The 20th Century by Albert Robida

Albert Robida invites us to discover his envision of French society and life-style in the 20th century.

It was full of flying SUVs and fast trains that connected the main European cities.

On this journey through “speculative fiction”, Robida proposes its most extraordinary embodiment – the virtual social networks that took about 130 years to implement as we know them today.

Sometimes there are accidents in which someone gets lost imagining alternative worlds, surrendering to a utopia that fills the space of the future and enables innovation and technical and human development.

Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) was the one who, in the contemporary world, found greater recognition as a writer of “speculative fiction”, with his spectacular narratives of futuristic worlds and incredible machines.

He was not the only one and, from the “civilizational” laboratory of the 19th century, others also proved capable of, in their own way, idealizing the technology and societies of the future.

This is the case of Albert Robida (1848 – 1926), a famous French illustrator who also dedicated himself to “speculative fiction” and imagined French society in 1952.

It was a society completely dependent on electricity, indispensable for the operation of “aeroflechas”, “aérocabs” and “aero-paquebots”. The lighthouses, which guided these countless flying vehicles, also depended on electricity, as well as the “tubes” that connected cities as if they were proto-hyperloops, the communication systems and the Sahara desert, which, with this resource, was fertile.

At a time when electricity was believed to have medicinal and curative powers, from her also depended on the remote means of social interaction via videoconferencing, as well as distance learning and commerce, through the multifaceted “telephonoscope”.

It is fascinating to see how Robida idealized the basic concept of current social and communication technology that combines image and sound. We can easily identify services such as Skype and Zoom and, on television, telesales that have evolved into short stories and reels on social networks.

The society that Robida envisioned was far from perfect. They were also haunted by the war and, in their narrative, we find immense similarities with events that took place in the First World War (1914 – 1918) and in the Second World War (1939 – 1945).

In Robida’s peculiar view, biological weapons were widely used but calibrated to spare “men in the prime of their strength and health” and target instead “the valetudinous, the weak, the diseased organisms unable to withstand their putrid fumes”.

Some romanticization of war is evident when we observe the illustration of a regiment of soldiers mounted on bicycles, with spears in hand, in the style of Greek phalanxes, as well as infantry soldiers in armour.

In an exercise of expectation against reality, some innocence is evident, as well as how fallible our observations of the world and future ways of life are.

What doesn’t change is the romance and the chances that triggers it.

The plot of the story unfolds following a meteorological disturbance that affected the distribution network, putting all services in redundant or suspended mode.

It was this event that, through the “telephonoscope”, put Georges Lorris and Estelle Lacombe in contact, two young people who end up falling in love.

Although there is some paternalism and condescension in the way women are treated, what is certain is that Robida, despite being conservative, inserts truly liberal elements that advocate the emancipation of women, such as an active role in society, access to higher education, unions de facto and free cohabitation.

A fight for civil rights that isn’t over yet…

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