#deleted the aegri somnia one bc i misread that bit. aronnax just went down to grab a telescope from the lounge then back to the platform

[vickyvicarious]

Frantic, going insane, I leaped out of my stateroom and rushed into the lounge.

Captain Nemo was there. Mute, gloomy, implacable, he was staring through the port panel.

An enormous mass was sinking beneath the waters, and the Nautilus, missing none of its death throes, was descending into the depths with it. Ten meters away, I could see its gaping hull, into which water was rushing with a sound of thunder, then its double rows of cannons and railings. Its deck was covered with dark, quivering shadows.

The water was rising. Those poor men leaped up into the shrouds, clung to the masts, writhed beneath the waters. It was a human anthill that an invading sea had caught by surprise!

Paralyzed, rigid with anguish, my hair standing on end, my eyes popping out of my head, short of breath, suffocating, speechless, I stared—I too! I was glued to the window by an irresistible allure!

This scene hits so hard, all the more because the lounge window has been a place of wonder throughout almost the entire book. It has revealed many magnificent sights, and watching the ship sink and the men drown feels like a cruel twist on every scene of watching the fish beyond the window. Aronnax's delight in describing and cataloguing fish seems to be tainted by this experience, even - when he next describes the sights from the window it feels so perfunctory. Sure, they're moving too quickly for him to see well, but it also feels to me like he can't associate watching through this window with pleasant pasttimes anymore.

I was going to go back to the first time Nemo and Aronnax looked out the lounge window together to contrast it with this scene, when I realized something quite interesting. Nemo... never really does that. For all that the sights out of the lounge are some of the heart of the story/the journey for Aronnax, he never is actually shown to sit and indulge in them or seem to take joy from them. In fact, that first incredible sight when the window opened and the stowaways were dazzled by the fish outside - Nemo presumably orchestrated that, but he wasn't in the room. He didn't come back until the window was closed. And that's the normal state of affairs.

It's not that he's never in the lounge, or even never in the lounge when the window is opened. But he never seems to be there for pleasure, or when he is it's nearly always linked to destruction and death in some way. Here are the most notable instances I could find of Nemo being in the lounge (and I think all with the window open, at least that I could find):

In "Vanikoro" he opens the panels and Aronnax is delighted by the coral Nemo shows him... only to notice underneath it the "desolate wreckage" of ships which are what Nemo actually intended to show him. He's described as "solemn".

In "The Greek Island" Nemo comes to the lounge looking "silent and preoccupied" and Aronnax notes that it is "contrary to custom" for him to have both panels be opened. He looks out carefully, and while Aronnax soon gets distracted by fish, it becomes apparent that Nemo was looking for the diver he was expecting.

In "The Bay of Vigo" he invites Aronnax to join him at the lounge window again - still to show him a shipwreck, but in this case specifically the one full of treasure he was collecting.

In "Sargasso Sea" Nemo comes closest to just enjoying the sights from the window. He opens it as they go as low as possible. This is still in service of a scientific experiment of sorts but it seems to be one for curiousity/pleasure and he seems more lighthearted with his offer to take a picture. However it is somewhat notable that during this experiment they sink so deep that no life is visible.

In "Sperm Whales and Baleen Whales" Nemo is in the lounge with the window open, but while the stowaways watch out the window, "Captain Nemo made his way to the helmsman’s side to operate his submersible as an engine of destruction."

He shows up to look at the giant squids in "The Devilfish" shortly before declaring they will fight them.

During "In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’" Nemo once again points out a shipwreck to Aronnax. 'The Avenger' this time.

While there are nuances, he almost always is there on business, almost always serious or upset. He mostly seems focused on scenes of past death/destruction, or impending ones when he is about to fight something. It sounds like he doesn't often just look out at the beauty of the underwater world. The lounge and its window is a place of such wonder and delight in the natural world - but not when Nemo is present.

It's such a clever subtle detail.