yet still entertaining post-apocalyptic tale that chronicles man's shedding of his restricting nature and the realization of his perfection through the evolution of group cooperation and herd behavior. When the sun suddenly dies, the remaining populations on earth are forced to move their societies underground. Like Noah and his ark full of animals and plants, they take with them their most valuable items for rebuilding their new world also paintings, bronzes, violins, and books of poetry. After a few centuries of subterranean slaughter, somehow the inevitable victors emerge secular saintly aesthetes who create a romantic neo-troglodytical artistic utopia through the prodigious use of prophylactics and capital punishment. And love.
Lots and lots of charming love.
And, I kid you not, he talks about "purity and essence."
Stanley Kubrick, you've been found out, you thief...
I also can't help noting that De Tarde also has some strange fascination with "the Chinese." Before men flee underground, during the onset of the new ice age, de Tarde describes the meadows no longer being green, the skies no longer being blue, and the Chinese no longer being yellow... And later, after the decent, he speaks not of Chinese "ancestor worship" but instead of Chinese "ancestor cannibalism."
Gabriel de Tarde seems to have some renown as a criminologist and sociologist but without actually delving into his academic books, I can only imagine he was a French equivalent of Abraham Laslow - dreamers who came up with a novel idea or two which led to alternative approaches in their fields but who were at best, shallow flakes, and at the extreme, mad as March hares.
I found the book to be hard to follow. It was confusing and did not talk about the title as it was misleading. Not about the under ground passages during the times were the under ground passages here in the USA. More talk about European under ground.
neat as a commentary. Sci-fi in a sophisticated format.
Gabriel Tarde died in 1904. This translation was published in 1905.
Looking backward, I think H. G. Wells's "Introduction" serves much better as an afterword, and the brief biographical note at the end would have made a fine introduction. There we learn
"... According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation the latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social milieu, but only some, either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. "
.. which might have served as a guide to this fantasy, this chronicle of the future so far from sci fi, that it barely has fictional characters (there is one a sort of Napoleon or Eric the Red- the "future" savior of mankind- named Miltiades).
Still the notion of a remnant of humanity living beneath the earth because the sun has dimmed might even work in a modern movie.
Wells says of Tarde's delicate irony that it hardly survives translation from the French. And certainly, if it is funny, it is funny in an unaccostumed way
... In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the year.
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