CASANOVA’S ICOSAMERON OR THE STORY OF EDWARD AND ELIZABETH WHO SPENT EIGHTY-ONE YEARS IN THE LAND OF THE MEGA-MICRES, ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF PROTOCOSMOS IN THE INTERIOR OF OUR GLOBE (1788) – Yes, that IS the actual, complete title of this obscure item and yes, it was written by THE Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, the legendary ladies’ man and adventurer.
This work of vintage science fiction begins with a prologue in which Casanova fuses Biblical mythology with his fictional inner-Earth realm Protocosmos. The author pretended that God – on the 6th Day – created the inner world, which was the paradise that Adam and Eve were supposedly banished from. On the 8th day God created the “lesser” surface world of the Earth in Casanova’s cosmology.
In 1615 England a young couple – Elizabeth and Edward – claim to be the long-lost children of a VERY elderly couple named Wilhelmina and James. The young couple were presumed dead in their teens due to a shipwreck 81 years earlier but reveal that they have spent that time in the land of the Mega-Micres, where the aging process is slowed down considerably.
The pair of twenty-somethings prove their identity through that beloved fictional trope of birthmarks and scars, then proceed to tell their tale. When the ship that Elizabeth and Edward were aboard sank at sea the then-children climbed into an empty, water-tight coffin in the cargo hold.
The air-bubble within said coffin kept the pair alive long enough for the coffin to drift away from the submerged ship and happened to cross a “reverse-gravity stream” on the ocean floor. When Elizabeth and Edward emerged from the coffin they were surrounded by 18-inch tall hairless humanoids with skin colored blue or red or green or some combination of those colors. Continue reading
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