Journey to the Center of the Earth 1864

Curator: Looking at Edouard Riou’s engraving, from 1864, "Journey to the Center of the Earth"… it really plunges you right into the heart of 19th-century adventure! Editor: Oh, absolutely! I feel this distinct mood. It's all gothic architecture and frantic energy... it kind of pulls me in; it is definitely about something profound getting ready to occur! Curator: Right! Riou crafted the illustrations for the first edition of Jules Verne’s novel of the same name. Consider that the book trade really opened doors for folks in the nineteenth century. So Riou needed to develop the perfect aesthetic language here, relying heavily on engraving techniques to communicate complex narratives to a mass readership. Editor: What's fascinating to me, however, is the weight, you know? The weight of all of that text, now dispersed… look at the size of those crates piled on the cart in comparison to that little horse; the weight, then, and its circulation. That's labor and that's economics... it's about something concrete. Curator: You're so right! Yet the drawing still manages to be deeply evocative and fantastical... this little, seemingly provincial village now ready for the strange task. This gateway—almost ecclesiastical. Are we leaving, or coming back home? Editor: And that doorway—crafted from stone! Who produced the materials? Transported them? Fashioned that arch? Who was commissioned? What were they paid? Every tiny little line made with engraving tools; somebody had to produce them! So much unseen labor… Curator: So, Riou then doesn't only gift us with a captivating moment from a timeless novel. He also delivers a perspective—doesn't he—of humanity confronted with something magnificent—or terrifying—outside of everyday life. Editor: Absolutely! By thinking about its means of production, it really connects me, again, back to our physical relationship to information as tangible commodity, not ethereal, immaterial… and this feels valuable! Curator: Thinking through the means here reveals such a powerful echo with the story it accompanies—I see how those dual paths ultimately connect—opening up many worlds for both me and us—listeners—alike. Editor: Exactly! It also urges a needed return to the materiality behind even our seemingly most boundless adventures, wherever we go.