A review by cielllo
The Blazing World and Other Writings, by Margaret Cavendish

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.