Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
Jonathan Swift’s satire has basically been read non-stop since its publication nearly 300 years ago, but most people remember it for the protagonist Gulliver’s accidental discovery of the island of Lilliput, and the tiny denizens who live there. But one of the places Gulliver eventually visits is the flying island of Laputa, which flies thanks to its inhabitants’ control of magnetic levitation. Because Swift was determined to make fun of just about everyone, the Laputans are brilliant astronomers who are just so darn smart about everything they end up lost in thought, walking into things, and failing to notice their horny wives committing adultery. Weirdly, the Laputans discovered Mars had two moons… something nonfictional scientists wouldn’t discover until 1877.
