YMMV / Five Weeks in a Balloon

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One discussion about the evils of industrialization has one character think the last day of the world will feature a gigantic boiler exploding, and the Americans will probably be responsible. Well, it was probably funnier a few decades ago.
  • The name of the Arabic tribe chasing after the heroes? The Talibas.
• Values Dissonance: This was Verne’s first novel, and probably his most racist. Indigenous Africans are easy-to-fool Always Chaotic Evil savages, and Arabs are barely any better. Indeed, at one point the heroes genuinely mistake a troop of baboons for the native black people, implying that they cannot see any difference. And then there's the scene where Dick repeatedly shoots an elephant dragging them towards a forest.

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