Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

Nightspore

Nightspore

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Has anyone read David Lindsay's 1920 classic Voyage to Arcturus? I re-read it online recently, it was quite a few years ago when I first read it. It seems to straddle science fiction, fantasy & gnosticism all at once.
 
I read that quite some time ago. Very strange book. It all seems very allegorical, but the meaning of the allegory is often unclear. It certainly held my attention, and was definitely not the same old thing!
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
I read that quite some time ago. Very strange book. It all seems very allegorical, but the meaning of the allegory is often unclear. It certainly held my attention, and was definitely not the same old thing!
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Yes, it's like some gnostic fantastic voyage. Apparently Lindsay was very influenced by Nietzsche & Schopenhauer. Lindsay himself was very influential on other writers. Colin Wilson described 'Voyage' as one of the most important novels of the 20th century. I have seen the low budget movie that was made in the 1970s. Although it was a good few years ago now. Some say that the novel's lack of initial success was because of its rather stilted prose style. It is awkward in some ways, but quite distinctive none the less.
 
I've read it a couple of times. It's one of those rare books that has a genuinely unique perspective, and I'm not sure it's allegory so much as the creation of a mind with very individual ideas about life/meaning/god/whatever.

Interesting you mentioned Colin Wilson, Nightspore. It's through him that I read Voyage, and for a while I tried without success to get hold on Devil's Tor. Have you read the biography Wilson wrote on Lindsay? (The Strange Genius of David Lindsay.)
 
HareBrain said:
I've read it a couple of times. It's one of those rare books that has a genuinely unique perspective, and I'm not sure it's allegory so much as the creation of a mind with very individual ideas about life/meaning/god/whatever.

Interesting you mentioned Colin Wilson, Nightspore. It's through him that I read Voyage, and for a while I tried without success to get hold on Devil's Tor. Have you read the biography Wilson wrote on Lindsay? (The Strange Genius of David Lindsay.)
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I heard about the novel through Wilson first I think. I haven't read the biography though. The original publishers (Methuen I think) demanded that the novel itself was reduced by 15,000 words & its original title 'Nightspore on Tormance' was changed to what it is known as today. The original unexpurgated novel has been re-published but I don't know who by.
 
Yes, I've read it several times. C. S. Lewis was fascinated by it, and J. R. R. Tolkien said he read it "with avidity."
 
The only authentic text of A Voyage to Arcturus is the one that was published. David Lindsay was indeed asked by the publisher to reduce the bulk of a manuscript that he'd submitted. He revised it, to produce the book that we have; the earlier manuscript does not survive. A Voyage to Arcturus has been published as Nightspore on Tormance, but this is simply Voyage under a different title. Printer's errors appear in the Ballantine edition and its scions. The best text is the original Methuen one, which was photo-reprinted by Gregg Press.
 
Extollager said:
The only authentic text of A Voyage to Arcturus is the one that was published. David Lindsay was indeed asked by the publisher to reduce the bulk of a manuscript that he'd submitted. He revised it, to produce the book that we have; the earlier manuscript does not survive. A Voyage to Arcturus has been published as Nightspore on Tormance, but this is simply Voyage under a different title. Printer's errors appear in the Ballantine edition and its scions. The best text is the original Methuen one, which was photo-reprinted by Gregg Press.
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Oh, OK thanks for the info. I was labouring under the delusion that 'Nightspore on Tormance' was some form of the original that had been republished. I think seeing this on Earthrid had put the idea into my mind.
 
I have listened to this book (excellent free audiobook from Librivox.org).

I want to read it properly. I found it fascinating.
mark
 
I loved this book when I first read it a few years back, though it was more for the sheer strangeness and imaginative verve than for any deeper spiritual meaning the book held; subconsciously, however, I'm sure that some resonance made itself felt and influenced my appreciation of the novel. Definitely, there is something deeply meaningful about the text, though precisely what that was I wouldn't be able to tell you.
 
Read it years ago. Powerful and very perplexing, but definitely worth reading.
 
This has been on my 'To Read' shelf for a while. After reading this positive thread it has wormed its way to the top of the pile.
 
Nightspore said:
Has anyone read David Lindsay's 1920 classic Voyage to Arcturus? I re-read it online recently, it was quite a few years ago when I first read it. It seems to straddle science fiction, fantasy & gnosticism all at once.
Click to expand...
I have the old Ballantine Books paperback edition, the cover showing Maskull and Oceaxe astride the shrowk. I think of Lindsay as one of the Top Three sf visionaries - the other two being C S Lewis and Olaf Stapledon. In their writings each was infinitely different from the others, but each was lambent with a numinous awesomeness of vision. Lindsay's was the self-contradictory one, though; his particular vision refuted by the brilliance of his own depiction of Tormance. For when you consider the stated message of the book - that this universe is a cheat, a falsity, and it's not worth a fig in comparison with the transcendent dimension of Muspel - alongside the marvellous wonder of Tormance, you realize that Lindsay's genius has refuted his own gnostic dogma.
Nightspore said:
Has anyone read David Lindsay's 1920 classic Voyage to Arcturus? I re-read it online recently, it was quite a few years ago when I first read it. It seems to straddle science fiction, fantasy & gnosticism all at once.
Click to expand...
 
"....one of the Top Three sf visionaries..."

Well, I love Lewis's trilogy, and I've read Arcturus more than once, and liked The Haunted Woman a lot, so Lindsay rates pretty well with me. Where should I start Stapledon?
 
Read it around '75. Really liked it at the time, but now I'll have to read it again.
 
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