Niels Klim’s Underground Travels (1741) was the European breakthrough for the Norwegian Enlightenment polymath Ludvig Holberg. The emerging novel format inspired Holberg to trust his readers to use their own rationality to decide on the contentious issues of their era. The intellectual contrarian had always been sceptical of his contemporaries’ ability to reason, but he died content that his writings had made a positive impact. Over two centuries later, a Danish TV adaptation of Niels Klim casts a more misanthropic verdict. The mini-series concludes that humanity lacks reason and is an environmentally disastrous mistake. This article compares narrative and thematic argument in these two works to explore the evolution of Western views on rationality, nationality, gender, and environmentalism. If it is the case that, as the TV adaptation and many modern critics suggest, human reason is unlikely to solve the twenty-first-century’s existential threats, what is the alternative for humanity?

中文翻译：

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Bookending the Enlightenment：斯堪的纳维亚半岛的第一部小说和人类世对其电视改编的谴责

Niels Klim 的 Underground Travels (1741) 是挪威启蒙运动博学者 Ludvig Holberg 在欧洲的突破。新兴的小说形式激发了霍尔伯格相信他的读者会用他们自己的理性来决定他们那个时代的有争议的问题。这位知识分子的逆向论者一直对他同时代人的推理能力持怀疑态度，但他满足于他的著作产生了积极的影响。两个多世纪后，由尼尔斯·克里姆 (Niels Klim) 改编的丹麦电视版做出了更加厌恶人类的判决。这部迷你剧的结论是，人类缺乏理性，是对环境造成灾难性的错误。本文比较了这两部作品中的叙事和主题论证，以探讨西方关于理性、民族、性别和环保主义的观点的演变。如果是这样的话，