cielllo's review against another edition
flabbergasted how these writings are from 1656/ 1666 !! The Blazing World gave female version of The Politeia but in Aristotelian with a scientific revolution and simultaneous dogmatism twist - if anyone had told me this was a 20th century scifi i would have believed it, too. Fascinated by the apparent contradiction of conservatism and feminism co-existing here. Overall, my favourite things are in fact gender related: a) we have the spirits being 'without sex' insofar that this raises the idea of equality of souls / no intrinsic reality of gender and b) the beautiful play with pronouns in Assaulted and Pursuer Chastity which appears to anticipate gender fluidity.
claudiathomson's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ed_m00re's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
The Blazing World is one of the weirdest books I have ever read. Cavendish’s philosophical utopia is another world inhabited by bear-men, bird-men, worm-men and more species, each with a particular role in a society defined by the number one. One language, one ruler, one religion. I loved it, it was unlike anything you’d expect to be written in 1666, and is also praised for being a science fiction written by a woman, though despite the gender of The Blazing World’s author and empress, the Utopia is expectedly flawed. Cavendish stages her ideal world as a place where women are exiled to the home, with no such position in society (notice how each species I mentioned is prefaced by ‘men’), in addition to a removal of religions aside from Christianity from her society. She suggests the world to be better without other faiths, and though I myself have no belief, I can recognise that a world with no such religious difference where Cavendish condemns alternate faiths cannot be a Utopia. She also self-inserts herself as a great figure of power within her Utopia, using much of it as a platform to share the results of her scientific experiments, many of which being ultimately proven wrong by our modern development. Aside from this, such results were amusing, the characters of the Utopia were charming, and I had an enjoyable time in Cavendish’s brilliant, if not flawed, Blazing World.
entanglement's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
historians will call them spiritual besties commingling in the body of the duchess’s husband
rivertonrat's review against another edition
I read this because it is ostensibly considered one of the first sci Fi books ever written. The author is a really interesting woman and I enjoyed learning about her, but the book is a mess.
yak_attak's review against another edition
2.0
This probably should've been a book I just dropped - don't let my inability to enjoy this take away from Cavendish's pretty incredible achievements, these are wildly imaginative proto-pulp-fiction tales with some kinda awesome feminist twists... but actually reading them is pretty painful. It's like one infinitely long run on sentence with adhd, changing its subject at any whim, refusing to use proper nouns, etc. Your eyes just slide off any meaning. What's there is delightfully strange, but it's not worth the struggle really. Leave it for academic curiosity.