fosstodon.org is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Fosstodon is an invite only Mastodon instance that is open to those who are interested in technology; particularly free & open source software. If you wish to join, contact us for an invite.

Administered by:

Server stats:

11K
active users

Jerry Orr

There are some awesome illustrations in the 1890 sci-fi novel "Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique" ("The Twentieth Century. The Electric Life") by Albert Robida. The novel is in French, so I’ve just used Google to translate a few snippets. But the illustrations are killer.

First is the cover, which has a pretty chill steampunk vibe.

gutenberg.org/files/35103/3510

But open this baby up, and it gets intense fast! The caption for this is perfect: "L'Electricité (la grande Esclave)", or “Electricity (The Great Slave)”

Then Chapter 1 starts, as many novels do, with God riding the Earth like a bicycle. Possibly bowling over some angels on the way.

Who wants to go sailing on “Les Donjons Flottants” (Floating Dungeons)?

(@DreadShips have you seen this one?)

Robida was eerily prescient here. Cavalry has indeed become obsolete in modern warfare, replaced by “Charge de Bicyclistes”, with support from cannons-with-helmets.

In the "Défilé du 8e Chimistes" (Parade of the 8th Chemists), Robida describes chemical warfare 15 years before WW1 would see it deployed on a horrific level:

"On the modern battlefields, these cumbersome instruments [swords] are hardly used. Do we not possess the series of asphyxiating or paralyzing gases, convenient to send by tubes at short distances or by light shells, simple cylinders easily directed 30 or 40 kilometers from our electric guns!"

There’s quite a lot in this book about chemical warfare, but I noticed something different later in the book: "The Miasmatic War - Manoeuvres of the Artillery of the Offensive Medical Corps"

Miasma was a popular theory at the time of how disease was spread. Perhaps he envisioned biological warfare in the future? And are those soldiers protecting themselves with surgical facemasks?

Robida may not have been a fan of the Industrial Revolution: “Our Rivers Carry the Most Dangerous Bacilli”

Yeah, definitely wasn’t a fan: "Our Rivers and Our Atmosphere - Multiplication of Pathogenic Ferments, of the Various Microbes and Bacilli"

On the lighter side, who hasn’t wanted to chuck a chair at their monitor during a tense Zoom call?

Despite my highlighting of some of the thematically darker images, La Vie Électrique isn’t all dystopic doom and warfare. I’ll end this thread as Robida finished his novel, with a nice view of the airships above Paris.

@jerryorr @DreadShips This one makes more sense when you consider that the French word "donjon" means "keep" -- as in the central fortified place in a castle. The English word "dungeon" has the same etymology but shifted in meaning back in the 1300s.

@pauldrye Indeed, I imagine the entire novel makes more sense when you can read French, instead of just dumping text snippets into Google Translate!

For real, though, that's a helpful correction. But while "Floating Keeps" is probably the intended meaning, I admit I'm partial to the sound of "Floating Dungeons"

@Kencf618033 Yup, just gotta crank that "Force" machine