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jajwalya 's review for:
The Blazing World
by Margaret Cavendish
Perhaps it is because of the novelty of the ideas, that a WOMAN has written them, or maybe because it is simply a wonderful take, but I love the way we are introduced to the world within the book. The Duchess of Newcastle is witty! It is charming. This is how reading Jane Austen for the first time should have felt, if it were not for my blindness and internal misogyny. (Pfft, a book about marriages, I've got enough of that drama in my own life no thanks! And colonial British-era ones? Why would I subject myself to that! - Which is fair. Ah well.) Cavendish is so smart, I say, since she introduces a character from a multi-dimensional other world. A questioning, inquisitive, curious, ruthless and childishly curious in turns, Empress. She holds scientific and philosophical court with her advisors, and then the commonplace figures in this story, spirits. Now this multi-dimensional world seems to be very much like our own, but with some alternate timeline. Then, as a scribe, the Duchess of Newcastle is whooshed in from our world (For the likes of Galileo would scoff at writing down the words of a woman) and promptly becomes A Favourite! Yus, a Favourite. I don't care what the modern interpretations say, or how platonic the religious author calls the friendship, this whole plot has bisexual dark academia energy. And yes there's a whole lot about her dear beloved husband and the ecstacy of their two souls with him in him? Now this Duchess (Cavendish, herself) has insatiable ambition. She wants to rule over a land and so they both start imagining up worlds. So wildly entertaining! They visit other worlds, hop around portals, philosophize everything they find interesting. They analyze and break down their worlds to be a part of their imaginations where in they keep building and breaking down castles in the air, at the spirits' behest. Stories are really the best medium for philosophy breakdowns and that's why moral stories work but here? This is a different level altogether. I am gushing unashamedly; can you imagine, if there were more women writers, more women philosophers, more women inventors, discoverers, creators of such treasure troves of knowledge and whimsical stories fro way back then and beyond before? What an absolute shame. I came across Cavendish's work because of a podcast on redesigning Philosophy Course curriculum to include Women Philosophers more prominently, called The New Narratives Philosophy podcast. I am extremely glad for it, but especially so for introducing to me this person, this writer, this storyteller.
Of course, the book isn't without it's racism and colonialism heavy undertones - The Duchess advises the Empress to keep her kingdom as one nation with one people of one religion. Secularism is too complicated and difficult she says. How this works in a world of animal-people, I can guess from history.
Of course, the book isn't without it's racism and colonialism heavy undertones - The Duchess advises the Empress to keep her kingdom as one nation with one people of one religion. Secularism is too complicated and difficult she says. How this works in a world of animal-people, I can guess from history.