Reader discussion: A Voyage to Arcturus

Public reader discussion about A Voyage to Arcturus in the WeRead Catalog by David Lindsay.

Looking for weird novels with gorgeous writing

By chillyhawk2001

Just finished *Perfume* by Patrick Suskind and I’m still kinda obsessed with how lush and intense the writing is. Now I’m craving another weird book, but I have no clue what to pick next. I also really like Jeanette Winterson’s writing style, even though I haven’t always loved her characters. I don’t want full-on horror, more like surreal stuff or magical realism, or something that just keeps getting wilder as it goes. Sexuality themes would be a plus, but not required—it can be about whatever. And I’m okay with some violence too. Any suggestions?

A Voyage To Arcturus illustrated by Jim Woodring, published by Beehive Books

By jamie_austin

Found some details on a podcast interview at Violet Apple—there’s also an Apple Podcasts link. There’s a YouTube video interview too, hosted by the Gnostic Wisdom Network, with Deacon Jon, Jason Mehmel, and Jim Woodring. Also, thanks to Swervies for the original post.

Weird journeys to find redemption or rebirth

By hidden-cat

I’m really drawn to stories where the characters are dealing with something from their past and they end up having to go on some kind of journey to get a fresh start. I don’t know if you can actually undo what happened—especially with trauma—but I do feel like you can choose to change what happens now and later. I’m down for pretty much any genre. Thanks!

A Different View from the Trenches

By windlavender33

A lot of fantasy seems kind of shy about being fantasy. It takes some real-world conflict, puts it on a map that looks sort of convincing, tosses in weird names, a dragon, maybe a prophecy, and that’s about it. Not saying that can’t work, but it’s funny how often the goal is to make it feel realistic instead of actually fantastical. And I do get why some people like just a little magic. For other readers, though, I’m basically the guy who wants the fantasy pizza with way too much fantasy on it. Too much unreality can turn into a mess, sure, like somebody telling you about a dream they think is super important while you just sit there drifting off. Dreams are usually more for the dreamer than anyone listening. But if a book really goes for full fantasy, it can’t just copy our world with a few swaps. It has to build something that feels like another reality entirely, with different rules and values and maybe even different bodies. And it still has to make sense enough not to feel like random dream stuff. Plus it has to actually be a good story. That’s the hard part. That’s why A Voyage to Arcturus feels so strange and so interesting. It’s one of those books that somehow got through when you’d think a bunch of editors would’ve looked at it and gone, what even is this? People call stuff like this “new weird” now, but honestly that sort of thing has been around forever. Books like Alice, Lilith, Steppenwolf, Cat in the Hat — all of them have that weird other-world feel that still somehow connects back to ours. David Lindsay published Arcturus almost 100 years ago and it didn’t really go anywhere at first. These days it feels like one of those cult books that only a small crowd knows about, the kind that doesn’t exactly pack a Starbucks booth. Still, it’s lasted, and it’s clearly stuck with a bunch of writers, from Lewis and Tolkien to Moorcock and Pullman. It’s one of those very strange books that just sits there, mostly unknown, but kind of impossible to ignore once you hear about it. Lindsay also went to war later in life, not as some 18-year-old kid like Lewis and Tolkien. He was 38. That seems important somehow. At that age you probably know a lot more clearly what hell, stupidity, murder, and deception look like. Tormance, the planet in the book, is this weird beautiful place full of life and strange creatures and weird organs and senses and people you immediately like or fear. There are wise people, cruel people, funny people, lonely people, all of them kind of unforgettable. And then there’s Krag, who keeps pulling everything back toward the same ugly center. The whole world feels like it’s full of wonder, but also like something is very wrong with it. And that’s the part that really hits me: the book treats all that beauty and suffering as fake in a way. Tormance isn’t some nurturing place or some noble test. It’s more like a trap, a thing built by a nasty power that keeps souls stuck in flesh and confusion. Even the pain in it is sort of the one clue that you don’t belong there. I know that’s not exactly a comforting idea. Honestly it sounds kind of nuts if you say it out loud. Pain doesn’t purify, and suffering isn’t some automatic road to wisdom. Anyone with a toothache or a sick pet knows that. But Lindsay really goes for it and doesn’t soften the idea much. He seems to be saying that the world we live in is corrupting us, and the real home of the soul is somewhere else. That’s very different from Tolkien’s version, where the world is still basically good even after the fall, or Gene Wolfe’s view where everything made by God still carries holiness in it. Lindsay’s vision is darker and much less comforting. But it’s also oddly familiar in a way, maybe because so many later books and stories play with the idea that reality is not what it seems. It makes me think of The Matrix, The Prisoner, Philip K. Dick, that whole vibe where the world is a mask and something hidden is controlling everything. Even ordinary life can feel like that sometimes, like you’re just trying to get to work and everything is secretly arranged to mess with you. The world stops feeling like a home and starts feeling like an enemy. What’s interesting is that Lindsay doesn’t just end in despair. The hero gets through it and reaches Muspel, and then the book turns even more serious about what’s going on. It’s not saying “nothing matters.” It’s saying there’s a real battle happening, and it’s about spiritual survival, not just death. Philip K. Dick did similar stuff with false reality, but he usually leaves you with human kindness or humor as the way out. Lindsay doesn’t really do that. He’s a lot harsher. Still, you can see why people kept coming back to Arcturus, and why Lewis and Pullman and others noticed it. So yeah, A Voyage to Arcturus is not some light fantasy with a little magic sprinkled on top. It’s full fantasy, strange and intense and probably too much for a lot of readers. But if you want something that really commits to being weird and meaningful at the same time, it’s definitely that.

A voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, cover by Tim Gaydos

By muddy

I really can’t tell if I love this or hate it. It’s such a strange book, so I guess the cover being weird makes sense. And honestly, it does seem to match a scene from inside the story pretty well.

A Voyage To Arcturus illustrated by Jim Woodring, published by Beehive Books

By greencat

This is one of the most deep and original books I’ve read. I’m definitely going to reread it.

A Voyage to Arcturus: The book that was stranger than fiction

By Silent-Fox2002

Anyone else read A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay? I remember C.S. Lewis saying it was basically genius, and Tolkien supposedly took a lot from it, but I guess it didn’t really catch on—something like six hundred copies sold in his lifetime. I’m reading it now and… it’s kind of totally unhinged? Like he’s making up new colors and even a language, and the body stuff gets wild too (new parts, etc.). I don’t know what to think yet, just curious if anyone else feels the same.

Harold Bloom on A Voyage To Arcturus?

By pineChapter

I know about *Flight to Lucifer* already, but does anyone know what the actual book/article title was, or any Bloom wrote about *A Voyage to Arcturus*? I’m kind of looking for anything they put out on it.

Is ER Based On a Book?

By luckyHammer

I’m just wondering—did Crichton base this on some specific medical drama novel/book, or did he work with the network’s writers to come up with it from the ground up?

Is Norse Mythology worth reading if I haven't read the original novel?

By silver_cougar4061

Just learned this is based on a Neil Gaiman novel, and he’s also done the graphic novel version. Is the graphic novel actually worth checking out?

Book recommendations with nature as a force of evil?

By reads-arch

I can’t really shake this idea that a lot of fantasy kind of treats nature as automatically good. It feels like such a core thing in the genre—like when I was younger, stuff like *Lord of the Rings* and *Narnia* basically taught this respect for the natural world, even with all the growing plants and whatnot. And honestly I like nature in real life too, so it sticks with me. Does anyone know any good books that flip that on its head? Like where nature is messed up or corrupted. That’d be fun to read. Edit: Oh wait—I think there’s probably already a thread where people ask for recs. My bad :(

Received new edition of David Lindsay’s A Voyage To Arcturus from penguin classics science fiction

By HorseStone20

The back cover has a bunch of quote endorsements from different authors, but other than that this edition is basically just the book. I was really hoping for one of those edited, critical versions like the S T Joshi Lovecraft set, but nope—it’s not. I preordered it when there wasn’t much info online, though I’d already read it before and I still really love it. “A Nietzschean Pilgrim’s Progress… Lindsay’s engrossing book, a mixture of metaphysics and surreal dream-quest, stands as one of the great originals” (Guardian) Anyway, it follows one guy’s trip from Earth to this strange alien place with gorgeous, eerie vibes, and it’s also pretty obsessed with evil and what it even means. It feels dreamlike and philosophical, and it’s a kind of landmark cult thing. Also, FYI: there’s a pretty good low-budget film adaptation floating around on YouTube if you want to check that out.

Was Porfiry Petrovich the first of his kind?

By luckywindow1990

I can’t remember any detective-type character from earlier works who digs into criminal psychology like Porfiry does. Was he basically the first one like that? And I also don’t recall reading any really brutal, super graphic murder scenes told from the killer’s point of view before Crime and Punishment. Did any earlier fiction do that?

‘A Voyage To Arcturus’ by David Lindsay. Cover art by Bob Pepper, 1968.

By dragon-paperback

I should’ve grabbed the back cover as well—the dragon’s tail keeps going on that side too. Here’s the whole cover. This is part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, from around 1969 to 1974. Here’s the list of the books.

Movies we don’t know about

By maplebookish3

I’m a pretty big collector of extreme horror stuff from all over—different countries, cult films, that kind of thing. Do you really think there are movies out there that are so extreme they still haven’t even made it into the public eye?

My review of David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus

By NinaInTucson95

I feel like more people should be talking about this one. It’s honestly probably the weirdest book I’ve read, and I don’t mean that in a “fun weird” way only—it’s just… strange in a way that sticks with you. I’ve noticed I can reread it every few years and it hits differently each time. Like, the older I get, the more I think I’m seeing what it’s trying to do, but I still don’t feel like I’ve fully “cracked” it. When I first read it as a teenager, I was mostly just fascinated and not really getting much insight. Now I’m reading it again more than a decade later and I’m actually making notes, because I feel like I might understand more if I slow down and pay attention. On the surface it looks like a totally wild dream-journey: it starts in England with a séance, then Maskull travels by lighthouse to another planet (Tormance, in the Arcturus system). He seems open to whatever happens, like he’s going there for a reason, and then he wanders around meeting odd characters, even growing new organs. The geography itself feels like it messes with him in psychological ways. And I keep getting the sense that what he’s really doing is a journey into his own head—like the aliens and the places are sort of pieces of the human psyche. I *think* the characters he meets early on (Joiwind and Panawe) are meant to stand for emotion and intellect, but I’m not 100% sure. I guess that’s part of the experience: it’s suggestive instead of clear, like you’re meant to bring your own brain into it. You’re kind of forced to stop every few pages and think, because a lot of stuff seems to have two meanings. It feels like Lindsay is trying to talk about a personal view of life and the human spirit, but he does it through this funny, bizarre adventure and these really out-there metaphysical ideas. The best part to me is that it seems to mash together a psychological trip with a spiritual one. Maskull is looking for the “creator” of that world—God, basically—but that creator is also tied to the mind of humans on Tormance. He sees it as a moral quest, and it overlaps with a kind of search for enlightenment. The spiritual side feels “outside” in the plot, but the psychological side is what’s really going on underneath. Even when you’re not thinking about the big symbolism, it’s still entertaining because the whole thing is loaded with dry humor and nonstop surreal stuff. It also goes way further than some other “weird adventure” books I’ve read, with strange effects from stuff like the sun, water, and mountains. But yeah, I do think it’s a little dated, especially in how it treats men and women. Like the two suns—Branchspell and Alppain. One supposedly drags you down and makes you depressed, and the other (Alppain) makes you feel restless and… noble? And if you imagine them together in the sky you’d get torn apart. Maskull ends up traveling toward Alppain, which feels like it matters for the whole “becoming yourself” side of the story. And it’s not like it’s just one idea—every time you turn a page it’s like there’s another piece. The names also feel important. Nothing seems random, and they’re kind of meant to linger in your head, even when you’re not fully getting what they “mean.” Maskull itself already feels loaded, and a bunch of other names and places do too. Sometimes it’s actions that carry the hidden meaning—like he can only get to Tormance after he gets a serious wound (which is covered up, but the pain spreads). I keep wondering if that’s basically asking whether we only go looking at our own emotions after we’ve been hurt. And then there’s the person involved in giving him the wound… who even is that supposed to be? Anyway, I didn’t stop thinking about it. I scribbled down my interpretation on my blog, if anyone’s curious. Have you read it? What did you think?

[US] [Kindle] The Gods Themselves: A Novel, by Isaac Asimov ($1.99)

By TinyChapter

People were saying Asimov basically never did real SF with aliens or any sex stuff, so he went ahead and wrote one with aliens getting together. Honestly, it’s pretty clever, and the ending lands well. I really like the final twist, but my favorite part is still the middle—when the aliens are, uh… doing their thing.

A Voyage to Arcturus

By orangeFinch

Has anyone here read David Lindsay’s *A Voyage to Arcturus*? I’ve been trying to find more people who’ve actually gotten into it. From what I’ve seen, it’s one of the rare more recent books we can be pretty sure Tolkien knew about, and he even mentioned it back in 1938. I’m only about a third of the way through right now, but it’s honestly one of the toughest reads I’ve had in a while. I’m enjoying it, though. The symbolism and philosophy feel really deep and kind of packed in, and sometimes I feel like I’m just soaking up stuff I don’t fully “get” yet. Even when things go over my head, it somehow makes the whole thing feel more mysterious and otherworldly, so I’m not sure it’s meant to be taken in all at once. Has anyone finished it? Any thoughts or tips for a first-timer? I was hoping for some kind of guide or companion or online summary, but I haven’t really found anything that’s actually helpful. Also—no spoilers please—I’m not done yet. (It feels like a book that’s hard to spoil anyway, since it doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be read like a straight thriller.)

Recommend a book we haven't all heard about a thousand times.

By Mirror_Late

It feels like this place mostly circles around the same handful of books. I’m kind of glad about it though—before I came here I hadn’t really heard of most of them—but now I’m still looking for more stuff that’s different. If anyone has recommendations for books people don’t bring up as often, I’d love to hear them. The ones I keep seeing pop up a lot are stuff like: - Malazan - anything by Sanderson - anything by Mark Lawrence - Discworld - Game of Thrones - The Name of the Wind - Senlin Ascends - Gentlemen’s Bastards - Fitz and the Fool I’m not saying those are bad at all. Everything I’ve read from that list has been really good, and I still plan to get to the ones I haven’t touched yet. I just want to widen the circle a bit. What are your favorites that you don’t see mentioned much, and what do you love about them?

Anyone else read the science fantasy novel A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay?

By GlimmerBrocaded

I just got back into reading after basically two years of not picking anything up. I kicked things off with *1984* (still really good), then I went to *A Voyage to Arcturus*. I didn’t really know much going in, aside from the fact that it’s one of those pre-Tolkien fantasy books that was apparently really respected—Tolkien himself apparently liked it, and I also heard Lewis and some other big names were into it too, even Harold Bloom, who even wrote some kind of sequel/follow-up and later complained it wasn’t as good. Anyway, I read it and I loved it. I do think it’s one of those books that hits harder if you don’t know a ton going in. It feels like each place and the people in it stand for different ideas or viewpoints, and the core of it is following Maskull and how he reads/figures out what’s going on with the land as he goes. One thing I can’t ignore is how religious it gets, and it’s pretty intense for when it was written. I’m usually pretty relaxed about “what the author meant” (like I don’t obsess over that), but still, I can’t help feeling Lindsay’s Calvinist background really shows through in how God and Satan are portrayed, and how the whole relationship between them and the world is handled. It’s not flawless though. It starts out kind of slow, and at points I honestly couldn’t fully follow why some people were doing what they were doing. Also, the way women are depicted is pretty sexist by the standards of the time, not in some ragey way, just… yeah, it’s dated. Still, I ended up liking it a lot. Has anyone else read *A Voyage to Arcturus*? It feels kind of obscure—what’d you think?