amusedSo we decided to go back to reading the Complete Works of Jules Verne instead. This time we started on From the Earth to the Moon, and oh my gosh, you guys. It's the most 'Murican thing ever. The whole premise is that a bunch of Americans are going to be the first people to make contact with the moon by shooting a giant cannonball at it. It's so funny, too, because the portrayal of Americans is clearly a caricature, and there are a few parts where I'm like, "Hey...! ...Wait, no, that's...that's pretty accurate." It's kind of uncanny. Especially because this book was written 150 years ago. ...I will say that our nation seems to be a lot less optimistic now than it did to Jules Verne, but the immediate enthusiasm we throw behind everything is more or less intact. We're just a lot more enthusiastic about how the world is going to...the bad place.
Speaking of books accurately portraying the human condition decades into the future, have you read the Book of Mormon? We're reading Alma now, and it's uncanny. So, like, at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, the people are divided into the Nephites and the Lamanites, and since the book is written by Nephites, the general consensus is Nephites are the "good guys" and Lamanites are the "bad guys," and there are legitimate reasons for that. But by the time you get to Alma (and frankly, even before that), you end up having a lot of really terrible Nephites and a lot of really great Lamanites, and I think one of the whole points is stop judging people by their labels. In fact, in many cases, it's the Nephites (or people who descended from them and then went over to the Lamanites) doing the most terrible things. ...I think I had more coherent thoughts about the whole thing, but they appear to have been blown away by the Gun Club. The point is, it's a good book, and I totally recommend it.
Today I'm thankful for getting to read more Jules Verne, the delightful portrayal of Americans, the Book of Mormon, getting to look forward to home expansions when we eventually get to Animal Crossing tomorrow, and my little limestone hippo from Adventureland.
