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Writing American Women
Mizora: A Prophecy
This new edition of Mizora about an 1880s radical feminist utopia includes a new, extensive introduction - a groundbreaking scholarly treatment of the work - that provides a critical apparatus to appropriately place Mizora and author Mary E. Bradley Lane in the cultural and historical context of the nineteenth century.
A precursor to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Mizora is the first all female utopian novel in American literature. The novel follows its heroine Vera Zarovitch, a stalwart, husky woman from the Russian nobility who, after exile to Siberia, withstands the rigors of the Arctic wastelands to become the first woman to reach the North Pole. She becomes caught up in a whirling current that rushes her through walls of amber mists and drops her in the sweet-scented atmosphere of a land lying in the earth's interior - Mizora, a three-thousand-year-old feminist utopia.
A precursor to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Mizora is the first all female utopian novel in American literature. The novel follows its heroine Vera Zarovitch, a stalwart, husky woman from the Russian nobility who, after exile to Siberia, withstands the rigors of the Arctic wastelands to become the first woman to reach the North Pole. She becomes caught up in a whirling current that rushes her through walls of amber mists and drops her in the sweet-scented atmosphere of a land lying in the earth's interior - Mizora, a three-thousand-year-old feminist utopia.
147 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1889
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May 1, 2018
I started this because I'm interested in early radical feminist literature, and this one is about a women-only utopia. First published serially in 1890-1891, I was hoping for something along the lines of Herland. As it turns out, this is a classist, racist utopian ideal of Aryan supremacy, where "dark races" have been bred out and people don't eat in public or some such nonsense because to do so is to behave the like "savages" and the poor, unwashed masses. (I suppose I should have seen this coming when early on the narrator notes that all the women she encounters in this place are not homely or ugly and instead represent "the highest type of blonde beauty".) This utopia as envisioned by a radical white feminist is a eugenicist's wet dream, basically. And that's something that Angela Davis has explained very well in Women, Race, and Class.
It's also extremely dull and I've had enough of trying to force myself to read it for what seems like forever for intellectual purposes or whatever.
It's also extremely dull and I've had enough of trying to force myself to read it for what seems like forever for intellectual purposes or whatever.
June 18, 2017
Someone (and apologies for not having taken note of who) about a year ago posted a list of early utopian fiction by female authors and I went of and hunted down several of the titles listed. one of those was Mizora: A Mss. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch (1890), which purports itself to be a memoir "written by herself" but is copyrighted by Mary E. Bradley. (And despite the fiction that it was written by a Russian, the social and political concerns and assumptions are unmistakably American.)
The work begins with a framing story strikingly similar to that of Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World: a woman comes by misadventure to be in a boat that drifts into a vast whirlpool in the Arctic regions that turns out to be a portal to "hollow earth," and spends the initial part of her time there recording a detailed (and somewhat tedious) account of the people and society she finds there. In the case of Mizora, the protagonist has come under the wrath of the Russian government for her progressive politics, is sent to Siberia, escapes on a whaling ship, lives for a while with an Innuit community, then borrows a boat from them to explore a strange expanse of mist and falls through the ocean to Mizora.
Mizora is a female utopia, that is, it is a utopia inhabited only by women. The protagonist is intensely curious about this aspect but doesn't inquire about it until perhaps the last third of the story due to her reticence about asking personal questions of her hosts. In the mean time, she is taught the language, introduced to the people and institutions, and gives a detailed account of how the society she finds has achieved a life of plenty and productive leisure through the miracles of chemistry and electricity. Food is largely synthesized (domestic animals have been eliminated), all machinery is run by electricity, compressed air, hydrogen fuel produced by electrolysis, and other clean methods. (How the electricity is produced is left somewhat as a mystery, but there are a few references to a natural power source generated by electromagnetic fields generated across the interior poles of the earth, so we may take this as the handwavium.)
Solving the problems of economic need through science has been augmented (as well as enabled) by eliminating violence, ignorance, and class. Education is free to all at all levels (and at any time of life) and is considered the greatest good. People are encouraged and supported in finding their true vocation, whether it be inventing new labor-saving devices (roombas! they invented roombas! I swear -- I'll include the excerpt below), devising new means of enabling education (big-screen live video conferencing!), or devising cuisines to use their chemically syntheized foodstuffs. (The protagonist is at first taken aback that her host's cook is treated as a social equal until she is given to understand that cooking is simply what that woman excels at and so she cooks for others with no implications of social inferiority.)
One curious omission in the cultural tour is the question of how the society reproduces itself. Families are maternal lineages and presumably the advanced medical science that--along with the benefits of "clean living" has greatly extended the Mizorans lifespans--takes care of the generative aspect. One side note: an early episode in the book (before the portal incident) involves the protagonist having an intensely romantic friendship with a young Polish woman whose death devastates her and precipitates her political activism. And the protagonist's emotional attachment to, and physical admiration of, one of the Mizoran women led me to hope that the book would touch on the same-sex romantic and erotic potentials of a single-sex society. Alas, after those initial teasers, we learn that Mizorans consider the mother-daughter bond the only significant emotional attachment possible (though cohort friendships also are noted) and there is no indication at all of any sort of pairings or other non-relative bonding as a basis for households and families.
It is when our protagonist finally gets up the nerve to ask, "Where are the men?" that we start learning some of the darker history of Mizora--though it isn't always clear what the author considers to be "dark". It seems that at some time deep in the mists of history (and yet still vividly in memory of those whose historical interests have led them to pay attention), Mizora had a society that was functionally identical to the world outside. A demographic and political crisis precipitated by ongoing wars led the women to seize power. The implication is that men were eliminated purely by virtue of the discovery of (never directly described) parthenogenic reproduction. Women stopped reproducing heterosexually, all children were daughters, and eventually all the men died out.
In the recitation of this process, the reader also learns some disturbing things about Mizoran philosophy (though it isn't entirely clear how the author intends us to take them), such as that the uniform pale skins and blonde hair of the Mizorans are due to eugenic selection. Mizorans determined "scientifically" that white, blonde, blue-eyed people are inherently superior, and therefore the process by which women are authorized to reproduce has deliberately selected for those characteristics. Similarly, in the early parts of the process of transforming Mizoran society, unfortunate personality and intellectual flaws were removed from the society by means of prohibiting their bearers from reproducing. Thus as the tale continues, what at first seemed like an intellectual and scientific paradise reveals itself as a humanitarian horror show. To be sure, no one was directly executed for social transgressions, but Mizoran society has evolved into a smug sense of the superiority of their engineered uniformity.
The protagonist seems to come to an echo of the disquiet that the modern (progressive) reader may be feeling, though she expresses it as a longing to return to her home to see her husband and son, and to bring Mizoran enlightenment to the outside world. To this end, she persuades her Mizoran "special friend" to accompany her. Alas, on their return, her husband and son have died. While the Mizoran is treated as a curiosity, no one takes her advice on social and scientific improvement seriously and she rapidly succumbs to the coarse food and environment and dies while trying vainly to travel back to the portal to Mizora.
The author has some interesting views on social improvement via a faith in the ability of education to eliminate negative social traits. But the fascination of this book is in the naive and startlingly prescient imagining of "better living through chemistry and electricity". I'll include the one description that made me laugh out loud.
[Mizora, chapter 6]
My first visit happened to be on scrubbing day, and I was greatly amused to see a little machine, with brushes and sponges attached, going over the floor at a swift rate, scouring and sponging dry as it went. Two vessels, one containing soap suds and the other clear water, were connected by small feed pipes with the brushes. As soon as the drying sponge became saturated, it was lifted by an ingenious yet simple contrivance into a vessel and pressed dry, and was again dropped to the floor.
I inquired how it was turned to reverse its progress so as to clean the whole floor, and was told to watch when it struck the wall. I did so, and saw that the jar not only reversed the machine, but caused it to spring to the right about two feet, which was its width, and again begin work on a new line, to be again reversed in the same manner when it struck the opposite wall. Carpeted floors were swept by a similar contrivance.
The work begins with a framing story strikingly similar to that of Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World: a woman comes by misadventure to be in a boat that drifts into a vast whirlpool in the Arctic regions that turns out to be a portal to "hollow earth," and spends the initial part of her time there recording a detailed (and somewhat tedious) account of the people and society she finds there. In the case of Mizora, the protagonist has come under the wrath of the Russian government for her progressive politics, is sent to Siberia, escapes on a whaling ship, lives for a while with an Innuit community, then borrows a boat from them to explore a strange expanse of mist and falls through the ocean to Mizora.
Mizora is a female utopia, that is, it is a utopia inhabited only by women. The protagonist is intensely curious about this aspect but doesn't inquire about it until perhaps the last third of the story due to her reticence about asking personal questions of her hosts. In the mean time, she is taught the language, introduced to the people and institutions, and gives a detailed account of how the society she finds has achieved a life of plenty and productive leisure through the miracles of chemistry and electricity. Food is largely synthesized (domestic animals have been eliminated), all machinery is run by electricity, compressed air, hydrogen fuel produced by electrolysis, and other clean methods. (How the electricity is produced is left somewhat as a mystery, but there are a few references to a natural power source generated by electromagnetic fields generated across the interior poles of the earth, so we may take this as the handwavium.)
Solving the problems of economic need through science has been augmented (as well as enabled) by eliminating violence, ignorance, and class. Education is free to all at all levels (and at any time of life) and is considered the greatest good. People are encouraged and supported in finding their true vocation, whether it be inventing new labor-saving devices (roombas! they invented roombas! I swear -- I'll include the excerpt below), devising new means of enabling education (big-screen live video conferencing!), or devising cuisines to use their chemically syntheized foodstuffs. (The protagonist is at first taken aback that her host's cook is treated as a social equal until she is given to understand that cooking is simply what that woman excels at and so she cooks for others with no implications of social inferiority.)
One curious omission in the cultural tour is the question of how the society reproduces itself. Families are maternal lineages and presumably the advanced medical science that--along with the benefits of "clean living" has greatly extended the Mizorans lifespans--takes care of the generative aspect. One side note: an early episode in the book (before the portal incident) involves the protagonist having an intensely romantic friendship with a young Polish woman whose death devastates her and precipitates her political activism. And the protagonist's emotional attachment to, and physical admiration of, one of the Mizoran women led me to hope that the book would touch on the same-sex romantic and erotic potentials of a single-sex society. Alas, after those initial teasers, we learn that Mizorans consider the mother-daughter bond the only significant emotional attachment possible (though cohort friendships also are noted) and there is no indication at all of any sort of pairings or other non-relative bonding as a basis for households and families.
It is when our protagonist finally gets up the nerve to ask, "Where are the men?" that we start learning some of the darker history of Mizora--though it isn't always clear what the author considers to be "dark". It seems that at some time deep in the mists of history (and yet still vividly in memory of those whose historical interests have led them to pay attention), Mizora had a society that was functionally identical to the world outside. A demographic and political crisis precipitated by ongoing wars led the women to seize power. The implication is that men were eliminated purely by virtue of the discovery of (never directly described) parthenogenic reproduction. Women stopped reproducing heterosexually, all children were daughters, and eventually all the men died out.
In the recitation of this process, the reader also learns some disturbing things about Mizoran philosophy (though it isn't entirely clear how the author intends us to take them), such as that the uniform pale skins and blonde hair of the Mizorans are due to eugenic selection. Mizorans determined "scientifically" that white, blonde, blue-eyed people are inherently superior, and therefore the process by which women are authorized to reproduce has deliberately selected for those characteristics. Similarly, in the early parts of the process of transforming Mizoran society, unfortunate personality and intellectual flaws were removed from the society by means of prohibiting their bearers from reproducing. Thus as the tale continues, what at first seemed like an intellectual and scientific paradise reveals itself as a humanitarian horror show. To be sure, no one was directly executed for social transgressions, but Mizoran society has evolved into a smug sense of the superiority of their engineered uniformity.
The protagonist seems to come to an echo of the disquiet that the modern (progressive) reader may be feeling, though she expresses it as a longing to return to her home to see her husband and son, and to bring Mizoran enlightenment to the outside world. To this end, she persuades her Mizoran "special friend" to accompany her. Alas, on their return, her husband and son have died. While the Mizoran is treated as a curiosity, no one takes her advice on social and scientific improvement seriously and she rapidly succumbs to the coarse food and environment and dies while trying vainly to travel back to the portal to Mizora.
The author has some interesting views on social improvement via a faith in the ability of education to eliminate negative social traits. But the fascination of this book is in the naive and startlingly prescient imagining of "better living through chemistry and electricity". I'll include the one description that made me laugh out loud.
[Mizora, chapter 6]
My first visit happened to be on scrubbing day, and I was greatly amused to see a little machine, with brushes and sponges attached, going over the floor at a swift rate, scouring and sponging dry as it went. Two vessels, one containing soap suds and the other clear water, were connected by small feed pipes with the brushes. As soon as the drying sponge became saturated, it was lifted by an ingenious yet simple contrivance into a vessel and pressed dry, and was again dropped to the floor.
I inquired how it was turned to reverse its progress so as to clean the whole floor, and was told to watch when it struck the wall. I did so, and saw that the jar not only reversed the machine, but caused it to spring to the right about two feet, which was its width, and again begin work on a new line, to be again reversed in the same manner when it struck the opposite wall. Carpeted floors were swept by a similar contrivance.
December 21, 2022
Evet...ilan ediyorum. Mizora, açık ara farkla 2022 de okuduğum en iyi kitaptı. Üslubunun hoşluğu olsun, değindiği muhteşem konu olsun, ince ince düşünülmüş kurgusu ve değerli yazarının kıymetinin zamanında ve hatta şimdi bile bilinmemesi olsun beni vurdu vurdu duvarlara attı. Önceki güncellememde de değindiğim gibi kitap, eğer okuyanınız varsa Kadınlar ülkesi'ne birçok noktadan benzer özellikler taşıyor ancak onun çok daha gelişmişi ve pek tabii öncülü olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Ancak maalesef ki yazıldığı dönemde yazarı Mary Bradley Lane'in, tüm ısrarlara rağmen yazılarını kitap olarak bastırma fikrine sıcak bakmaması bizi bu kitaptan uzun zaman mahrum bırakmış. Üstelik Charlotte perkins gilman belki de kitaptan- bana kalırsa kesinlikle- etkilenerek bugün çok daha tanınan malum kitabı kaleme almış. Ancak emin olun ki Mizora, bahsedilen kitabın çok daha üstünde bir evrene, kurguya, üsluba sahip her bakımdan çok daha iyi bir kitap.Ben her iki kitabı da okuyup kararı kendiniz verin isterim elbette.
Elbette eksik, yanlış ve tartışılması gereken yanları da bulunuyor ancak bunu yazıldığı dönemin şartlarına, düşünce yapısına verebilir temelde ele aldığı konuyu öne çıkararak bu hataları bir nebze olsun görmezden gelebilirim.
Kitap içeriği hakkında söylenecek çok şey var ancak nereden başlasam bilemiyorum. Yalnızca, Mizora gibi gelişmiş, kusursuz bir medeniyete erişmemizin imkansızlığı karşısında hüzünleniyorum. İmkansız değil ama biz toplumlar olarak bunu imkansızlaştırıyoruz maalesef...
Yorumumun sonuna gelirken, kitabın final cümlesiyle kapanışı yapmak istiyorum. Okuyun okutun lütfen!
"Hayat en iyi şartlar altında bile yalnızca trajedidir!"
Elbette eksik, yanlış ve tartışılması gereken yanları da bulunuyor ancak bunu yazıldığı dönemin şartlarına, düşünce yapısına verebilir temelde ele aldığı konuyu öne çıkararak bu hataları bir nebze olsun görmezden gelebilirim.
Kitap içeriği hakkında söylenecek çok şey var ancak nereden başlasam bilemiyorum. Yalnızca, Mizora gibi gelişmiş, kusursuz bir medeniyete erişmemizin imkansızlığı karşısında hüzünleniyorum. İmkansız değil ama biz toplumlar olarak bunu imkansızlaştırıyoruz maalesef...
Yorumumun sonuna gelirken, kitabın final cümlesiyle kapanışı yapmak istiyorum. Okuyun okutun lütfen!
"Hayat en iyi şartlar altında bile yalnızca trajedidir!"
March 26, 2025
I cannot look with any degree of calmness upon the practices of your civilization. I have heard the most enlightened deny their own statements when selfishness demanded it. I cannot mention the half of the things I witness daily that grates upon my feelings. I cannot reform them. It is not for such as I to be a reformer. Those who need reform are the ones to work for it."
mary e. bradley lane bringing us the 1880s version of
did it come with a generous side of scientific racism? obviously, but i'm used to rolling my eyes at racism and sexism in sci-fi classics; at least this time it's only one out of two. plus it's not like the protagonist endorsed it (although the protagonist is also ardently christian even when the futility of superstitution is pointed out to her so who can say).
mizora is very american in its preoccupations and very earnest in its faith in education (and eugenics) to eradicate all social evil (#socialdarwinismcore) but its depiction of a socialist feminist utopia is played straight, so that's at least one point in its favor as a refreshing change from a lot of other books on this subject. there's no plot twist sordid reveal about sacrificing male babies or misandrist genocide or whatever idiot route contemporary fiction writers tends to take in some misguided attempt to make women out to be "just as bad" in the name of equality. mizora's men died out as a consequences of their own actions and the woman just figured out how to reproduce parthenogentically, end of story.
the rest of the book has a decidedly didactic bent, with the protagonist marvelling starry eyed at the mizoran's social and cultural accomplishments while they lecture her on various subjects. that part (which makes up 90% of the book) got tedious pretty quick. the most fascinating aspect of this book has nothing to do with its feminist themes at all; it's the way in which this late 19th century book is so startling prescient about some developments of modern technology. lane predicts tv, air conditioning, household appliances and even zoom! that's a feat on its own really. it's also intriguingly tender about the sanctity of childhood and the harm of childhood violence which seems like an idea ahead of its time, at least to the extent that lane argues it.
January 27, 2013
It's dull, but surprisingly anticipates the mindset of the modern world.
A Russian noblewoman flees prison to get marooned with Eskimoes. One day she paddles out and falls into the hollow earth to meet a race of perfect blonde women. Describing their society makes up the book.
The one striking point is that the utopia in spirit is ironically close to our current world or future ideas of it. They have a post-scarcity knowledge economy that makes universal education a prime goal. They believe that if only the poor were as educated as the rich, divisions would disappear. They also have machines capable of doing just about anything (including dishwashers!), and are atheistic foodies who believe that pure food is vital to health and longevity. You could remove some sections of the book, post them on a website like Techcrunch, and people would be hard-pressed to tell it was not from some tech guru opining on his philosophy of education. It feels strikingly modern at times considering the book is over 120 years old.
Other than that, it's not so good. It's racist in one part, definitely misandrist, and has a boring utopia. One thing I liked about it was that she took pains to describe things differently than most utopian books of that era. She describes things like cooking, the beauty of the light in the underground land, and there's a pretty poignant scene about the last criminal that ever existed in their society. Unfortunately these are few and far between, and the book mainly is dull, feminist wish-fulfillment. It's good to read as one of the early feminist attempts at utopia, but other than that it's not worth more than a skim.
A Russian noblewoman flees prison to get marooned with Eskimoes. One day she paddles out and falls into the hollow earth to meet a race of perfect blonde women. Describing their society makes up the book.
The one striking point is that the utopia in spirit is ironically close to our current world or future ideas of it. They have a post-scarcity knowledge economy that makes universal education a prime goal. They believe that if only the poor were as educated as the rich, divisions would disappear. They also have machines capable of doing just about anything (including dishwashers!), and are atheistic foodies who believe that pure food is vital to health and longevity. You could remove some sections of the book, post them on a website like Techcrunch, and people would be hard-pressed to tell it was not from some tech guru opining on his philosophy of education. It feels strikingly modern at times considering the book is over 120 years old.
Other than that, it's not so good. It's racist in one part, definitely misandrist, and has a boring utopia. One thing I liked about it was that she took pains to describe things differently than most utopian books of that era. She describes things like cooking, the beauty of the light in the underground land, and there's a pretty poignant scene about the last criminal that ever existed in their society. Unfortunately these are few and far between, and the book mainly is dull, feminist wish-fulfillment. It's good to read as one of the early feminist attempts at utopia, but other than that it's not worth more than a skim.
January 21, 2025
This is one of the most racist and sexist novel that I have ever read. I will admit that this novel was read for a class however I cannot get over how much of this novel defines why people hate feminists.
February 5, 2024
Erkeklerin olmadığı bir dünya nasıl olurdu sorusuna çok betimleyici ve ileri görüşlü bir cevaptı ama nasıl olmuşsa ırkçılığı aşamamış... Bu kadar güzel bir kurguya sürekli beyaz ten üstünlüğü vurgusu çok kötü olmuş ama herkes kendi döneminin insanı oluyor deyip geçilebilir, feminist ütopyaları tarihsel bağlamda okumak daha mantıklı bence
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2024
Escaping persecution in 19th-century Russia, our heroine boards an American whaler, which however is trapped and crushed in arctic ice. After some time with Eskimos, she attempts to escape in a rowboat, but she is sucked down in a whirlpool and finds herself in the wonderful land of Mizora. There she stays for 15 years. This land is run by and indeed solely populated by beautiful blonde women (darkness is the seat of evil, you see). Men were eliminated a thousand years previously, along with crime and disease, by a combination of universal free education, scientific research, and eugenics. How the women manage to procreate without men, how they avoid having boys, and how they deal with the sexual appetite are never revealed (though there is a hint that unhealthy babies are done away with). But now everyone is elevated in taste, education, and manners. Everything is beautiful, all people are friendly, courteous, and rich. Science is held in the highest esteem and its progress has produced universal prosperity. The cost of food is trifling. They make bread out of limestone and eat mainly fruits and artificial meat. Beasts of burden have been replaced by mechanical devices. The state has pretty much withered away; all people live in peace and harmony. All the roads are paved and clean. Disease is unknown because the food is unadulterated and cleanliness is enforced (plus some eugenics). The people spend their time in elevated conversations, playing healthy sports, strolling in gardens, and sitting in porticos. The last criminal was a woman who struck her child; she was confined for life in a very genteel prison, where she lived out her life in sorrow and regret. All religion has long been abandoned as primitive superstition.
Such is the utopian vision of a woman of the later Victorian era who married in her thirties and had no children. She has great faith in the power of universal free education, though in retrospect it is excessive. Her faith in Science is closer to the mark. Her faith in the perfectibility of mankind is laughably unrealistic. Her contempt for men is remarkable. We do not know what her husband thought of her writing.
This one of many 18th century utopian novels, all earnest and totally unrealistic, taking no account of the sinfulness of mankind.
Such is the utopian vision of a woman of the later Victorian era who married in her thirties and had no children. She has great faith in the power of universal free education, though in retrospect it is excessive. Her faith in Science is closer to the mark. Her faith in the perfectibility of mankind is laughably unrealistic. Her contempt for men is remarkable. We do not know what her husband thought of her writing.
This one of many 18th century utopian novels, all earnest and totally unrealistic, taking no account of the sinfulness of mankind.
January 23, 2024
Definitely of its time (1880), but pretty good overall.
Loved these quotes:
It is so hard to get human nature out of the ruts it has moved in for ages.
Universal education is the great destroyer of castes. It is the conqueror of poverty and the foundation of patriotism.>
Loved these quotes:
It is so hard to get human nature out of the ruts it has moved in for ages.
Universal education is the great destroyer of castes. It is the conqueror of poverty and the foundation of patriotism.>
September 29, 2021
This incredibly visionary science fiction work written in the remote 1880s describes the protagonist's descent into an underground world where a feminist and socialist society reigns.
*
In the descriptions of utopia, the reader will be lulled into avant-garde thoughts at both a scientific level, with the prediction of remote video calls, holograms, domestic robots, electric cars, synthetic meat; as at the level of sociology, where hunger, disease and religion have been eradicated, prisons have been abolished, and politics is a mere public service guided by competence rather than financial interest. This level of progress was achieved because free education was extended to the working class, and also because patriarchy was killed at its source.
*
All these themes, science, education, politics, despotism, patriarchy, religion, are extensively debated between the protagonist and the natives of Mizora.
It goes without saying that the inhabitants of Mizora look upon nineteenth-century human beings as barbarians, for not uniting around the cause of science and human progress.
*
140 years after the publication of this little-known work, much remains to be done to achieve well-being for all, as dreamed of by the author. That's why her advice can and should be heeded.
"Educate them. Convince the rich that by educating the poor, they are providing for their own safety. They will have fewer prisons to build, fewer courts to sustain, Educated labor will work out it's own salvation against Capital."
*
In the descriptions of utopia, the reader will be lulled into avant-garde thoughts at both a scientific level, with the prediction of remote video calls, holograms, domestic robots, electric cars, synthetic meat; as at the level of sociology, where hunger, disease and religion have been eradicated, prisons have been abolished, and politics is a mere public service guided by competence rather than financial interest. This level of progress was achieved because free education was extended to the working class, and also because patriarchy was killed at its source.
*
All these themes, science, education, politics, despotism, patriarchy, religion, are extensively debated between the protagonist and the natives of Mizora.
It goes without saying that the inhabitants of Mizora look upon nineteenth-century human beings as barbarians, for not uniting around the cause of science and human progress.
*
140 years after the publication of this little-known work, much remains to be done to achieve well-being for all, as dreamed of by the author. That's why her advice can and should be heeded.
"Educate them. Convince the rich that by educating the poor, they are providing for their own safety. They will have fewer prisons to build, fewer courts to sustain, Educated labor will work out it's own salvation against Capital."
March 26, 2021
A visionary book, a Victorian utopia well ahead of its time. What if there were no men. What if technology had advanced to the level that food and clothing were inexpensive. What if crime and poverty had been eliminated, if education is the ultimate and teachers therefore of the highest status. What if class and inherited wealth and misogyny had been eradicated and everyone lived with their philosophy being hard work and benefiting all members of society. This is Mizora.
Vera Zarovitch, Russian political refugee, is our narrator and window into Mizora. Far to the north she finds a portal from the Victorian era to Mizora. Mary E Bradley shows how constructed and brutally unfair patriarchy is, how men subjugate women and how women are implicit in the construction of their own cages. Through Vera's reactions to the world of Mizora Bradley savages society and politics, prejudice, poverty and restricted education.
Bewitching and will definitely read again. Tho very difficult to get hold of... A shame it's not more readily accessible, it should be better known, like 1984, Farenheit 451 or Brave New World. But we have patriarchy to thank for that...
Vera Zarovitch, Russian political refugee, is our narrator and window into Mizora. Far to the north she finds a portal from the Victorian era to Mizora. Mary E Bradley shows how constructed and brutally unfair patriarchy is, how men subjugate women and how women are implicit in the construction of their own cages. Through Vera's reactions to the world of Mizora Bradley savages society and politics, prejudice, poverty and restricted education.
Bewitching and will definitely read again. Tho very difficult to get hold of... A shame it's not more readily accessible, it should be better known, like 1984, Farenheit 451 or Brave New World. But we have patriarchy to thank for that...
January 16, 2021
Considering this was written in 1880 and 1881, it is absolutely wild! Socially disturbing, yet technologically prophetic. She describes holograms, modern devices, and a model for universal education and prosperity. I am creating an audio recording of this book if you would like to listen instead of read!
Read
April 15, 20221891
August 17, 2021
Has a description of a Roomba 100 year before they came on the market.
Complete withe warnings about career politicians.
Complete withe warnings about career politicians.
October 14, 2022
Interesting as a piece of its time, but lacking of feeling.
April 23, 2021
“A wonderful discovery that the people had made . . . was the power to annihilate space as an impediment to conversation. . . .Every private and public house . . . could converse with friends at a distance whenever desirable.”
No, it’s not a reference to Zoom—or to a Zoom room. It’s communication technology in Lane's 1881 utopian novel, Mizora: A Prophecy. Almost 150 years ago, Lane, writing in Ohio, published in the Cincinnati Commercial her account of a world where communication would be similar to what it is today:
“It was not common thing for a lecturer to address a dozen or more audiences at the same time, scattered over an area of thousands of miles, and every one listening to and observing what appeared to be the real speaker. In fact, public speakers in Mizora never traveled on purse professional business. It was not necessary.They prepared a room in their own dwelling with the needful apparatus, and at the time specified delivered a lecture in twenty different cities.”
“Small reflecting apparatus were to be found in every dwelling and business house. It is hardly necessary to state that letter-writing was an unknown accomplishment in Mizora. The person who desired to converse with another, no matter how far distant, placed herself in communication with her two instruments and signaled. Her friend appeared upon the polished metal surface like the figure in a mirror, and spoke to her audibly, and looked at her with all the naturalness of reality.” . . .
“Public speakers made constant use of it . . . which I regret my inability to perfectly describe. . . . It occupied the whole rear of the stage, and from where I sat, looked like a solid wall of polished metal. But it had a wonderful function, for immediately in front of it moving, speaking and gesturing, was the figure of a popular public lecturer, so life-like in appearance that I could scarcely be convinced that it was only a reflection. Yet such it was, and the original was addressing an audience in person more than a thousand miles distant.
But Lane’s fictional world didn’t include Zoom fatigue and some of the accompanying relational disconnection and depression we’ve experienced during Covid.
Instead, Lane’s Mizora idealized a strong community focus, even in the midst of technological advances, where there was little illness. Architecture and planning integrated communal life and green space, for example. And education kept women, especially, stimulated and happy.
Pre-dating Edward Bellamy’s more-famous utopian novel Looking Backward (1888) by several years, Lane’s work differs most in its feminist core. There are no men in Mizora, the land from which the book’s title takes its name. Mizoran history explains that competition and warfare gradually killed off males. The culture continues, however, because their technological advances have enabled conception and birthing. Female education in the sciences, especially, was a quite radical idea for Lane to promote in 1880.
Lane’s book is hard to find in print these days, but I recommend reading it. If nothing else, it reminds us how people’s dreams do sometimes become at least partially true.
No, it’s not a reference to Zoom—or to a Zoom room. It’s communication technology in Lane's 1881 utopian novel, Mizora: A Prophecy. Almost 150 years ago, Lane, writing in Ohio, published in the Cincinnati Commercial her account of a world where communication would be similar to what it is today:
“It was not common thing for a lecturer to address a dozen or more audiences at the same time, scattered over an area of thousands of miles, and every one listening to and observing what appeared to be the real speaker. In fact, public speakers in Mizora never traveled on purse professional business. It was not necessary.They prepared a room in their own dwelling with the needful apparatus, and at the time specified delivered a lecture in twenty different cities.”
“Small reflecting apparatus were to be found in every dwelling and business house. It is hardly necessary to state that letter-writing was an unknown accomplishment in Mizora. The person who desired to converse with another, no matter how far distant, placed herself in communication with her two instruments and signaled. Her friend appeared upon the polished metal surface like the figure in a mirror, and spoke to her audibly, and looked at her with all the naturalness of reality.” . . .
“Public speakers made constant use of it . . . which I regret my inability to perfectly describe. . . . It occupied the whole rear of the stage, and from where I sat, looked like a solid wall of polished metal. But it had a wonderful function, for immediately in front of it moving, speaking and gesturing, was the figure of a popular public lecturer, so life-like in appearance that I could scarcely be convinced that it was only a reflection. Yet such it was, and the original was addressing an audience in person more than a thousand miles distant.
But Lane’s fictional world didn’t include Zoom fatigue and some of the accompanying relational disconnection and depression we’ve experienced during Covid.
Instead, Lane’s Mizora idealized a strong community focus, even in the midst of technological advances, where there was little illness. Architecture and planning integrated communal life and green space, for example. And education kept women, especially, stimulated and happy.
Pre-dating Edward Bellamy’s more-famous utopian novel Looking Backward (1888) by several years, Lane’s work differs most in its feminist core. There are no men in Mizora, the land from which the book’s title takes its name. Mizoran history explains that competition and warfare gradually killed off males. The culture continues, however, because their technological advances have enabled conception and birthing. Female education in the sciences, especially, was a quite radical idea for Lane to promote in 1880.
Lane’s book is hard to find in print these days, but I recommend reading it. If nothing else, it reminds us how people’s dreams do sometimes become at least partially true.
February 11, 2024
A very odd utopian novel, and perhaps the first ever female-only utopia. "Mizora" has the exact same structure as every other utopian novel from this time - reader/author stand-in protagonist magically discovers a hidden utopian world, and the inhabitants of this society explain what makes their world perfect.
In Mizora the most significant thing that must exist for utopia to be achievable is universal education to allow for the development of the intellect. With this the inhabitants of Mizora are able to study Science to an extent they can understand everything in nature and perfect their world. And of course since this is an early progressive era utopia, this perfectibility included eugenics to eliminate "hereditary" criminality, and in this novel, males and "people of dark or mixed complexions."
Because it must be commented on that this utopia is white-only, and actually blonde, white women only. Truly an Aryan paradise. The racial aspect is not lingered on in the novel like gender. In fact in the one passage that really comments on this, the narrator bizarrely "secretly disagrees" with the Mizorans on their racial elimination. But if the "narrator"/author really thinks that why would she write her utopia this way...either way "Mizora" is explicitly racist.
The male aspect is interesting. The eugenics side of Mizora is revealed in a bit of a second act twist that unveils the dark side of the history behind the otherwise perfect Mizora. In one of the book's odd choices, the history of Mizora is basically the history of the US, but the narrator is a Russian princess, and of course the author is US-American. But anyways, after years of corruption, females take over the government, excludes males, and eventually learn the secrets of life (seize the means of reproduction if you will) to the extent that they can reproduce via parthogenesis only more women, eliminating more males. It is suggested that males and females are basically different races, and that males must be eliminated to create utopia as they are inevitably drawn towards crime and corruption.
I like the writing style of "Mizora" more than other similar utopias I've read from this time - it was more pleasing to read and less strictly polemical than some of the others. And "Mizora" is actually quite perceptive in predicting future technology - notably TVs/Video, machines to replace household labor (cleaning devices), heating/AC, "airships," etc. And I also found the religion discussions at the end quite interesting, on the necessity of giving up religion, but the painful aspect of accepting the finality of death. There is also a very odd and interesting through line running through the whole book on "Nature," how Science has advanced to make Nature obey it, but art must only mimic Nature, the aspects of nature that we can never learn.
Ultimately - especially if you exclude the eugenics ideals - "Mizora" actually feels more visionary towards certain modern technologies and ideals for progress than other utopian novels of the time.
In Mizora the most significant thing that must exist for utopia to be achievable is universal education to allow for the development of the intellect. With this the inhabitants of Mizora are able to study Science to an extent they can understand everything in nature and perfect their world. And of course since this is an early progressive era utopia, this perfectibility included eugenics to eliminate "hereditary" criminality, and in this novel, males and "people of dark or mixed complexions."
Because it must be commented on that this utopia is white-only, and actually blonde, white women only. Truly an Aryan paradise. The racial aspect is not lingered on in the novel like gender. In fact in the one passage that really comments on this, the narrator bizarrely "secretly disagrees" with the Mizorans on their racial elimination. But if the "narrator"/author really thinks that why would she write her utopia this way...either way "Mizora" is explicitly racist.
The male aspect is interesting. The eugenics side of Mizora is revealed in a bit of a second act twist that unveils the dark side of the history behind the otherwise perfect Mizora. In one of the book's odd choices, the history of Mizora is basically the history of the US, but the narrator is a Russian princess, and of course the author is US-American. But anyways, after years of corruption, females take over the government, excludes males, and eventually learn the secrets of life (seize the means of reproduction if you will) to the extent that they can reproduce via parthogenesis only more women, eliminating more males. It is suggested that males and females are basically different races, and that males must be eliminated to create utopia as they are inevitably drawn towards crime and corruption.
I like the writing style of "Mizora" more than other similar utopias I've read from this time - it was more pleasing to read and less strictly polemical than some of the others. And "Mizora" is actually quite perceptive in predicting future technology - notably TVs/Video, machines to replace household labor (cleaning devices), heating/AC, "airships," etc. And I also found the religion discussions at the end quite interesting, on the necessity of giving up religion, but the painful aspect of accepting the finality of death. There is also a very odd and interesting through line running through the whole book on "Nature," how Science has advanced to make Nature obey it, but art must only mimic Nature, the aspects of nature that we can never learn.
Ultimately - especially if you exclude the eugenics ideals - "Mizora" actually feels more visionary towards certain modern technologies and ideals for progress than other utopian novels of the time.
June 16, 2018
An interesting book. Lane seems to be arguing that utopian goodness cannot be created on Earth, as well as that there can never be a utopia with men involved. I'm also fascinated by her contradiction about nature--her utopian civilization claims to live within nature, but they experiment with pseudo-GMOs, eating bread made of limestone and cherries designed to be seedless and the translucent color of honey, and they also play with their genetics so they are solely an Aryan race. Living in a post-WWII/Black Lives Matter era, it is difficult to see this type of eugenics without blanching. (Just as bad is the byline that criminals are prevented from having children because that sort of thing is genetic--Australia, I am sure, would love to weigh in on this.) I'm also fascinated by the implicit violence of Lane's work--in Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward," for instance, there is no evil seen in the modern utopian world; the same can be said for the utopia of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland." But even Lane's utopia is flawed--children still die, and there is no afterlife in Mizora; the narrator remarks about this, choosing to hold fast to her religious beliefs. Is Lane arguing for religion? Or against it? Can Mizora be a perfect utopia with senseless, accidental deaths?
The one thing that Lane argues remarkably well is her insistence on free education--something pertinent still today. The narrator dreams of a college on Earth with the words "Enter Who Will: No Warder Stands Watch at the Gate," and these ever-aspiring dreams of learning and intellectual growth seemed to be the key to creating a better life--even "Herland" echoes the importance of education. Pity Bellamy neglected that element.
The one thing that Lane argues remarkably well is her insistence on free education--something pertinent still today. The narrator dreams of a college on Earth with the words "Enter Who Will: No Warder Stands Watch at the Gate," and these ever-aspiring dreams of learning and intellectual growth seemed to be the key to creating a better life--even "Herland" echoes the importance of education. Pity Bellamy neglected that element.
December 19, 2021
Mizora, edebiyat tarihinin unutulmuş bir yerini keşfetmişim gibi hissettirdi bana.
Mary E. Bradley'i hiç tanımıyordum, eseri de ilk feminist ütopya başlığı ile görünce şaşırarak alıp okudum. 1890 yılında parçalar halinde yayımlanmış hemen tüm ütopya özelliklerini bulunduran bir eser.
İlk olarak karşımıza çıkan tema kadınların eğitim almasının gerekliliği. Eserin hemen her yerinde bu konu tekrarla vurgulanmış ve Mizora'da sahip oldukları tüm nimetlerin akıl ve eğitimle elde edilmiş olduğu söylenmiş. Her ne kadar eskide kalmış bir söylem olsa da dönemin feminizmi için gerekli ve önemli bir argüman olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Burada eğitimin geleneksel eğitim anlayışına indirgenmesi, zanaatin bile okullara dayalı olması oldukça problemli bir algı yaratıyor, Ekimcim 189o'lar diyip kendimi durduruyorum.
Erkeklerin tamamen yok olmuş olması ve tüm kötülüklerin sebebi olarak görülmesini ise hiçbir görüşle açıklayamam sanırım. Bir ütopyada erkeklerin olmaması evet, görece anlaşılabilir bir refah ve huzur ortamı sağlayabilir. ANCAK, bu ütopyadaki eşcinsel kadınlar nerede, beyaz olmayan kişiler, engelliler?
Tüm karakterler sarışın, renkli gözlü, beyaz tenli, hiçbiri engelli değil, hastalıklar yok. Çünkü bilimi kullanarak hepsini "yenmişler." Farklılıkları yenilmesi gereken düşmanlar, aşılması gereken engeller olarak değerlendirmeyi umarım 1800'lerde bırakmışızdır. Çünkü hepimizin olmadığı bir ütopya hangimizin ütopyasıdır diye sorduğumda sadece, "ayrıcalıklı olanındır" cevabını verebiliyorum.
Önemli bir eser mi, kesinlikle. Uzun uzun tartışılacak birçok yönü var ve eleştirilecek.
Mary E. Bradley'i hiç tanımıyordum, eseri de ilk feminist ütopya başlığı ile görünce şaşırarak alıp okudum. 1890 yılında parçalar halinde yayımlanmış hemen tüm ütopya özelliklerini bulunduran bir eser.
İlk olarak karşımıza çıkan tema kadınların eğitim almasının gerekliliği. Eserin hemen her yerinde bu konu tekrarla vurgulanmış ve Mizora'da sahip oldukları tüm nimetlerin akıl ve eğitimle elde edilmiş olduğu söylenmiş. Her ne kadar eskide kalmış bir söylem olsa da dönemin feminizmi için gerekli ve önemli bir argüman olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Burada eğitimin geleneksel eğitim anlayışına indirgenmesi, zanaatin bile okullara dayalı olması oldukça problemli bir algı yaratıyor, Ekimcim 189o'lar diyip kendimi durduruyorum.
Erkeklerin tamamen yok olmuş olması ve tüm kötülüklerin sebebi olarak görülmesini ise hiçbir görüşle açıklayamam sanırım. Bir ütopyada erkeklerin olmaması evet, görece anlaşılabilir bir refah ve huzur ortamı sağlayabilir. ANCAK, bu ütopyadaki eşcinsel kadınlar nerede, beyaz olmayan kişiler, engelliler?
Tüm karakterler sarışın, renkli gözlü, beyaz tenli, hiçbiri engelli değil, hastalıklar yok. Çünkü bilimi kullanarak hepsini "yenmişler." Farklılıkları yenilmesi gereken düşmanlar, aşılması gereken engeller olarak değerlendirmeyi umarım 1800'lerde bırakmışızdır. Çünkü hepimizin olmadığı bir ütopya hangimizin ütopyasıdır diye sorduğumda sadece, "ayrıcalıklı olanındır" cevabını verebiliyorum.
Önemli bir eser mi, kesinlikle. Uzun uzun tartışılacak birçok yönü var ve eleştirilecek.
Read
July 21, 2024I'm not giving this a star rating bc I was reading it as a historical artifact not for pleasure but as a book it was better than I expected (sorry Mary E. Bradley I think I forgot science fiction wasn't invented in the 1950s, and I was probably more surprised by your inventiveness than I should have been), and as an artifact of early feminism and the 'feminist utopia' I found it a fascinating foil to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's latter Herland. I would love to write an essay comparing the two if I had the time.
A smattering of thoughts:
I particularly admired Bradley's obviously strong feelings about the benefits of free universal education which was the bedrock on which she built the idea of this utopia.
I was fascinated with how strongly she insisted (via the mouthpiece for the utopia) that religion must or will, through progress, be necessarily eradicated.
The eugenics present were predictable, and continue to be an unfortunate aspect of early feminist utopia literature (if not surprising). I was pleased the Russian Princess did voice disagreement with some of these ideas at least, which brings me to believe that Bradley may herself have believed eugenics not above critique.
And last but not least, the final line:
A smattering of thoughts:
I particularly admired Bradley's obviously strong feelings about the benefits of free universal education which was the bedrock on which she built the idea of this utopia.
"Let the children of toil start in life with exactly the same educational advantages that are enjoyed by the rich. Give them the same physical and moral training, and let the rich pay for it by taxes."
I was fascinated with how strongly she insisted (via the mouthpiece for the utopia) that religion must or will, through progress, be necessarily eradicated.
"Religions are not necessary to human progress."
The eugenics present were predictable, and continue to be an unfortunate aspect of early feminist utopia literature (if not surprising). I was pleased the Russian Princess did voice disagreement with some of these ideas at least, which brings me to believe that Bradley may herself have believed eugenics not above critique.
And last but not least, the final line:
"Life is a tragedy even under the most favorable conditions."
March 29, 2025
Jean Pfaelzer's introduction to Mary E. Bradley Lane's once serialized work, Mizora: A Prophecy, provides a good lesson on the history of utopian works of the 19th and early 20th century but placing it in context. However, the "facts" we are given about what is in the work would have been better placed at the end so that the reader could try to understand the narrative and think about why certain details are left hanging or rushed through. The new subtitle claims this was a work of "radical" feminism but given a category of feminism that developed in the mid-1960s, it does a disservice to those women who finally had the courage to claim that gender roles were the root of bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Gender is accepted in this book and prompted repeatedly both outside and within the utopia that main character Vera discovers.
This will not be an easy read for many folks because of the multitude of accepted biases within the work but also because of how it is written. If you are looking to understand the concept of utopia in 19th and early 20th century literature, this should be included on your list.
This will not be an easy read for many folks because of the multitude of accepted biases within the work but also because of how it is written. If you are looking to understand the concept of utopia in 19th and early 20th century literature, this should be included on your list.
September 5, 2018
I'm just going to leave my reviews for Herland (1915) and Looking Backward (1887) here and here because Mizora has pretty much all the same problems. Arrogant, didactic, racist, sexist (towards both men and women), ableist, and horrifying in its implicit totalitarianism. Seriously, lack of men aside, Hitler would have loved this place. They literally got rid of everyone who wasn't blonde and blue-eyed and created utopia. Mary E. Bradley Lane advocates as much for eugenics as she does for universal free education.
Hilariously, the protagonist only starts exhibiting critical thinking skills and standing up to these pompous bitches when she learns they've never heard of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I actually started sympathizing with the Mizorans at this point. Their arguments against religion and superstition were actually pretty good and I'm inclined to think Lane secretly agreed with them but had to frame it in this matter to avoid controversy.
Miroza is was serialized from 1880-81 in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper. For reasons lost to us in the depths of time, people loved it. Seven years later, Looking Backward reached 50 Shades of Grey levels of popularity.
Hilariously, the protagonist only starts exhibiting critical thinking skills and standing up to these pompous bitches when she learns they've never heard of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I actually started sympathizing with the Mizorans at this point. Their arguments against religion and superstition were actually pretty good and I'm inclined to think Lane secretly agreed with them but had to frame it in this matter to avoid controversy.
Miroza is was serialized from 1880-81 in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper. For reasons lost to us in the depths of time, people loved it. Seven years later, Looking Backward reached 50 Shades of Grey levels of popularity.
May 8, 2023
Although, this is said to be a feminist untopia, it was kind of creepy. The population of Mizora consists entirely of blond beautiful women, who are very well educated in science and live in absolute harmony. The way Mizora is portrayed gave me such uncannily creepy vibes that it reminded me very much of "Stepford Wives".. The whole concept of this utopian society is quiet interesting. However, the "story" reads rather like an anthropological study... There hardly any plot... The whole thing consists of descriptions of the societal structures of Mizora...
April 12, 2019
Couldn't read it
I had high hopes for this book and was excited to start reading it. It didn't take me long though to feel that it was poorly written and disappointing . So I never finished it .
I had high hopes for this book and was excited to start reading it. It didn't take me long though to feel that it was poorly written and disappointing . So I never finished it .
September 16, 2019
A civic-minded serial killer’s idea of paradise.
January 14, 2020
Sleeping pill.
March 5, 2021
I’m sure eugenicists will love this; I find the racism more disturbing than anything else though.
December 19, 2024
"Where are the men?"
- "The race became extinct three thousand years ago."
dosadnjikavo.
- "The race became extinct three thousand years ago."
dosadnjikavo.
January 28, 2025
Read for Contemporary American Lit.
January 22, 2014
Unlike a lot of the readers of this text, I found the book to be enjoyable, but I like the kind of didacticism that is exhibited in the text. It's interesting to compare and contrast this text with the later and more well known Herland, written in 1916. If Herland places pedagogy at the center of the narrative, with a muted emphasis on Eugenics, Mizora reverses this emphasis, heavily emphasizing racial purity, which is directly linked to scientific progress. An interesting read, and certainly harbinger of the politics of the progressive era, with it's mix of biological racism, scientism, and belief in technocratic expertise. The text also includes a lot of what Frederic Jameson would call wish fulfillment with a description of a land where all women can sing beautifully, and have large waist lines, a lot on fashion. I really can't emphasize how racist this book is, operating within the framework of evolutionary racism (see Fabian's concept of the absence of co-evalness for a useful framework for understanding this kind of narrative.)
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