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DREAMSCAPES of ARCTURUS

In his preface to this short but scholarly study, Colin Wilson speaks of the author's infectious enthusiasm for the the fictions of that neglected genius, David Lindsay. Enthusiasm there most certainly is, and it is infectious, although it never tips the balance of the author's critical judgement, especially on the subject of the later novels such as Devil's Tor and The Witch, which he calls "irritatingly long-winded".

Mr Power's introduction contains a brilliant exegesis, both clear and concise, of Lindsay's dualism. He reveals for us the very core of his philosophy and brings us a little nearer to what the core of that "Vision" was. I am reminded of what Philip van Doren Stern wrote about that other neglected writer, Arthur Machen, sayingthat "his fantastic stories...contain more essential truths than all the graphs and statistics in the world." Reading Mr Power's booklet confirms for me that this also applies to Lindsay. Without any preamble, we are presented with some of the author's deeply rooted beliefs: that life began as Spirit but later became imprisoned in matter and that human beings are constantly engaged in a kind of psychological battle between the Sublime which is Spirit and the Vulgar or "life's heady fever" . We are also reminded of Lindsay's most recurring symbol of the human condition - that of the Shadow.

The booklet contains lucid summaries combined with important commentaries on each of the six novels: A Voyage to Arcturus, The Haunted Woman, Sphinx, The Violet Apple, Devil's Tor and The Witch. We learn that Lindsay's Vision evokes a subjective reality which was to him utterly real and his masterpiece A Voyage to Arcturus is no mere fantasy (although it can be read and enjoyed as such) but a multi-layered philosophical novel with a staggeringly rich store of symbolic significances. For this reason, it is a difficult, and sometimes misunderstood, book. Yet the reader is constantly drawn back by its eternal quality and here Mr Power quotes J. B. Pick who tells us that the book "burned up ten years of meditation and notes in one burst of creative energy."

All six summaries have been carefully structured like musical compositions and perhaps it is not entirely coincidental that Mr Power is a composer and authority on the musical mysticism of Stockhausen. Lindsay of course was passionately fond of music and evokes it in his novels, equating its higher grades with the spirit of the Sublime. A secondary point is Lindsay's obsession with what Arthur Koestler called "oneirilysis" or forgetfulness of ones dreams. Amnesia plays a part in The Haunted Woman and David Power draws attention to the fact that it usually descends on the characters after they have experienced a Vision or endured a confrontation with the Sublime. He also makes the point that Lindsay started writing The Haunted Woman as an idealist and finished it as a pessimist and the final four novels reflect his growing disillusion.

In conclusion, this little book is a gem, and I recommend it both to those coming to Lindsay for the first time and to those already seasoned travellers in the visionary dreamscapes of Arcturus. One minor disagreement with Mr Power is the recommendation that there should be prepared "a ruthlessly abridged version" of Devil's Tor. Well, I firmly believe that the texts should stand as Lindsay wrote them. Devil's Tor belongs to the 1930's as a socio-historical document and any tampering would destroy the essence. Of course, David Lindsay might disagree and actually welcome a re-issue of his late masterpiece in shortened form. Perhaps.