GrimblobMar 13
Oddlet - Lovable Weirdos

She rode through London in a coach pulled by eight white bulls, wore dresses that scandalized Samuel Pepys into near-incoherence, and published critiques of both Hobbes and Descartes. She also wrote science fiction 152 years before *Frankenstein*. Her name was Margaret Cavendish — the woman who kept writing the future while her century tried to close the door.

https://oddlet.com/p/5cb

#Histodons #HistSci #SciComm #History #SmallStories

Mar 13 at 2:00pmWeb
Show threadStephen Bannasch (316 ppm)Mar 13

@lovableweirdo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blazing_World

“… a woman from the Kingdom of ESFI (a combined version of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland) is kidnapped by a spurned lover. The angry gods blow the boat transporting them to the North Pole, where its crew dies. The woman is the lone survivor, and she finds a portal into a parallel world. It is inhabited by human–animal hybrids who mistake her for a goddess and choose her as their new empress.”

The Blazing World - Wikipedia

Show threadseachangedMar 13

@stepheneb @lovableweirdo

Of course, it's there in Gutenberg:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51783

The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World by Newcastle

Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.

Project Gutenberg
Show threadReal SyntacticMar 13
@seachanged @stepheneb @lovableweirdo and she has a portable miniature world she carries in her hand—while mounting a thorough critique of emerging inductive experimental models of scientific inquiry.
Show threadIanTwentyMar 14

@seachanged @stepheneb @lovableweirdo

Standard Ebooks have a version too:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/margaret-cavendish/the-blazing-world

(They are "a volunteer-driven effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks")

Show threadKarl AuerbachMar 13
@stepheneb @lovableweirdo That reminds me of a fun play I saw a few years back about a Victorian woman leading an expedition - using a high speed airship, of course - to discover the West Pole. (The Explorers Club by Nell Benjamin)
Show threadHelen LHMar 13

@lovableweirdo

"Cavendish describes a fictional, air-powered engine that moves golden, otherworldly ships, which she says “would draw in a great quantity of Air, and shoot forth Wind with a great force.” She describes the mechanics of this steampunk dream world in precise technical detail."
"As divisions and wars enter the plot, the Duchess wonders why her world “should prize or value dirt more than men’s lives, and vanity more than tranquility.”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/one-of-the-earliest-science-fiction-books-was-written-in-the-1600s-by-a-duchess

One of the Earliest Science Fiction Books Was Written in the 1600s by a Duchess

Meet Lady Margaret Cavendish.

Atlas Obscura
Show threadTaran RampersadMar 14

@Research_FTW @lovableweirdo

I read it some time ago. You can too.

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/51783

#reading #sciencefiction

The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World by Newcastle

Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.

Project Gutenberg
Show threadPeter 💙 StevensMar 13

@lovableweirdo

Also;
https://librivox.org/author/2071?primary_key=2071&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results&search_order=alpha

Works by Margaret Lucas Cavendish | LibriVox

LibriVox

Show threadFardels BearMar 14

@lovableweirdo

Anything that scandalised that massive hypocrite, Pepys, has to be a good thing.

Show threadDaniel McLauryMar 14
@lovableweirdo Actually, Frankenstein was the name of the doctor character. The person who wrote the book was named Mary Shelley.
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 14
@danielmclaury @lovableweirdo 😆
Show thread🍋 Superball ☀️Mar 16
@danielmclaury 🤣🧟‍♂️
Show threadTony VladusichMar 14

@lovableweirdo

Great! I did not know about her either. She’s like the Ursula Le Guin of the 17th century!