''Capillaria'' ( hu, Capillária, 1921) is a

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

by Hungarian author

Frigyes Karinthy Frigyes Karinthy (; 25 June 1887 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator. He was the first proponent of the six degrees of separation concept, in his 1929 short story, ''Chains'' (''Láncszemek'') ...

, which depicts an undersea world inhabited exclusively by women, recounts, in a satirical vein reminiscent of the style of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

, the first time that men and women experience sex with one another. Expressing a pessimistic view of women, the novel suggests that, with disastrous effect, women, who are emotional and illogical, dominate men, the creative, rational force within humanity, who represent the builders of civilization. The males, known as bullpops, are of small stature. They spend their time building and rebuilding tall, complex, rather

phallic A phallus is a penis (especially when Erection, erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimesis, mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically— ...

towers that the gigantic women destroy as quickly as these structures are erected. Meanwhile, the females engage in sexual adventures, surviving by eating the brains of the miniature men, who have become little more than personified male genitals. The undersea kingdom is mentioned in the comic book version of ''

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (''LoEG'') is a comic book series (inspired by the 1960 British film ''The League of Gentlemen'') co-created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill which began in 1999. The series spans four vol ...

''. A readily available summary of the relatively rare novel's plot is provided in ''

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places ''The Dictionary of Imaginary Places'' (1980, 1987, 1999) is a book written by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi. It takes the form of a catalogue of fantasy lands, islands, cities, and other locations from world literature—"a Baedecker ...

''.

Adaptations

A radio dramatisation of ''Capillaria'' titled ''Voyage to Capiilaria'' was transmitted on BBC Radio 3 on 17 February 1976. It was adapted for radio by George Mikes, and produced and directed by Martin Esslin. It featured the voices of John Rowe as Gulliver, Jane Wenham as the Queen of Capillaria, plus

Norma Ronald Norma Ronald (1 March 1937, Northumberland, UK – 20 November 1993, Clara Vale, Ryton, Tyne and Wear, UK) was a British actress known for her appearances as Mildred Murfin in the 1960s BBC radio comedy series ''The Men from the Ministry'', as ...

Garard Green Garard Green (31 July 1924 – 26 December 2004) was a British actor and commentator. Green was born in Madras, India in 1924 where his father was superintendent of the government press. When his father died in 1933 the family returned to t ...

, and others.

Related works

''Capillaria'' is the sequel to Karinthy's 1916 novel, ''

Voyage to Faremido ''Voyage to Faremido'' (Hungarian: ''Utazás Faremidóba'', 1916) is a utopian-satirical novel by Frigyes Karinthy. Written as a further adventure of Lemuel Gulliver of '' Gulliver's Travels'', it recounts the story of a World War I pilot who cr ...

'', in which the protagonist is transported from the battlefields of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to Faremido, where he encounters men of steel with musical voices and brains composed of a "mixture of quicksilver and minerals." The two works are presented by the author as the fifth and sixth journeys of Gulliver. Some publishers have released the two works in a combined volume, one German edition using the title ''The New Travels of Lemuel Gulliver'' (german: Die neuen Reisen des Lemuel Gulliver). However, the novels have little in common; ''Voyage to Faremido'' is an example of

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

literature, while the main topic of ''Capillaria'' is the coexistence of men and women.

References

Sources

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External links

Karinthy Frigyes, Capillária.
(complete text online)

(complete text online through Wayback engine at

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

)
Frigyes Karnithy timeline
from the Frankfurt '99 Non-profit Organisation * * * 1921 novels Hungarian novels Fantasy novels Underwater civilizations in fiction Underwater novels {{1920s-fantasy-novel-stub

Adaptations

Related works

See also

References

Sources

External links