The Spouter-Inn

18. The Blazing World.


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The Duchess’s Soul [...] left her Ærial Vehicle, and entered into her Lord.

The Empress’s Soul perceiving this, did the like: And then the Duke had three
Souls in one body; and had there been some such Souls more, the Duke would
have been like the Grand-Signior in his Seraglio, only it would have been a
Platonick Seraglio. But the Duke’s Soul [...] afforded such delight and
pleasure to the Empress’s Soul by his conversation, that these two souls
became enamoured of each other; which the Duchess’s soul perceiving, grew
jealous at first, but then considering that no Adultery could be committed
amongst Platonick Lovers [...] cast forth of her mind that Idea of Jealousie.
Then the Conversation of these three souls was so pleasant, that it cannot be
expressed.

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World,

more commonly known as simply The Blazing
World, is a philosophical flight of fancy by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Newcastle. This book was first published in 1666, and is often considered a
piece of proto–science-fiction. It tells the story of a woman who is
transported to another world, a marvellous world, which she is almost
immediately made empress of. Part philosophical treatise, part power fantasy,
and part exploration of the joys of “Platonick” love between women, The
Blazing World is an encomium to our powers of invention and creation. And it
is a very, very, very weird book.

Show Notes.

The Blazing World. [Project

Gutenberg. 1668 edition at
Archive.org.
Librivox.
Bookshop.]

Margaret Cavendish: Observations upon Experimental

Philosophy. [Or at
EEBO.]

Our episode on Christine de Pizan’s Book of the City of

Ladies.

The Kabbalah.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.

Mary Sue.

With “Muñoz” we’re referring to José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising

Utopia (and the conversations that followed it).

Our episode on Plato’s Symposium.

Suzanne Conklin Akbari: Seeing Through the Veil: Optical Theory and Medieval

Allegory.

Virginia Woolf wrote (famously, but uncharitably) about Margaret

Cavendish.

Our next book: Ernest Hemingway: A Moveable Feast.

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The Spouter-InnBy Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma

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