Thread: MobileRead March 2013 Discussion: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea(s) by Jules Verne (spoilers)
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Old 03-20-2013, 11:29 AM   #9
WT Sharpe
Bah, humbug!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe View Post
...The decision by early translators of the book into English to call it Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea makes it sound as if the Nautilus was making dives 20,000 leagues deep under the ocean's surface; a clear impossibility.
Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70 View Post
Growing up I didn't really know what a league was so it never really had an effect on me. I've been reading the old 'under the sea' version I think though....
Verne, of course, would have recognized the absurdity of traveling 70,000 miles straight down on a planet whose diameter was only 8,000 miles; but for those who grew up with no idea of what a "league" was and who had first heard the title of the book as a child, it didn't occur to most of us that he was speaking of the distance traveled by the Nautilus and its crew, and not the depth.

Making it, of course, a great choice for the Travel/Adventure category.
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