{"id":239424,"date":"2017-06-06T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T18:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=239424\/"},"modified":"2017-06-30T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:07:10","slug":"doctor-benignus-and-the-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/doctor-benignus-and-the-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Benignus and the aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reproduction of newspaper<\/span><\/a> O Globo<\/em>, July 1, 1875: daily chapters became a book that same yearReproduction of newspaper<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The first edition of the adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days<\/em> began circulating in Paris in 1873. The Mysterious Island<\/em> arrived the next year, both written by French author Jules Verne (1828-1905), whom journalist and writer S\u00e9rgio Augusto defined, in a 2011 piece in the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo<\/em>, as \u201cthe wildest literary work of 19th<\/sup> century scientificism generated with its eyes on the 20th<\/sup> century.\u201d\u00a0 He was referring to the artifacts that, although nonexistent at the time, Verne created for his stories: from the submarine to the long-range cannon, from the phonograph to the atomic bomb.\u00a0 On July 1, 1875, the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo<\/em> began publishing chapters of Doctor Benignus<\/em>, the first Verne-inspired science fiction novel to be published in Brazil, which came out in book form later that year.\u00a0 Its author was the Portuguese-born Brazilian writer and journalist Augusto Em\u00edlio Zaluar (1826-1882), an admirer of the works of Verne.<\/p>\n

\u201cZaluar himself said that Jules Verne was a model to be followed, but he also said that Verne\u2019s works were original, because they valued, as he himself wrote, the \u2018prodigious scientific wealth of our continent\u2019,\u201d notes historian Lucas de Melo Andrade, a professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paran\u00e1 (IFPR) in Paranava\u00ed, who studied Doctor Benignus<\/em> in 2014 as a researcher at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP).\u00a0 He says that the book was part of the process of expanding and institutionalizing science in Brazil\u2014the Botanical Gardens opened in 1808, the Royal Military Academy in 1810 and the National Museum in 1818\u2014as well as defining areas of specialization for professional scientists.\u00a0 Aside from this, it expresses the concern about reaching the general public through what was then known as scientific vulgarization.\u00a0 Even after it was published, Zaluar kept one foot in this field by overseeing the periodical O Vulgarisador<\/em>, one of Brazil\u2019s first publications aimed at science communication, printed in Rio de Janeiro from 1877 to 1880.<\/p>\n

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Wikipedia<\/span><\/a> Illustrations from books by Jules VerneWikipedia<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Zaluar began to build his base of scientific knowledge by taking, although not completing, courses at the Medical School of Lisbon, where he was born. \u00a0He left Portugal for Brazil in1849 and embraced his love for the world of letters: he translated literary works from French for newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, published the book of poetry entitled Dores e flores <\/em>[Pain and flowers], edited the weekly periodical O \u00c1lbum Semanal<\/em> and wrote a travelogue, Peregrina\u00e7\u00e3o pela prov\u00edncia de S\u00e3o Paulo <\/em>[Journey through the province of S\u00e3o Paulo], before immersing himself in science fiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctor Benignus<\/em> is a politically engaging work that considers scientific knowledge as a way of achieving progress and building the country\u2019s identity,\u201d Andrade says. Reissued in 1994 by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the book tells the adventures of Doctor Benignus, a physician and amateur scientist, and an entourage of 30 \u2013 including Frenchman M. Gustavo de Fronville, a student of the natural sciences, and Englishman Jaime River, who takes part in the expedition with the hope of meeting his father, Englishman William River, who may have been taken prisoner by indigenous peoples \u2013 deep inside Brazil.\u00a0 While traveling through the forests of the states of Minas Gerais and Goi\u00e1s looking for signs of aliens, they observe and describe the sky and the planets. In observing Mars through his telescope, Benignus identifies forests and concludes that the red planet could be inhabited.\u00a0 Later he recognizes Sun spots and says that the center of the Sun could also be inhabited because it had a different consistency than the Sun\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

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Wikipedia<\/span><\/a> Jules Verne and Augusto Zaluar (right), his Portuguese disciple based in Rio de JaneiroWikipedia<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Benignus sets out to prove that American man would have emerged in Brazil and then migrated to other continents, in accordance with one of the scientific theories debated at that time in the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute (IHGB). To support his nationalist vision, he primarily looks to Danish paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801-1880) (see Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> Issue n\u00ba 247<\/a>), who held that theory based on the discovery of human bones in a cave in the Lagoa Santa region of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He also argues on the basis of studies by Swiss naturalist Jean-Louis-Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-1873), a follower of the ideas of Lund, who traveled throughout Brazil, collecting fish. Since he found it unthinkable that whites, Indians and blacks had the same origin, Agassiz objected to the theory of evolution put forth by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), also referred to in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cZaluar is inclined to defend Darwin\u2019s theories, which in itself simply represents a position quite different from that of his contemporaries,\u201d noted anthropologist Edgar Indalecio Smaniotto, a professor at the School of Higher Learning of Upstate S\u00e3o Paulo (FAIP) and author of A fant\u00e1stica viagem imagin\u00e1ria de Augusto Em\u00edlio Zaluar<\/em> [The fantastic imaginary journey of Augusto Em\u00edlio Zaluar] (Editora Corifeu, 2007). \u201cThere are several indirect references to the theory of evolution in the book, including one when during a hunt, the men accompanying Benignus kill an orangutan for their dinner.\u00a0 Katine, Benignus\u2019 cook, refuses to cook that which could be \u2018one of his indirect ancestors\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wikipedia<\/span><\/a> Illustration from The War of the Worlds<\/em> by H. G. WellsWikipedia<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In the midst of the journey, Doctor Benignus meets an alien from the Sun, an alleged representative of more-highly-evolved human civilizations.\u00a0 The alien tells the physician to keep teaching the people science and assures him that his quest for knowledge will help transform the continent into a land recognized \u201cby civilized nations and by the peoples of the Sun.\u201d\u00a0 Smaniotto notes that the alien race of the book would not be alone for long as a literary character.\u00a0 Others appear in books such as The War of the Worlds<\/em>, released in 1898 by British author Herbert George Wells (1866-1946). \u201cOne major criticism of Zaluar is that he didn\u2019t take as much advantage of technology as he could have, except when he mentioned electric lights at a time when the incandescent bulb had not yet been invented,\u201d says Smaniotto.<\/p>\n

Newspapers in Rio de Janeiro praised the book.\u00a0 In 1875, Revista M\u00e9dica<\/em> predicted, \u201cIf he were to make one or another correction, such as perhaps with regard to the sections with numerous technical citations, he would come to be as popular as the talented French author J. Verne\u201d. Zaluar did not achieve that greatness, however.\u00a0 \u201cIf the picaresque framework of Doctor Benignus <\/em>was not enough to assure the author a place in the compendia of literary history, it is precisely because, as literature, the work is quite weak and boring,\u201d notes Ricardo Waizbort, a Fiocruz researcher who specializes in literature and the history of biology, in a 2012 article in the Revista Brasileira de Hist\u00f3ria da Ci\u00eancia<\/em>. Smaniotto disagrees: \u201cWhile Zaluar is not in fact among the elite of Brazil\u2019s great writers, Doctor Benignus<\/em> is neither weak nor dull.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wikipedia<\/span><\/a> Cover of the book\u2019s 1994 editionWikipedia<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The book began to circulate when public taste was growing for novels (not science fiction), such as A m\u00e3o e a luva<\/em> [The Hand and the Glove] by Machado de Assis (1874) and Senhora<\/em> [Senhora: Profile of a Woman] by Jos\u00e9 de Alencar (1875), which came in the wake of Mem\u00f3rias de um sargento de mil\u00edcias<\/em> [Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant] by Manuel Ant\u00f4nio de Almeida, first published as a serial in the newspaper Correio Mercantil<\/em> from 1852 to 1853. Historian Andrade recognizes traces of the romantic in Zaluar\u2019s book, such as the subjective view of natural phenomena and the notion that the world cannot be understood through reason alone. \u201cThe book is completely religious, since it is always talking about the existence of God, another romantic trait,\u201d says Andrade.<\/p>\n

It was also in serial form that historian, novelist and senator Joaquim Fel\u00edcio dos Santos (1828-1895) published \u2013 periodically between 1868 and 1872 in his own newspaper, O Jequitinhonha,<\/em> out of the Minas Gerais city of Diamantina \u2013 his two imaginary journeys:\u00a0 A hist\u00f3ria do Brasil<\/em> escrita pelo dr. Jeremias no ano de 2862<\/em> [The History of Brazil Written by Dr. Jeremias in the Year 2862] and its sequel, P\u00e1ginas da hist\u00f3ria do Brasil escrita no ano de 2000 <\/em>[Pages from Brazilian History Written in the Year 2000]. In a 2012 article that appeared in the journal Remate de Males,<\/em> Ana Cl\u00e1udia Romano Ribeiro, an undergraduate in letters, professor at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Unifesp) and collaborating researcher at the Institute of Language Studies (IEL) of the University of Campinas (Unicamp), defines the two works by Santos as \u201cspeculative proto- fiction and political narrative,\u201d since both contain a \u201ccaustic snapshot of Imperial Brazil in the time of Pedro II.\u201d Taken into the future by a medium, the emperor gets a German name, Dr. Muller, and wanders around a republican Brazil with 122 states and 142 million inhabitants, whose capital is Guaicu\u00ed, in the state of Minas Gerais.<\/p>\n

After Doctor Benignus<\/em>, science fiction emerges sporadically in Brazil, such as in the short story O immortal <\/em>[The immortal] by Machado de Assis, released in the1882 women\u2019s magazine A Esta\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>, until it becomes established in the first half of the 20th<\/sup> century through authors devoted to the genre, such as Jeronymo Monteiro (1908-1970) in his Tr\u00eas meses no s\u00e9culo 81<\/em> [Three months in the 81st<\/sup> century] published in 1947, and A cidade perdida<\/em> [The Lost City] published in1948, and Berilo Neves\u2019 (1901-1974) 1932 book A costela de Ad\u00e3o <\/em>[Adam\u2019s Rib] as well as others, such as physician Gast\u00e3o Cruls (1888-1959), who wrote A Amaz\u00f4nia misteriosa<\/em> [The Mysterious Amazonia] in 1925, considered a classic in the genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctor Benignus was the first science fiction book published in Brazil ","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[241,245],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-239424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospect","tag-history","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239424"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=239424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}