Underground Man

by Gabriel Tarde

An influential French sociologist and criminologist, Gabriel de Tarde. The novel Underground Man, which was released in 1905, was created to illustrate de Tarde's belief that a person is a product of his or her social surroundings. In the novel, the sun's extinction drives humanity below, and as the migrants tunnel ever-deeper, views drastically shift. There are three parts to the book. In the first, de Tarde cynically describes how man struggles to create a utopia; in the second, the sun becomes red, the water turns to ice, and airborne nitrogen and oxygen flakes start to fall. The survivors begin creating massive crypts after becoming convinced that heat and electricity may be extracted from the earth's core. They establish a friendly, artistic society here beneath the ground, complete with incredible labor-saving devices that allow them to concentrate on producing works of art. The conclusion of de Tarde's story is that man may transcend his own fundamental character under the right circumstances.

62 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2024

About the author

Jean-Gabriel de Tarde, writing as Gabriel Tarde was a French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist.

Reviews

[juan cruz Vallefin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leí este libro en su edición argentina "Fragmento de una historia futura" y quedé maravillado con este relato que puede catalogarse de ucronía, nouvelle sci fi alla verne, ensayo filosófico o incluso sátira sociológica.

Una voz del futuro nos relata como la humanidad ante la agonía del sol (anemia solar se llama en el relato) los cielos cambian de colores y las temperaturas se reducen hasta dejar la superficie en otra era polar.

La sociedad para aquel entonces se ha unificado culturalmente, repudiando la cultura de la modernidad para adoptar la lengua y culturas griegas en un gesto re-renacentista.

Bajo esta cultura de los héroes, se internan en las profundidades del planeta tierra para conservar el calor, generando una neo sociedad cavernaria, limitándose los últimos capítulos a describir los rituales, costumbres y leyes sociales de estos seres hipo-terrestres.

Tarde aprovecha para sintetizar muchas de sus ideas anti-deterministas en esta breve obrita que ameritaría sumarse a la historia de la literatura por su inventiva que solo peca de cierta candidez que también podría atribuirse a mucha ficción especulativa de época.

Un eslabón a la espera de vindicadores

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is supposed to be a dystopian tale, a very early one, it comes across more as a history of human politics, governance and values.