The Adventures of Professor Challenger
Registered by futurecat of Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on 5/30/2003
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
From a "fill a bag for $5" booksale (thanks Mothercat for telling me about it!)
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes mysteries, turns his hand to what we'd now call science fiction in these three Professor Challenger stories: "The Disintegration Machine" (1928); "The Poison Belt" (1913); and "When the World Screamed" (1929).
The stories are very strange - they're kind of light-hearted, but at the same time, one at least, "The Poison Belt", deals with the end of the world, so its subject matter seems a little heavy for its tone. They are interesting, though, if only for their picture of the state of scientific understanding at the beginning of last century.
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The stories are very strange - they're kind of light-hearted, but at the same time, one at least, "The Poison Belt", deals with the end of the world, so its subject matter seems a little heavy for its tone. They are interesting, though, if only for their picture of the state of scientific understanding at the beginning of last century.
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Given to gwilk, who I think might enjoy it.
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Its nice to have other bookcrossers looking out for books you might enjoy. Added to my TBR pile.
Well, this book is interesting for several reasons. One is the totally obnoxious hero (or anti-hero) Professor Challenger. He ends up not being utterly unlikeable but he is in the same category as Dr House and one or two other TV characters that aim for brilliant and condescending. It is difficult to imagine why the characters in the book like him.
Another point of interest is some of the attitudes of the time embedded in the stories. The Poison Belt is particularly obnoxiously racist. To quote Professor Challenger: "...the less developed races have been the first to respond to its influence. ...the Australian Aborigines appear to have been already exterminated. India... utterly wiped out. The Slavonic population of Austria is down, while the Teutonic has hardly been affected". The French get theirs, too. Later, the survivors are huddling in the Professor's house but it never apparently occurred to them to help the chauffeur until he collapses before them or the maids until they trip over their dead bodies.
Finally the science is of note. The idea of ether is outdated now but I don't think it really matters. The Poison Belt could just as easily have been due to the trail of a comet as a change in the nature of ether and the central theme of the unknown nature of the universe is still applicable. There are, however, outrageous leaps of logic. As the characters themselves point out, Professor Challenger can leap from flimsy evidence to outrageous conclusions at the slightest provocation. That he is invariably correct is due to his brilliance, or more probably, his stubborness and arrogance reshaping space-time around his desires.
The epitome of his reasoning is in When the World Screamed. The professor observes:
(a) A sea-urchin is round.
(b) A sea-urchin is alive.
(c) The Earth is round.
(d) Therefore the Earth is alive. Let's poke it with a sharp stick!
The quality of his reasoning and the nature of the experiment he therefore derives is priceless.
Nevertheless, these are interesting, imaginative stories. As futurecat observes, their lighthearted tone make it pretty difficult to take offense, although I am not entirely sure how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended them to be taken. Thanks for passing it on, futurecat.
Another point of interest is some of the attitudes of the time embedded in the stories. The Poison Belt is particularly obnoxiously racist. To quote Professor Challenger: "...the less developed races have been the first to respond to its influence. ...the Australian Aborigines appear to have been already exterminated. India... utterly wiped out. The Slavonic population of Austria is down, while the Teutonic has hardly been affected". The French get theirs, too. Later, the survivors are huddling in the Professor's house but it never apparently occurred to them to help the chauffeur until he collapses before them or the maids until they trip over their dead bodies.
Finally the science is of note. The idea of ether is outdated now but I don't think it really matters. The Poison Belt could just as easily have been due to the trail of a comet as a change in the nature of ether and the central theme of the unknown nature of the universe is still applicable. There are, however, outrageous leaps of logic. As the characters themselves point out, Professor Challenger can leap from flimsy evidence to outrageous conclusions at the slightest provocation. That he is invariably correct is due to his brilliance, or more probably, his stubborness and arrogance reshaping space-time around his desires.
The epitome of his reasoning is in When the World Screamed. The professor observes:
(a) A sea-urchin is round.
(b) A sea-urchin is alive.
(c) The Earth is round.
(d) Therefore the Earth is alive. Let's poke it with a sharp stick!
The quality of his reasoning and the nature of the experiment he therefore derives is priceless.
Nevertheless, these are interesting, imaginative stories. As futurecat observes, their lighthearted tone make it pretty difficult to take offense, although I am not entirely sure how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended them to be taken. Thanks for passing it on, futurecat.
