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comment by djw
djw  ·  4028 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: France in 2000 (as imagined in 1900)

That's really what makes this so interesting in the first place. It leaves you wondering what the sea (etc.) represented to 1900s France that would make them fixate on it: near enough to always be present and visible, but mysterious and unknown enough that their wildest aspirations were to one day explore it and figure it out.

In this context, it's almost the way spiritual people of any denomination might depict themselves reaching the afterlife promised by their belief system.