Many AmerÂiÂcans might think of Rip Van WinÂkle as the first man to nod off and wake up in the disÂtant future. But as often seems to have been the case in the sevÂenÂteenth and eighÂteenth cenÂturies, the French got there first. Almost 50 years before WashÂingÂton IrvÂing’s short stoÂry, Louis-SĂ©bastien MerciÂer’s utopiÂan novÂel L’An 2440, rĂŞve s’il en fut jamais (1771) sent its sleepÂing proÂtagÂoÂnist six and a half cenÂturies forÂward in time. Read today, as it is in the new Kings and Things video above, the book appears in roughÂly equal parts uncanÂniÂly prophetÂic and hopeÂlessÂly rootÂed in its time — setÂting the preceÂdent, you could say, for much of the yet-to-be-inventÂed genre of sciÂence ficÂtion.
PubÂlished in EngÂlish as MemÂoirs of the Year Two ThouÂsand Five HunÂdred (of which both Thomas JefÂferÂson and George WashÂingÂton owned copies), Mercier’s novÂel enviÂsions “a world where some techÂnoÂlogÂiÂcal progress has been made, but the indusÂtriÂal revÂoÂluÂtion nevÂer hapÂpened. It’s a world where an agrarÂiÂan sociÂety has inventÂed someÂthing resemÂbling holoÂgram techÂnolÂoÂgy, where PennÂsylÂvaÂnia is ruled by an Aztec emperÂor, and drinkÂing cofÂfee is a crimÂiÂnal offense.” Its setÂting, Paris, “has been comÂpleteÂly reorÂgaÂnized. The chaotÂic medieval fabÂric has made way for grand and beauÂtiÂful streets built in straight lines, simÂiÂlar to what actuÂalÂly hapÂpened in HaussÂmanÂn’s renÂoÂvaÂtion a bit under a cenÂtuÂry after the book was pubÂlished.”
MerciÂer couldÂn’t have known about that ambiÂtious work of urban renewÂal avant la letÂtre any more than he could have known about the revÂoÂluÂtion that was to come in just eighÂteen years. Yet he wrote with cerÂtainÂty that “the Bastille has been torn down, although not by a revÂoÂluÂtion, but by a king.” Mercier’s twenÂty-fifth-cenÂtuÂry France remains a monarÂchy, but it has become a benevÂoÂlent, enlightÂened one whose citÂiÂzens rejoice at the chance to pay tax beyond the amount they owe. More realÂisÂtiÂcalÂly, if less ambiÂtiousÂly, the book’s unstuck-in-time hero also marÂvels at the fact that trafÂfic travÂelÂing in one direcÂtion uses one side of the street, and trafÂfic travÂelÂing in the othÂer direcÂtion uses the othÂer, havÂing come from a time when roads were more of a free-for-all.
L’An 2440, rĂŞve s’il en fut jamais offers the rare examÂple of a far-future utopia withÂout high techÂnolÂoÂgy. “If anyÂthing, France is more agrarÂiÂan than in the past,” with no interÂest even in develÂopÂing the abilÂiÂty to grow cherÂries in the winÂterÂtime. Many of the invenÂtions that would have struck Mercier’s conÂtemÂpoÂrary readÂers as fanÂtasÂtiÂcal, such as an elabÂoÂrate device for repliÂcatÂing the human voice, seem munÂdane today. NevÂerÂtheÂless, it all reflects the spirÂit of progress that was sweepÂing Europe in the late eighÂteenth cenÂtuÂry. MerciÂer was reformer enough to have his counÂtry abanÂdon slavÂery and coloÂnialÂism, but French enough to feel cerÂtain that la misÂsion civilÂisatrice would conÂtinÂue apace, to the point of imagÂinÂing that the French lanÂguage would be wideÂly spoÂken in ChiÂna. These days, a sci-fi novÂelÂist would sureÂly put it the othÂer way around.
RelatÂed conÂtent:
How French Artists in 1899 EnviÂsioned What Life Would Look Like in the Year 2000
1902 French TradÂing Cards ImagÂine “Women of the Future”
A 1947 French Film AccuÂrateÂly PreÂdictÂed Our 21st-CenÂtuÂry AddicÂtion to SmartÂphones
Based in Seoul, ColÂin Marshall writes and broadÂcasts on cities, lanÂguage, and culÂture. His projects include the SubÂstack newsletÂter Books on Cities, the book The StateÂless City: a Walk through 21st-CenÂtuÂry Los AngeÂles and the video series The City in CinÂeÂma. FolÂlow him on TwitÂter at @colinmarshall or on FaceÂbook.
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