A Voyage to Arcturus

Dover Book

Text Box with description of Book

If there is one thing that can be said about this book that most readers would probably agree with, it is that it's certainly an oddity that defies all classification. It begins as a séance is about to commence. We are led through a description of the people and surroundings, but, in fact, none of this is really important. The medium conjures up a spirit, and suddenly a party-crasher bursts though the door and twists the spirit's neck upon which it disappears. Then he and two other attendees go outside, and make plans to fly off to Arcturus. We never hear another peep about the people at the séance. And that sets the stage for the style of Lindsay's writing, which is a string of events that often seem to have little relation to each other. Not only that, but they really don't move us into greater understanding of the message of this book. Having just read it, I'm still not even sure I understand what it is about.
    So, we find Maskull and Nightspore at the abandoned Scotland observatory, Starkness, waiting for the appearance of the party-crasher, Krag. After a few short preparations, they're off. Krag is a seedy and unlikable character, and Nightspore seems to be his yes-man, but Maskull is naïve and innocent. He is the main character we follow throughout the remainder of the book.
    We next meet him as he awakens from unconsciousness on Tormance, the planet that encircles the two suns that make up Arcturus. (In reality, Arcturus does not have two suns.) He finds that he has sprouted some new sense organs, and soon is approached by a loving female being named Joiwind, who takes him to her home quite a distance off. She and her husband give him a preliminary education about the planet. From here on in, each chapter is named by either a place or a being that Maskull encounters. Joiwind and her husband are gentle and loving beings, who eat nothing, but survive on water. They do not believe in harming or using any living organism, and urge Maskull to do the same. . . advice he completely abandons. After spending a short while with them, he is off but he really doesn't know where to or what for. One thing is clear, however: Joiwind and Panawe are certainly the most spiritually evolved beings Maskull meets throughout his grueling journey.
    Since Maskull is in the south, he travels north, and the beings he meets are more and more dislikeable and surreal. The one driving force that seems to propel him onward is his search for Surtur, whom he believes has called him to serve. Is that an Arcturian "God"? Or is it Crystalman? or Shaping, or Krag? And here lies one of the deep flaws of this book: we never really find out the truth, but just keep encountering more names, more ideas, more questions that never do get resolved or answered. Maskull reflects the author's confusion, naïvely believing everyone he meets, only to discover he has been duped, one by one. He ends up leaving a trail of death by his inability to use anything even remotely intuitive to judge the truth or falseness of what he is being told or urged to do.
    In fact, the beings he meets really seem more like psychological, spiritual, or emotional issues being worked out in Lindsay's mind as he wrote the book, and if so, he must have been deeply troubled. There are huge gender and sexual issues, too, throughout the entire book, and one wonders even about unresolved homosexual feelings, such as when Krag and Nightspore get naked and engage in some "horseplay." (I may be wrong, but I don't think most men get the urge to roll around together after they remove their clothing.)
    The one bright quality about this book is the description of the planet itself: two primary colors that don‘t even exist on earth, bizarre plants and animals, some a combination of both, and some that manifest out of this air. Much of the book is nothing but detailed step-by-step accounts of the lay of the land, the mountains, forests, lakes. But mostly mountains, really arduous ones that leave the reader exhausted and after a while, get just plain tiresome.
    I had truly hoped, and kept believing, that the ending would take us back to the séance, to find that this whole journey was nothing but a deep adventure through Maskull's mind. But I was wrong. The ending, as stated earlier, resolved nothing, and left me even more perplexed. So. . . do I regret reading this book? Absolutely not! If I didn't want to read it, I would have put it in the bag with The Goodwill donations. At some point I expect I might read it again. I may have a totally different opinion second time around. Do I recommend you to read it? I do, actually. I got on the Goodreads website to see what those folks thought of it, and many were thoroughly enthralled, though other opinions ran the full gamut of positive to negative. To each his own. . .

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