Why Jules Verne is the "founding father of pop culture"

• The series Around

  the World in 80 Days

  is available in replay until February 9 on France.tv

• Recognized as a major writer abroad, we sometimes do not yet measure the extent of his influence in France.

• In his essay 

  The Extraordinary Worlds by Jules Verne,

  Nicolas Allard shows that he is the “founding father of pop culture” and of science fiction.

More than a century after his death in 1905, Jules Verne is more relevant than ever! The Nantes writer was in the spotlight on the biggest European channels France 2, RTBF, ZDF and the BBC, and in the United States on the PBS network in the prestigious Sunday evening box entitled "Masterpiece" at the start of this event. year 2022 with the new serial adaptation of his masterpiece

, worn by David Tennant. The finale of season 1, available until February 9 on France.tv, gathered this Monday some 2.1 million viewers in France, or 9.9% and this international co-production has already been renewed for a season 2.

An international dimension which does not surprise Nicolas Allard, author of a fascinating essay entitled

(Armand Colin, 19.90 euros).

“Abroad, Jules Verne was considered fairly early on as a major writer, recognized and appreciated, while in France, he was denigrated for a long time,” he comments.

It was not until 2012 that Jules Verne was published in the prestigious collection of the Pléiade.

“In the 19th century, in France, we tended to associate the novel with realism, then with naturalism,” explains Nicolas Allard.

And yet, rare are the French authors who have as much importance, influence and influence as Jules Verne, who is no less than the “founding father of pop culture”.

An international and transgenerational success, like "Harry Potter"

“Pop culture has no clear definition,” says the essayist.

But there are a number of common denominators in the works of pop culture.

The flagship works of pop culture such as

,

,

or

have in common that they are "internationally successful" and "transgenerational".

A success that can be found with

of Jules Verne.

"It is also popular entertainment, but intelligent, which makes it possible to formulate a certain number of rather advanced interpretations", estimates Nicolas Allard.

And to add: “The other common denominator is the question of adventure.

All pop culture works attach great importance to this theme.

And Jules Verne is really the great master of adventure.

"

If the adventure novel was appreciated in the 19th century, Jules Verne gave it “a new lease of life.

It will allow the adventure novel to have an international dimension, because it takes its characters around the known and unknown world.

"

A story associated with "scientific advances", such as "Jurassic Park"

“Jules Verne will develop the adventure novel by associating it with the question of science and scientific advances.

This is what makes it with HG Wells, the father of science fiction, analyzes Nicolas Allard.

He believes that scientific advances allow new stories to be told.

He tried to be the most rigorous in contacting great scientists of his time.

"

A tradition that will continue in the great works of pop culture.

"Steven Spielberg called on a paleontologist as a consultant on

so that the dinosaurs are as credible as possible", notes the expert.

"The Extraordinary Stories", a universe extended to Marvel

"Jules Verne makes sure that everything that passes in his adventure stories belongs to the same spatial and temporal reality, to the same universe, what I call the" univerne "," explains Nicolas Allard.

Jules Verne is one of the precursors of the concept of an extended universe, like the big franchises of pop culture like Marvel or DC Comics.

“You can read Jules Verne's novels separately from one another, with very rare exceptions like

, the sequel to

,” says Nicolas Allard.

Reading the whole of the

makes it possible to realize that the novels "have links between them", underlines the expert.

Certain characters can thus be present in a novel as the main character and reappear in another novel as a secondary character. "This is the case of Captain Nemo, we see him as the main character in

, he appears as a secondary character in

 ", notes Nicolas Allard.

According to the author of the essay, the Nantes writer is also a fan of “crossover”, namely “the fact that characters who belong to different stories are brought together in the same story.

The play

brings together in a single story several important characters from Verne's great novels, including Nemo.

It's no coincidence that Stan Lee, the daddy of Marvel's Avengers, is a huge fan of Jules Verne novels.

Pierre-Jules Hetzel, a Kazuhiko Torishima-style editor

Behind

, there is not one but two men. "It is a co-creation, it is the editor of Jules Verne, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who has the idea of ​​this literary collection", underlines the essayist. Pierre-Jules Hetzel takes a very critical look at the texts of Jules Verne and gives considerable direction to his artistic projects “Through his co-creation practices, Pierre-Jules Hetzel is already announcing all these great producers of pop culture works, which are of importance. absolutely considerable, whether in the field of cinema or manga ”, considers Nicolas Allard. A work in pairs that the essayist compares to that of Akira Toriyama and his editor Kazuhiko Torishima around

or a Kevin Feige for Marvel Studios.

Tons of merchandise, like for "Star Wars"

Pierre-Jules Hetzel's artistic choices are also guided by commercial reasons: “A problem that we find among producers of pop culture.

"Immense success upon their release, the popularity of Jules Verne's stories does not depend only on the" quality of the works ", but also on" the marketing strategy that Pierre-Jules Hetzel has put in place.

"

The editor of Jules Verne is a visionary, “aware that he is not speaking only to readers, but to fans. “While the novels of Jules Verne are published in serial form, the publisher has the idea of ​​offering a beautiful edition. “What we now call the Hetzel editions with this beautiful red and gold cover and several illustrations. He understood that even if readers know the story, they will have the pleasure of picking up a collector's item. “This is what we find in pop culture today. Fans of some universes have the film on DVD and will want to get a collector's edition. "

In parallel with the books, "Pierre-Jules Hetzel perceives the potential of derivative products quite early on".

From the 19th century, we can find puzzles stamped

.

“George Lucas would later have this same intuition by asking not to be paid a lot to make the first episode of

but to keep the rights for the derivative products.

"

A work regularly reinterpreted, like "The Lord of the Rings"

The Extraordinary Histories

of Jules Verne and

in particular are part of pop culture because they have an international dimension. “The characters from

have real interactions with the local populations. We have characters of different nationalities. Pop culture tries to have this universalist dimension. "

This novel is also a work of pop culture because it is regularly revisited. " 

is one of Jules Verne's works which has given rise to the most adaptations, sometimes very free" such as the one currently available on France.TV. “It is a work of pop culture, in the sense that several years after its publication, it continues to give rise to new interpretations. It is rewritten and modernized, ”notes the author. Much like Tolkien's

, which was adapted for cinema by Peter Jackson in the early 2000s and which will be the subject of a new serial adaptation on Amazon Prime Video in 2022.

During his career, "Jules Verne adopted practices which would become the norm in works of pop culture", concludes the essayist.

His stories are read and fascinate writers considered at the origin of pop culture such as HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the adventures of John Carter, who will inspire

and

among others.

"The figure which dominates and which will inspire them, it is Jules Verne", concludes Nicolas Allard.

Style

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Series

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