Recent reading

[luzula]

Aristotle's Masterpiece, by Anonymous (1710)
I referred to this sex and relationship manual in a fic, and so I thought I should actually read it as well. Or rather, I listened to the Librivox version (which I see now doesn't have all of it, but I think I got enough). Wow, parts of this made me feel like the 18th century was so utterly alien: if you want a girl child, drink female mercury. *boggles* Noooo, please don't drink mercury! There was other stuff that was more reasonable--it explains that a virgin might not have a hymen, so a man shouldn't think his wife necessarily had sex with other men before him if she doesn't bleed on the wedding night. Here it is on the clitoris: "The clitoris is a substance in the upper part of the division where the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a man's penis in situation, substance, composition and power of erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body, but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some extraordinary accident."

There's a Q&A about physiology at the end, here's a sample:
Q. Why are women smooth and fairer than men? A. Because in women much of the humidity and superfluity, which are the matter and cause of the hair of the body, is expelled with their monthly terms; which superfluity, remaining in men, through vapours passes into hair.
Q. Why is the milk white, seeing the flowers are red, of which it is engendered? A. Because blood which is well purged and concocted becomes white, as appeareth in flesh whose proper colour is white, and being boiled, is white. Also, because every humour which is engendered of the body, is made like unto that part in colour where it is engendered as near as it can be; but because the flesh of the paps is white, therefore the colour of the milk is white.
(Flowers = menstrual blood. Apparently they thought milk and menstrual blood was basically the same substance?? ...I guess it sort of makes sense in that many people don't have periods while they breastfeed.)
Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual motion.
(Uh, what?)
Q. Why are we commonly cold after dinner? A. Because then the heat goes to the stomach to further digestion, and so the other parts grow cold."
(...that's actually kind of right.)

The Mermaid Summer, by Mollie Hunter (1988)
Children's book about a seaside village, the capricious mermaid that lives nearby, and a man who offends the mermaid. Or actually it's more about his grandchildren who figure out how to make the mermaid promise not to hurt their grandfather, so that he can come back--and make her keep the promise, too. I enjoyed it!

Comments

[oursin]

Huh: I think you miss a certain amount listening to The Masterpiece, because ILLUSTRATIONS! Quite often there is a frontispiece of Nature Unrobing in the Presence of Science (who is a beardy bloke, of course), and depictions of various kinds of MONSTERS begotten through various (hopefully avoidable) circumstances. Including maternal impressions.

It went on being circulated well into C20th - was being sold by 'rubber goods dealers' up to the time of WW2.

[sanguinity]

I was gonna say I was happy to just hear luzula's summary instead of reading it myself, but now I want to see the ILLUSTRATIONS.

[oursin]

I see the link in the post is actually to the Project Gutenberg version, with illos! (though they vary a bit from edition to edition)

[luzula]

Well, I will take a look at the illustrations, then! I see that Beardy Science Bloke is decorously looking away from Unrobing Nature.

Yes, the maternal impression stuff made me boggle, as well! But I guess it might be useful to women wanting to explain away why their children didn't look like their husbands...

ETA: Why on earth were people buying/selling this in the 20th century? I mean, the medical advice is, uh, outdated, and if they were looking for titillating reading material, surely there were more interesting options.

[sanguinity]

and if they were looking for titillating reading material, surely there were more interesting options

I would imagine it depends on local laws. As I understood it, the US required "obscene" material to be educational or literary to pass through the mails, and... this is both!

[oursin]

Good question why it went on being produced - but looking at the catalogues of booksellers/mail-order libraries of dodgy literature, a lot of what one would think was well past its sell-by stuff was still circulating. Possibly because readers - on account of censorship - would have little means of judging what would be good uptodate work, unless it had attracted a huge amount of scandal.

Also there was the factor of 'works of which people had heard through word of mouth whispers'. While this might be 'read in the papers about Dr Stopes/Kinsey Report' was just or more likely to have been about 'book I found hidden in older relative's underwear drawer'/'somebody said behind the bike-sheds'.

[trobadora]

This is so fascinating, thank you for sharing!

[luzula]

Glad to share! : D

[pallas_rose]

what a resource!!! thanks for sharing it

[luzula]

Yes, a great resource (please don't drink mercury though)!

[pallas_rose]

not even for my syphilis??? but what shall I doooooooo

[oursin]

It will not cure Ye Poxxe and you will have mercury poisoning on top of it! Yay!

[lyr]

The but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some extraordinary accident is probably the saddest part for me. Yikes.

[luzula]

My own clitoris has never grown to the size of 2 inches out of the body, however lustful I was! And I don't think most clitorises do, so I don't think this is sad. The book is actually positive towards female pleasure, and urges husbands to give their wives pleasure, since the theory of conception was that both parties had to spend in order for her to become pregnant.

[oursin]

I think it's actually in Onania where there is a cautionary tale of two women who engaged in mutual self-abuse to such an extent that not only did their clitorises become enormous, they turned into MEN!

[lyr]

Nah, I think the sadness is men wondering if they are maybe not turning their wives on enough if they can't make it to 2 inches. Hmm, she's not extremely lustful yet - am I not attractive enough?!

Great service journalism

[jesse_the_k]

...but what did Aristotle have to do with any of it?

Re: Great service journalism

[luzula]

Well, nothing as such! But I guess he was seen as an authority, so his name was borrowed to lend weight to the work.

[stultiloquentia]

Ahahaha I love this horrible book. My favourite part is the foreplay sonnet, which I typed up over here, in case it's missing from the 1710 edition.

[luzula]

I did miss the foreplay sonnet! Awesome, thanks. : D

[chestnut_pod]

That sounds a lot like reading Lucretius feels! Sometimes he's, like, accidentally pretty right. And sometimes he is not</>.

[luzula]

Reading 18th century politics feels a lot less alien than reading about their medicine--I mean, power struggles are pretty similar everywhere even if ideology changes. But the medicine, wow. *boggles*

[regshoe]

Anne Lister recounts in her diaries how she treated a sexually transmitted infection (probably trichomoniasis) using mercury. 18th/19th century medicine was certainly an interesting time.

Anyway, what a fascinating book! So it was published in 1710, but the author felt the need to attribute it to Aristotle, because of his authority, or because 'The Works of Aristotle, the Famous Philosopher' sounds more respectable, I suppose?

I do not feel any great desire to read the whole thing, but a few bits of it may be useful for my WIP, which is good... *goes to look up relevant passages*

[oursin]

It's a bit older than that - late C17th - there is a useful short essay by my old pal Mary Fissell here - she is writing a whole book on it, I heard her give a presentation over Zoom last year and we had a nice chat during comments!

[regshoe]

Oh, that's really interesting, thank you for linking!

[luzula]

Hee, that's a fitting icon! And I doubt I would have read the whole thing if it had been on paper/screen, but I can listen to audiobooks while doing chores etc.

Yes, I suppose Aristotle was seen as an authority, and also the actual author wanted to remain anonymous...

Anne Lister recounts in her diaries how she treated a sexually transmitted infection (probably trichomoniasis) using mercury.
Augh. /o\

[nnozomi]

My good heavens. I mean...it all sort of kind of makes sense on its own terms? Only...very much not... (New tip for men who are tired of shaving: start menstruating instead!)

[luzula]

Some things do have a certain internal logic! An unmined source for unscrupulous practitioners of alternative medicine, perhaps...

But the whole thing makes me very grateful for science.

[genarti]

18th century medicine is SUCH A WILD RIDE; everything I learn about it blows my mind anew! Like, it's a useful reminder of how much the current medical understanding we take for granted even at the layperson level depends on hard-won knowledge that is not intuitive or immediately apparent (or, in some cases, even detectable without fairly recent technological advances), but on the other hand, oh my GOD. (Don't drink mercury!!)

[luzula]

Yes! I am very grateful for science! It's not like people back then were less intelligent than us--it makes me feel humble about the hard-won knowledge we've got now (even as we're failing as a civilization to deal with some other pretty dire stuff).

Also, reading 18th century politics feels a lot less alien than reading about their medicine--I mean, power struggles are pretty similar everywhere even if ideology changes. But the medicine, wow. *boggles*