A Very Different Kind Of Reading Experience, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     After watching Meryl and Company in "Holocaust," and then reading the Gerald Green novel, I decided I needed something fun--a palette cleanser, to rid myself of all the unpleasantness.  I have had this edition of the Jules Verne classic sitting around for a long time.  I think I got it as a used book donation, when I volunteered at the LGBT Center Library.  And I had not read it, since I was in the seventh grade.  It was time for a reread!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    Of course, I remember the 1959 movie, with James Mason, and Pat Boone!  Pat Boone????????  Yes,darlings, Pat Boone!!!!!!!!!!  And I also remember the "Jonny Quest" inspired cartoon series update, broadcast on ABC Saturday mornings.  When I read it this time, and first saw the name Arne Saknussem, it all came back to me.
                                     This is a quest novel, and every single one, from "The Wizard Of Oz," to "The Lord Of The Rings," has a destination arrival point.  What surprised me, on this reading of Verne's classic, was that, for all the brilliant writing, compelling narrative, battles with monsters and volcanoes, there is never one, crystal clear point, where the Professor says, "We have reached the center of the Earth."  To be sure, they get down pretty far--at one point, it is said they are underneath England, and this, on starting out from Iceland!!!!--but I kept waiting for this line, and it never came.  So, despite the novel's title, and a readability still far superior to writers of the same type of fiction today, I cannot be quite sure if they actually reach the titular place.

                                  But maybe I am placing too much of an emphasis on semantics.  I just realized the first word in the title is "Journey," not "Center," which means the novel is more about the journey itself, which turns out to true!

                                I guess this comes of being from a generation that wanted everything resolved, and tied up neatly, in a a bow, and, to some extent, still does!!!!!!!!!!!  But to all you "Jurassis Parkers," and such, I say to you, if you have not read Jules Verne, you MUST!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                You ain't read nothin' yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!