I wrote Harold Bloom an email about it and he actually answered back!....he loved the book. Then I found an old copy of the 1st US edition at a school library sale. Happy.
Absolutely. A flawed masterpiece. You should also read "Ludd in the Mist" by Hope Myrlees which is an underrated masterpiece that influenced Tolkien and S. Clarcke's "Jonathan Strange & mr. Norrell".
there were SO many dropped threads, including the MC we meet on page one who vanishes entirely by the third chapter with no explanation. @@londomolari5715
Holy Bejolee! I totally forgot about this book! As soon as I heard the title I was running into my library and looking for my copy. My uncle lent me his copy to read back in 1960-61; it was the fourth Sci-Fi book I read. When he passed in '98 he left his entire library, which he began back in the '40s.
Randomly read this book because my husband was a huge si fi nerd back in the 1980s It blew my mind. It’s like doing drugs without doing drugs. I never forgot the feelings it evoked. Genius.
A Voyage to Arcturus is a stupendously insightful, profound and (for the time) utterly shocking work of fiction. I have read it three times, and I each time I seem to find new things to ponder and new dimensions to explore.
I discovered this book because I was a huge Colin Wilson fan and read his essay “Lindsay - A Voyage to Arcturus”. I bought a copy of Voyage as soon as I could find one. I mirrored Wilson's experience of it somewhat in that my first impression was less than stellar, but as time went on, it would return to haunt me every so often. This video is a case in point, actually. I haven't so much as thought of the novel for decades, but it popped into mind just yesterday. and Lo and behold - -today it appears in my UA-cam feed.
Trippy indeed! This vibe kind of reminds me of Scavenger's Reign, an adult sci-fi animated show on HBO. I've heard of A Voyage to Arcturus, and this video convinces me I need to read it!
It's hard to say whether you'll like It or not, it's not exactly traditional Fantasy once the book gets going but then again you are drawn to Lord Of Light and Le Guin. Give it a try and please report back.
On a March evening at eight o’clock I stood looking out over Thurso Bay. Hanging low in the eastern sky was the star Arcturus. It had been suggested that a local natural feature had been the inspiration behind a scene in David Lindsay’s novel, ‘A Voyage to Arcturus’. The scene is a critical one in which the protagonist, Maskull, first becomes aware of something, not a part of this world, attracting him. It manifests as drum taps coming up to him from an inaccessible shore as he looks over a cliff edge into the gathering gloom. The book had affected me so profoundly that, if there was any chance that Lindsay had been inspired by a visit here, then I had to see for myself. I had often wondered, why Arcturus? There seemed to be no significance in choosing the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes in relation to the book’s theme. But standing now, looking over Thurso Bay with Arcturus hanging solemnly in the eastern sky, my question was answered. If Lindsay had indeed been here then this had to be his star. In reading this novel, you will be forever drawn forward in the search for meaning. Like the protagonist, Maskull, you will embark on a journey that will continually challenge your perceptions of the nature of existence. The novel is unique in its enquiry into the nature of reality. Thank you for bringing this novel to the surface again. Is has affected me so much that I have journeyed to Thurso in search of the observatory, interviewed the author John Pick (one of Lindsay's biographers) and have now created an illustrated version of it available on Amazon at www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LB434YC
I'm reading this with Roger's Cheap Old Book Club in July. I'm a sucker for weird fiction, so I can't wait to get to it. I put all of the shown books I haven't heard of before on my list. Thanks for the suggestions! I'd add Alfred Kubin's "The Other Side", also a particularly weird book of an amazing Austrian artist (he illustrated many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, among other things). He just wrote this one book.
'A Voyage to Arcturus' is pretty straightforward in its meaning. Basically, pain is the only thing that is real and that can spawn spiritual growth. Everything else is a seductive illusion. Each successive character that Mskull encounters in the book has embraced one of the pleasureful illusions and so doesn't have the ultimate answer Muskull is searching for. It's not a particularly uplifting message, which is one reason why the book has never found a large audience.
I'm fairly certain the BBC made a radio play of 'The House On The Borderland.' From what I remember, it was very well done and engaging. They usually have superb narrators.
It is a fascinating and wicked book. I have written a book, a length critical essay treatment of its symbolism, themes and Gnostic inner meaning. The book is fascinated me since childhood. It is a work of staggering imagination.
Many lives ago, my father gave me a dual volume. One of the two books included was Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton. But I had forgotten what the other was-UNTIL NOW. Thank you for this provocative reminder. It is long past time to read both again… Having now heard your entire speech, I realize: You are precisely the sort of Englishman with whom I should like to go on an adventure. Especially THIS sort of quest!
Sounds fascinating. One thing I love about books of this era (100-150 ya) is the depth of imagination and sometimes outright weirdness in them, like the stories of Clark Ashton Smith. It's like a lot of the art of that era. Wild and experimental. You don't get that much these days, no matter how good the stories are.
On the subject of weird turn of the 20th Century Novels that were influential yet forgotten you kind of have to start with George MacDonald's Lilith. There's a lot of fascinating French Novels that have been translated into English by BlackCoatPress, Paul Feval's Vampire City is very trippy.
My dad always read to me and my brother for bedtime and phantases by MacDonald was one that I liked almost as much as pilgrims progress when I was little anyways I read Lilith latter in life and really enjoyed it
This has been one of my favourite books since discovering it nearly twenty years ago. I've read it several times now and also a couple of Lindsay's other boks, which I think has helped to understand much better what sort of person he might have been. Arcturus is certainly a cult favourite of quite a few, but his other works are even more obscure, which I think is pretty sad, though as some do take the form of "edwardrian social novels with a weird spiritual underpinning', I suppose it's sort of understandable. Thanks for highlighting this strange gem.
I was aware of The King In Yellow but only since I done the research for the Weird Fiction video. I read It last week, highly recommend, some sort of video coming soon but not sure what direction it will take.
A Voyage To Arcturus was recently adapted as an interesting steampunk rock musical, but like the book itself, it's largely flown under the radar. It''s on UA-cam, but it's a little easier to digest on Tubi and Plex, where there are accurate subtitles.
I remember reading this book then discovering the rest of his work and biography of his short tragic life in the IU Library in the late 70s. My impression then was that he was a horrible writer but that his ideas were so strong and visionary and had such an intellectual and emotional impact that his defects did not deter me reading them over and over and thinking long on them. I'd like someone like The Library Ladder to do a deep dive on him it would be fascinating. Sitting here thinking about his work I think his main theme was the Sublime and that is what each of his books tried to create in the reader.
Even before he mentioned the title, I knew that only one book would come into question. Neither before nor since have I read anything that was so extraordinary and 'trippy'. Unfortunately, there are only very few 'muggels' who can be interested and excited about it. By the way: the only other book that comes close to A.v.t.A is 'Son of Man' by Robert Silverberg. I had a very brief email exchange with Silverberg many years ago where he confirmed that his book was influenced by various LSD trips. The dedication to his 'fellow voyagers' also refers to this.
It was the combination of "tripping balls" and Tolkien that drew me in. Thank you for the provocative introduction to this work. I like weird stuff too... forgotten stuff... lost stuff. Have you read "The Centaur", by Algernon Blackwood? For me, his masterpiece... regardless of "The Willows". It is a philosophical tour de force couched as action-adventure horror. In the outdoors, of course. In the Caucasus. I think you would like it.
Oh wow, just seeing the title of the video, I thought, "It has to be Voyage To Arcturus". A friend recommended it to me in the 70s saying he could open it on any page and read something relevant and profound there. I had that same experience with Stapledon's "Star Maker" but not with Arcturus, but it is a dazzling vision.
@@hollyingraham3980 I can't explain why I thought that. I guess it has just been sitting in the back of my mind all these years. I also read House on the Borderland that is mentioned, but it isn't as surreal. I tend not to like allegory these days but Arcturus is an exception, to just about everything I imagine 🤣
That’s how I feel about Blood Meridian. There’s no plot, or goal; not really. Yet, the passages will have the most poetic ways of describing how rain is washing off a gorge, or a large piece of desert full of the bones of sheep, that had died there. I read Voyage to Arcturus in high school, as I was really into the odder, surreal or tripping balls of it all. I remember really enjoying it, but I’ll be reading this week, as my brain has seemed to lose a lot of pieces of the books I’ve read long ago. There’s only so much space, before old tv series, books and other things are replaced in my mind.
I think I read this back in the ‘60s when I was reading the LoTR the first time. I was at school in Roswell,NM at NMMI. Aliens and SciFi were big in town at the time. Roswell still has alien statues and museum on the main drag.
Thanks, great discussion. It's been one of my favorite books since I first read it maybe 40 years ago! Definitely benefits from multiple readings. Will have to check out the others you mention.
Somehow I saw that the title and knew it would be "Voyage to Arcturus" because it's that fricken psychedelic. I read it when I was 16 and smoking a lot of hash. Still one of my favorites. A masterpiece ahead of its time.
I agree with dave, Purple Cloud was longish, but it felt fun to romp through the world uninhabited. Imagine hitting a UNESCO spot and there's NO ONE. That's the feeling I got from that book. But Voyage to Arcturus is to me incomparable, and turns from this sort of gothic opening in Scotland to a mindfuck sojourn on a planet of Arcturus. Gollancz did a reissue series of speculative fiction and reprinted both of those titles.
❤ galactic historical accounts of the Arcturus star system and it's role as the Stargate of Souls, Edgar Casey explains this higher dimension of beings.❤
I've just ordered the book. Thanks for the recommendation. I've already read and loved Chambers The King In Yellow, so I would like to explore more of this literary era as well.
This is a favorite of mine. Had a deep effect on me when I read it after my father died. This isn't just an intellectual exercise, This book can have emotional meaning, which it did for me.
I'm glad to see a new post, as always! This one has been around a long time. I can not recall exactly when I read it, but probably around the time I read "The Space Trilogy" by C. S. Lewis. Roughly 1972, I had already studied quite a bit of philosophy, inspired to do so by A. E. van Vogt and RAH. van Vogt sometimes uses a lot of allegory, analogy and dual meaning names. I really liked The Space Trilogy.
Only one I've read was the purple cloud. Really interesting after the apocalypse type of thing, with more than a hint of Clthulu. A bit long but really interesting
Lord Dunsany, Edward Plunkett, is also a wierd fiction writer of the turn of the century. He inspired Lovecraft. I'd recommend his Gods of Pegana, a series of short stories in an invented mythology and world, as being easy to pick up and put down. His writing puts me into a trance state.
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann features a soldier back from a war who gets stuck in a sanitarium and ends up having long conversations with residents, each of whom represent a different philosophical or political ideology.
A Voyage to Arcturus is a difficult read. I've failed to finish it three times- but it's one of those moments where I think it's my fault instead of the novel's fault. Much like 'The Machine Stops' by Forester, this gem really does stay under the radar in the 21st century.
I appreciate the cinematography in this piece, and I hadn't heard about this book before and you've certainly piqued my interest. Obviously I clicked for the title, and I do think that you could have honoured the title more by including some information on how/you think the book influenced Tolkien. Still, an interesting video :)
This sounds like proto-Gene Wolfe but with a slightly more Gnostic bent. I'm excited to read this. So glad I stumbled across this vid, thank you for making it.
I thought at first this was going to be about The Night Land, which is also weird, dated and influential for Tolkien. I bet you could do a great video for that book as well, if you haven't already! Great music too btw :)
Loving the new style of videos! Entertain, informative and an exploration of the unknown (for me). Read the C S Lewis space trilogy many years ago & found them weird, religious & That Hideous Strength particularly hard going.
Great video moid. I just ordered a copy of the voyage to Arcturus fantasy masterworks on eBay. Very keen to read weird fiction. This video made me very keen. Good job
I hadn't heard of this one, for some reason, but it sounds like I need to read it. Other interesting and profound stories would be Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, and HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Stapledon's book includes a lot of different science fiction-y ideas, any of which could be used for a novel in its own right, but at the end it includes speculative ideas about God and the universe, but not in any Christian sense. And Lovecraft's story is like an epic dark fantasy, and somebody should definitely try to make a movie out of it. Although I have seen at least one comic book adaptations of it that was pretty well done.
awesome video, there are many forgotten books and authors that heavily inspired Tolkien and Lewis. For instance The Worm Ouroboros is a fantasy novel set in Middle Earth that was written over a decade before anything from Tolkien, although I believe Tolkien may have said that he didn't know of the book before writing The Hobbit which is plausible considering that Middle Earth is simply a term taken from Norse Mythology which was massive at the time in academic circles. Another author that is sort of like a proto-C.S. Lewis and definitely more literary is George Macdonald who wrote great Christian fantasy in the 1890s such as his work Lilith.
Philosophical or religious debates which are rejected (after discussion and consideration) with perhaps parts being accepted and re formed) seems to be EXACTLY what you'd expect a group of Oxford profs to get up to talking and thinking and writing about, I imagine LONG well referenced conversations that closed down the Eagle and Child night after night... 😉
For similar, indescribable weirdness, have you read The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton? It has the same weirdness and philosophical exploration, and even narrative structure: two protagonists, an Atheist and a Catholic, disagree over the existence of God and decide to settle it like gentlemen, i.e., a mortal duel. Every time they attempt the duel, another character arrives with this or that modern philosophy, and they pause to hear them out and then refute the philosophy. Along the way they are pursued by the law, which is here so dogmatically atheist it cannot bear the thought of anyone taking the question seriously, and the two men have to pause their fight themselves to clarify just what it is they believe. Another underappreciated work that gets you thinking!
I read Arcturus a couple of decades ago and likewise was not too sure what it was about. I got the feeling it was allegorical for something, but that something eluded me. Perhaps it was not supposed to be the kind of allegory you are intended to be able to crack with “mere intellect”. There is another fantasy book written about the same time, 1926, that has a very similar feel, just slightly less tripping balls, but it is plenty trippy in its own way. It is another fable where the underlying message likewise seems intended to be elusive to the intellect. Something like a fantasy fable that is allegorical for the importance of fantasy (or maybe the irrational) to the spirit, or some such mildly self-referential thing. Perhaps you already know of this book, but it is “Lud-in-the-Mist” by Hope Mirrlees. It is another one from that same period that got dug up half a century later as a proto-fantasy novel. Another one that Tolkien was familiar with, but even more obscure and forgotten than Arcturus. I’d be willing to bet there was, at most, one copy of it in Tolkien’s library. At any rate it’s Wikipedia entry is even shorter that the one for A Voyage to Arcturus. The only thing I am a little sure of about the book is that the residents of the city of Lud would be known as Luddites, even though of course that word is never used. 😂 I think most of us living now have a hard time imagining how intellectually fractured the world was right after the First World War. But this was the period of these books, and not incidentally Jung and Lovecraft, and so on - all in their very different ways a response to the same intellectual rift/anxiety.
Great piece. I'll put it on my list. Could you point me to where I can find the music used in your video? Or at least the genre? All of the music in your video really tickles my brain.
@@MediaDeathCult thanks I'll go and check it out. Could you point me in the right direction for finding the both the new in the intro and the outro? Subbed btw ✌️.
@@MediaDeathCult thank you very much :D. I actually like to just listen to these. I've found a lot of music that is supposed to be used like this, that I really enjoy to listen to.
Has anyone read "The Haunted Woman" by Lindsay? Canongate press republished it a bit ago. It's not as trippy as "A Voyage to Arcturus" but I somehow found it even more intense. Some scenes in that felt like there was a David Lynch movie just playing in your head. I really should try to track down his other books. Speaking of preferring second books by authors more widely known for their first books - "Mistress of Mistresses" I think is even better than "The Worm Ouroburos". Eddison is the most beautiful prose stylist I've ever read, without him necessarily being the best writer. Plus I second anyone saying read George Macdonald, William Hope Hodgeson (my favourite) or any of these other early 20th/late 19th writers. There's always something about them - they had no choice but to break completely new ground, as there was comparatively little modern sci fi or modern fantasy to draw on. I had the pleasure of reading Muriel Jaeger's "The Question Mark" recently, which really should be considered in the same breath as other pioneering Dystopias such as "Brave New World", "The Machine Stops", "1984" and the Big Daddy "We".
I recently finished "Walking to Aldebaran" and spent days wondering what the hell I just read. Now, I think I read Adrian Tchaikovsky's loveletter to "journey to Arcturus"
As an aside while reading an annotated version of The Hobbit Tolkien wrote he didn't understand why people weren't writing their own stories as he did.
OMG THANK YOU for the LIST OF BOOKS @ the end of this video! This is EXACTLY what I've been LOOKING for‼️👀💥🤩👍✨️ I'd only heard of TWO of them before: KING IN YELLOW and HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS. The rest are completely new to me! Can't wait to see what you're up to NEXT 😎👍📚
There's actually a TON of pretty old scifi here on YT, in the form of audiobooks. Some of them are even in their original cassette form. These are pretty difficult to listen to (low volume, sometimes poor editing), but the narrators can be excellent and you get to read some stuff you won't get your hands on otherwise
First time visiting your channel. Interesting the story spoke of Crystal torpedoes. Im an amateur stone collector in Ontario Canada, what i find is these small quartz crystals with what seems to be mythological creatures and scenes similar to what this author leans towards. Criticism always accepted, i will do my best to explain. Thanks for sharing
70 now read 'Arcturus' in my teens, still remember and love it.
I wrote Harold Bloom an email about it and he actually answered back!....he loved the book. Then I found an old copy of the 1st US edition at a school library sale. Happy.
That's a high recommendation!
That is too RAD!happy for you.
You had me at "tripping balls"! Thanks you, Cult Leader Moid. You're the greatest.
Ah, fooled by the old Tripping Balls trick again eh?
Had me at "giant flying snakes".
Hahaa me too! 😂
I recently read "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison and it sounds like a similar idea, and was apparently also an Tolkien-influence.
Interesting book that. I found many dropped threads.
Absolutely. A flawed masterpiece.
You should also read "Ludd in the Mist" by Hope Myrlees which is an underrated masterpiece that influenced Tolkien and S. Clarcke's "Jonathan Strange & mr. Norrell".
Awesome, I will add it to TBR Mountain! Thank you!@@johannesdecorte434
there were SO many dropped threads, including the MC we meet on page one who vanishes entirely by the third chapter with no explanation. @@londomolari5715
And We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Holy Bejolee! I totally forgot about this book! As soon as I heard the title I was running into my library and looking for my copy. My uncle lent me his copy to read back in 1960-61; it was the fourth Sci-Fi book I read. When he passed in '98 he left his entire library, which he began back in the '40s.
Randomly read this book because my husband was a huge si fi nerd back in the 1980s It blew my mind. It’s like doing drugs without doing drugs. I never forgot the feelings it evoked. Genius.
Michael Morecock’s Elric/Stormbringer series has had a profound effect on my life and I am haunted by the amazing tragic adventure Elric takes!
My absolute favorite character ❤
Same.
A Voyage to Arcturus is a stupendously insightful, profound and (for the time) utterly shocking work of fiction. I have read it three times, and I each time I seem to find new things to ponder and new dimensions to explore.
I discovered this book because I was a huge Colin Wilson fan and read his essay “Lindsay - A Voyage to Arcturus”. I bought a copy of Voyage as soon as I could find one. I mirrored Wilson's experience of it somewhat in that my first impression was less than stellar, but as time went on, it would return to haunt me every so often.
This video is a case in point, actually. I haven't so much as thought of the novel for decades, but it popped into mind just yesterday. and Lo and behold - -today it appears in my UA-cam feed.
Loved the music, the filming and the condensed presentation.
Chambers' "The King in Yellow" is on the list, wow!! I would just love a video on that one!
Coming soon!
Trippy indeed! This vibe kind of reminds me of Scavenger's Reign, an adult sci-fi animated show on HBO. I've heard of A Voyage to Arcturus, and this video convinces me I need to read it!
It's hard to say whether you'll like It or not, it's not exactly traditional Fantasy once the book gets going but then again you are drawn to Lord Of Light and Le Guin.
Give it a try and please report back.
I don’t understand why your channel isn’t in my notifications anymore. I’m subscribed with my bell set to all 😅.
The notification system has always been buggy.
On a March evening at eight o’clock I stood looking out over Thurso Bay. Hanging low in the eastern sky was the star Arcturus. It had been suggested that a local natural feature had been the inspiration behind a scene in David Lindsay’s novel, ‘A Voyage to Arcturus’. The scene is a critical one in which the protagonist, Maskull, first becomes aware of something, not a part of this world, attracting him. It manifests as drum taps coming up to him from an inaccessible shore as he looks over a cliff edge into the gathering gloom. The book had affected me so profoundly that, if there was any chance that Lindsay had been inspired by a visit here, then I had to see for myself.
I had often wondered, why Arcturus? There seemed to be no significance in choosing the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes in relation to the book’s theme. But standing now, looking over Thurso Bay with Arcturus hanging solemnly in the eastern sky, my question was answered. If Lindsay had indeed been here then this had to be his star.
In reading this novel, you will be forever drawn forward in the search for meaning. Like the protagonist, Maskull, you will embark on a journey that will continually challenge your perceptions of the nature of existence. The novel is unique in its enquiry into the nature of reality.
Thank you for bringing this novel to the surface again. Is has affected me so much that I have journeyed to Thurso in search of the observatory, interviewed the author John Pick (one of Lindsay's biographers) and have now created an illustrated version of it available on Amazon at www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LB434YC
I never knew I needed this channel til now
I'm reading this with Roger's Cheap Old Book Club in July. I'm a sucker for weird fiction, so I can't wait to get to it.
I put all of the shown books I haven't heard of before on my list. Thanks for the suggestions!
I'd add Alfred Kubin's "The Other Side", also a particularly weird book of an amazing Austrian artist (he illustrated many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, among other things). He just wrote this one book.
Thank You
Cool stuff, man. Added the book to my TBR. I'd be interested in what you dig up about these other volumes of forgotten lore.
The final page reveal and the final line is stunning.
'A Voyage to Arcturus' is pretty straightforward in its meaning. Basically, pain is the only thing that is real and that can spawn spiritual growth. Everything else is a seductive illusion. Each successive character that Mskull encounters in the book has embraced one of the pleasureful illusions and so doesn't have the ultimate answer Muskull is searching for. It's not a particularly uplifting message, which is one reason why the book has never found a large audience.
I'm fairly certain the BBC made a radio play of 'The House On The Borderland.' From what I remember, it was very well done and engaging. They usually have superb narrators.
It is a fascinating and wicked book. I have written a book, a length critical essay treatment of its symbolism, themes and Gnostic inner meaning. The book is fascinated me since childhood. It is a work of staggering imagination.
I found this incredibly fascinating. And yes, the tripping balls bit got me started
Please never stop making these
The name Tolkien is contained within the name Thorkelin who was the first translator of Beowulf. Cheers from Mercia the original Shire.
FFFF - fun fact for folk
Great job, and I love the woods cinematography! Reminds me of the opening for the ol' TV show The Dark Side.
Many lives ago, my father gave me a dual volume. One of the two books included was Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton.
But I had forgotten what the other was-UNTIL NOW.
Thank you for this provocative reminder. It is long past time to read both again…
Having now heard your entire speech, I realize: You are precisely the sort of Englishman with whom I should like to go on an adventure. Especially THIS sort of quest!
Well well, this just jogged my memory - I have the same dual volume
@@Jonahfishfighter Brilliant.
Finding out Tolkien and Lewis liked Arcturus was like if I found out my grandpa loved Event Horizon.
Thanks for the review, man. This book is now on my watch list!
Sounds fascinating. One thing I love about books of this era (100-150 ya) is the depth of imagination and sometimes outright weirdness in them, like the stories of Clark Ashton Smith. It's like a lot of the art of that era. Wild and experimental. You don't get that much these days, no matter how good the stories are.
An inspired and eloquent review. Thanks for that!
On the subject of weird turn of the 20th Century Novels that were influential yet forgotten you kind of have to start with George MacDonald's Lilith. There's a lot of fascinating French Novels that have been translated into English by BlackCoatPress, Paul Feval's Vampire City is very trippy.
My dad always read to me and my brother for bedtime and phantases by MacDonald was one that I liked almost as much as pilgrims progress when I was little anyways I read Lilith latter in life and really enjoyed it
George MacDonald wrote some excellent early adult fantasy, as well as his children's books. CS Lewis acknowledged him as a source of inspiration.
This has been one of my favourite books since discovering it nearly twenty years ago. I've read it several times now and also a couple of Lindsay's other boks, which I think has helped to understand much better what sort of person he might have been. Arcturus is certainly a cult favourite of quite a few, but his other works are even more obscure, which I think is pretty sad, though as some do take the form of "edwardrian social novels with a weird spiritual underpinning', I suppose it's sort of understandable.
Thanks for highlighting this strange gem.
Thanks for the recommendation 🙏
love your work man i hope u upload more
Thank you, going as fast as I can, aiming for one video every 2 weeks
7:21 Holy shit, all of the titltes sound so fascinating, and except for The King in Yellowand R.U.R. I haven't even HEARD of them.
I was aware of The King In Yellow but only since I done the research for the Weird Fiction video.
I read It last week, highly recommend, some sort of video coming soon but not sure what direction it will take.
@@MediaDeathCult Madness!
House On The Borderland is fantastic!
@@MediaDeathCult Started watching the True Detective series. Was surprised to find King in Yellow references..
Whoosh! Down the rabbit hole we all go.
A Voyage To Arcturus was recently adapted as an interesting steampunk rock musical, but like the book itself, it's largely flown under the radar. It''s on UA-cam, but it's a little easier to digest on Tubi and Plex, where there are accurate subtitles.
I remember reading this book then discovering the rest of his work and biography of his short tragic life in the IU Library in the late 70s. My impression then was that he was a horrible writer but that his ideas were so strong and visionary and had such an intellectual and emotional impact that his defects did not deter me reading them over and over and thinking long on them. I'd like someone like The Library Ladder to do a deep dive on him it would be fascinating. Sitting here thinking about his work I think his main theme was the Sublime and that is what each of his books tried to create in the reader.
Even before he mentioned the title, I knew that only one book would come into question. Neither before nor since have I read anything that was so extraordinary and 'trippy'. Unfortunately, there are only very few 'muggels' who can be interested and excited about it. By the way: the only other book that comes close to A.v.t.A is 'Son of Man' by Robert Silverberg. I had a very brief email exchange with Silverberg many years ago where he confirmed that his book was influenced by various LSD trips. The dedication to his 'fellow voyagers' also refers to this.
It was the combination of "tripping balls" and Tolkien that drew me in.
Thank you for the provocative introduction to this work. I like weird stuff too... forgotten stuff... lost stuff.
Have you read "The Centaur", by Algernon Blackwood? For me, his masterpiece... regardless of "The Willows".
It is a philosophical tour de force couched as action-adventure horror. In the outdoors, of course. In the Caucasus.
I think you would like it.
Oh wow, just seeing the title of the video, I thought, "It has to be Voyage To Arcturus". A friend recommended it to me in the 70s saying he could open it on any page and read something relevant and profound there. I had that same experience with Stapledon's "Star Maker" but not with Arcturus, but it is a dazzling vision.
What else could it be? @UteChewb
@@hollyingraham3980 I can't explain why I thought that. I guess it has just been sitting in the back of my mind all these years. I also read House on the Borderland that is mentioned, but it isn't as surreal. I tend not to like allegory these days but Arcturus is an exception, to just about everything I imagine 🤣
That’s how I feel about Blood Meridian.
There’s no plot, or goal; not really. Yet, the passages will have the most poetic ways of describing how rain is washing off a gorge, or a large piece of desert full of the bones of sheep, that had died there.
I read Voyage to Arcturus in high school, as I was really into the odder, surreal or tripping balls of it all. I remember really enjoying it, but I’ll be reading this week, as my brain has seemed to lose a lot of pieces of the books I’ve read long ago.
There’s only so much space, before old tv series, books and other things are replaced in my mind.
Yay for Star Maker!
@@paulbernhard7186 indeed, underappreciated.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video, keep em coming!
I think I read this back in the ‘60s when I was reading the LoTR the first time. I was at school in Roswell,NM at NMMI. Aliens and SciFi were big in town at the time. Roswell still has alien statues and museum on the main drag.
100k views! Nice, well done.
Thanks Damien, i'm considering using the word "Tolkien" in all my titles from now on
@@MediaDeathCult Pretty sure it was the Balls mate...
Tolkien's Balls?
Thanks, great discussion. It's been one of my favorite books since I first read it maybe 40 years ago! Definitely benefits from multiple readings. Will have to check out the others you mention.
Here's me going, "FFS, that's another book I have to put on the queue." Fortunately the Kindle version was 39 pence!
I saw a 2nd edition in a bookshop for £200 on Saturday.
@@MakeMeAmerican1812My wallet underwent spontaneous combustion after seeing that
It's free on Gutenberg!
It’s also free on the Gutenberg site.
Somehow I saw that the title and knew it would be "Voyage to Arcturus" because it's that fricken psychedelic. I read it when I was 16 and smoking a lot of hash. Still one of my favorites. A masterpiece ahead of its time.
A fantastic review of a unique novel and references to others . . . and a killer base rif at the end.
I agree with dave, Purple Cloud was longish, but it felt fun to romp through the world uninhabited. Imagine hitting a UNESCO spot and there's NO ONE. That's the feeling I got from that book.
But Voyage to Arcturus is to me incomparable, and turns from this sort of gothic opening in Scotland to a mindfuck sojourn on a planet of Arcturus. Gollancz did a reissue series of speculative fiction and reprinted both of those titles.
❤ galactic historical accounts of the Arcturus star system and it's role as the Stargate of Souls, Edgar Casey explains this higher dimension of beings.❤
Consistently the best cinematography of any video essayist, by light-years. Bravo.
Thanks
Creative setup, nice visuals. I do miss a glass of scotch in your hand
Thank you, I've kind of quit drinking, sort of...
Understood
I've just ordered the book. Thanks for the recommendation. I've already read and loved Chambers The King In Yellow, so I would like to explore more of this literary era as well.
This is a favorite of mine. Had a deep effect on me when I read it after my father died. This isn't just an intellectual exercise, This book can have emotional meaning, which it did for me.
I'm glad to see a new post, as always! This one has been around a long time. I can not recall exactly when I read it, but probably around the time I read "The Space Trilogy" by C. S. Lewis. Roughly 1972, I had already studied quite a bit of philosophy, inspired to do so by A. E. van Vogt and RAH. van Vogt sometimes uses a lot of allegory, analogy and dual meaning names. I really liked The Space Trilogy.
Only one I've read was the purple cloud. Really interesting after the apocalypse type of thing, with more than a hint of Clthulu. A bit long but really interesting
It's my favorite book ever no other one can be as perfect as this
Lord Dunsany, Edward Plunkett, is also a wierd fiction writer of the turn of the century. He inspired Lovecraft. I'd recommend his Gods of Pegana, a series of short stories in an invented mythology and world, as being easy to pick up and put down. His writing puts me into a trance state.
How intriguing, sounds like a great book to make into a film.
A true gold mine of narrative insanity. Enjoy! Cheers.
Your use of music is fantastic
Thank You
Whoh! I’ll check it out. Clearly it also inspired Gene Wolfes Shadow of the Torturer as well.
Great vid man!
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann features a soldier back from a war who gets stuck in a sanitarium and ends up having long conversations with residents, each of whom represent a different philosophical or political ideology.
I like all your vids, but I really enjoyed this particular one
Thanks Moid
Thank you
Wow! I had no idea this existed. Thanks Moid!
A Voyage to Arcturus is a difficult read. I've failed to finish it three times- but it's one of those moments where I think it's my fault instead of the novel's fault. Much like 'The Machine Stops' by Forester, this gem really does stay under the radar in the 21st century.
I appreciate the cinematography in this piece, and I hadn't heard about this book before and you've certainly piqued my interest. Obviously I clicked for the title, and I do think that you could have honoured the title more by including some information on how/you think the book influenced Tolkien. Still, an interesting video :)
I want to explore the literary woods - are they in England then? That's gotta be where the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe, right?
This sounds like proto-Gene Wolfe but with a slightly more Gnostic bent. I'm excited to read this.
So glad I stumbled across this vid, thank you for making it.
My pleasure
Wow, didn't know about this and it's a great tip to go look for. Thanks!
I thought at first this was going to be about The Night Land, which is also weird, dated and influential for Tolkien. I bet you could do a great video for that book as well, if you haven't already!
Great music too btw :)
I finally read the unabridged the Night Land last year. It was an amazing experience if occasionally aggravating.
Loving the new style of videos! Entertain, informative and an exploration of the unknown (for me).
Read the C S Lewis space trilogy many years ago & found them weird, religious & That Hideous Strength particularly hard going.
Great video moid. I just ordered a copy of the voyage to Arcturus fantasy masterworks on eBay. Very keen to read weird fiction. This video made me very keen. Good job
It was comforting to learn that you found the book hard to understand 'cause I've read it three times and I'm hoping that maybe next time...
What version of the book is the best? Unabridged, annotated or illuminated or plain title? What’s the differences?
I hadn't heard of this one, for some reason, but it sounds like I need to read it.
Other interesting and profound stories would be Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, and HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Stapledon's book includes a lot of different science fiction-y ideas, any of which could be used for a novel in its own right, but at the end it includes speculative ideas about God and the universe, but not in any Christian sense.
And Lovecraft's story is like an epic dark fantasy, and somebody should definitely try to make a movie out of it. Although I have seen at least one comic book adaptations of it that was pretty well done.
“…ride a crystal torpedo…” okay, I’m all in. Tell me more.
Your cinematography here is giving me Stalker/Roadside picnic vibes. It's awesome!
Thanks, we also made a Roadside Picnic video a few months ago that purposefully borrows from Stalker’s imagery
Thanks. Made a real effort to get some interesting footage here
Excellent.
Subscribed.👍
awesome video, there are many forgotten books and authors that heavily inspired Tolkien and Lewis. For instance The Worm Ouroboros is a fantasy novel set in Middle Earth that was written over a decade before anything from Tolkien, although I believe Tolkien may have said that he didn't know of the book before writing The Hobbit which is plausible considering that Middle Earth is simply a term taken from Norse Mythology which was massive at the time in academic circles.
Another author that is sort of like a proto-C.S. Lewis and definitely more literary is George Macdonald who wrote great Christian fantasy in the 1890s such as his work Lilith.
Great video! Thanks Leader
Philosophical or religious debates which are rejected (after discussion and consideration) with perhaps parts being accepted and re formed) seems to be EXACTLY what you'd expect a group of Oxford profs to get up to talking and thinking and writing about, I imagine LONG well referenced conversations that closed down the Eagle and Child night after night... 😉
Always nice to see Shropshire represented. It’s a beautiful part of the world, but I could be biased.
For similar, indescribable weirdness, have you read The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton? It has the same weirdness and philosophical exploration, and even narrative structure: two protagonists, an Atheist and a Catholic, disagree over the existence of God and decide to settle it like gentlemen, i.e., a mortal duel. Every time they attempt the duel, another character arrives with this or that modern philosophy, and they pause to hear them out and then refute the philosophy. Along the way they are pursued by the law, which is here so dogmatically atheist it cannot bear the thought of anyone taking the question seriously, and the two men have to pause their fight themselves to clarify just what it is they believe. Another underappreciated work that gets you thinking!
I read Arcturus a couple of decades ago and likewise was not too sure what it was about. I got the feeling it was allegorical for something, but that something eluded me. Perhaps it was not supposed to be the kind of allegory you are intended to be able to crack with “mere intellect”. There is another fantasy book written about the same time, 1926, that has a very similar feel, just slightly less tripping balls, but it is plenty trippy in its own way. It is another fable where the underlying message likewise seems intended to be elusive to the intellect. Something like a fantasy fable that is allegorical for the importance of fantasy (or maybe the irrational) to the spirit, or some such mildly self-referential thing. Perhaps you already know of this book, but it is “Lud-in-the-Mist” by Hope Mirrlees. It is another one from that same period that got dug up half a century later as a proto-fantasy novel. Another one that Tolkien was familiar with, but even more obscure and forgotten than Arcturus. I’d be willing to bet there was, at most, one copy of it in Tolkien’s library. At any rate it’s Wikipedia entry is even shorter that the one for A Voyage to Arcturus. The only thing I am a little sure of about the book is that the residents of the city of Lud would be known as Luddites, even though of course that word is never used. 😂
I think most of us living now have a hard time imagining how intellectually fractured the world was right after the First World War. But this was the period of these books, and not incidentally Jung and Lovecraft, and so on - all in their very different ways a response to the same intellectual rift/anxiety.
Great piece. I'll put it on my list. Could you point me to where I can find the music used in your video? Or at least the genre? All of the music in your video really tickles my brain.
Thanks, I use Epidemic Sound, I think you can browse and listen to all the tracks on the website
@@MediaDeathCult thanks I'll go and check it out. Could you point me in the right direction for finding the both the new in the intro and the outro? Subbed btw ✌️.
Change By Reversal - Charles Holme
Listen Closely - Phoenix Tail
I also used a sample in the middle from Longing For Freedom - Eludent
@@MediaDeathCult thank you very much :D. I actually like to just listen to these. I've found a lot of music that is supposed to be used like this, that I really enjoy to listen to.
Has anyone read "The Haunted Woman" by Lindsay? Canongate press republished it a bit ago. It's not as trippy as "A Voyage to Arcturus" but I somehow found it even more intense. Some scenes in that felt like there was a David Lynch movie just playing in your head. I really should try to track down his other books.
Speaking of preferring second books by authors more widely known for their first books - "Mistress of Mistresses" I think is even better than "The Worm Ouroburos". Eddison is the most beautiful prose stylist I've ever read, without him necessarily being the best writer.
Plus I second anyone saying read George Macdonald, William Hope Hodgeson (my favourite) or any of these other early 20th/late 19th writers. There's always something about them - they had no choice but to break completely new ground, as there was comparatively little modern sci fi or modern fantasy to draw on. I had the pleasure of reading Muriel Jaeger's "The Question Mark" recently, which really should be considered in the same breath as other pioneering Dystopias such as "Brave New World", "The Machine Stops", "1984" and the Big Daddy "We".
Very inspiring video, sir. I'm interested to see what else you find in this genre of the turn of the 20th century fantasy/science fiction. 🍻
I recently finished "Walking to Aldebaran" and spent days wondering what the hell I just read. Now, I think I read Adrian Tchaikovsky's loveletter to "journey to Arcturus"
New subscriber here. That review itself was poetry.
Thank you
As an aside while reading an annotated version of The Hobbit Tolkien wrote he didn't understand why people weren't writing their own stories as he did.
LOL probably because we know our writing will be crap in comparison and that’s discouraging😂
This sounds amazing and kind of like Star Maker. Both were actually inspirations for Lewis' Space Trilogy.
OMG THANK YOU for the LIST OF BOOKS @ the end of this video! This is EXACTLY what I've been LOOKING for‼️👀💥🤩👍✨️ I'd only heard of TWO of them before: KING IN YELLOW and HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS. The rest are completely new to me! Can't wait to see what you're up to NEXT 😎👍📚
There's actually a TON of pretty old scifi here on YT, in the form of audiobooks. Some of them are even in their original cassette form. These are pretty difficult to listen to (low volume, sometimes poor editing), but the narrators can be excellent and you get to read some stuff you won't get your hands on otherwise
You and Matt Bookpilled tend to get what I'm looking for in fiction
Very psychic too: J.G.Ballards "The unlimited dream company"
… a fleshy tentacle protruding from his heart, and *then* it gets weird.
First time visiting your channel. Interesting the story spoke of Crystal torpedoes. Im an amateur stone collector in Ontario Canada, what i find is these small quartz crystals with what seems to be mythological creatures and scenes similar to what this author leans towards. Criticism always accepted, i will do my best to explain. Thanks for sharing
One overlooked piece of genre fiction would be The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison.
I will check it out. Always liked Night land, the willows and Clark Ashton Smith
Looking for critique on E R Eddison’s works, and the books by Mervyn Peake.