Section 1, Part 7 Summary and Analysis

"The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat" The focus of this essay is a critical analysis of the work of author Jules Verne, whose work is described as focusing intently, almost exclusively, on the ambition of the individual to create and control a private world. The author defines this desire as the wish of an individual to design a world according to his particular beliefs, needs and desires, and to shut out any outside influences that could challenge his sense of control and safety. He uses two different pieces of Verne's writing as examples, the first being Mysterious Island, "in which the man-child re-invents the world, fills it, closes it, shuts himself up in it ... while outside the storm, that is the infinite, rages in vain." In other words, the author is suggesting here that creating an individual universe is...