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Celebrating the Centenary of David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus, on YouTube
20 November 2020
illustration

If you missed Thursday's "Event to Celebrate the Centenary of David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus", the whole thing can be seen on the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic's YouTube channel.

After Dr. Dimitra Fimi's introduction, Douglas A. Anderson introduced Lindsay and his novel, including some interesting snippets I'd not heard before, such as that Lindsay's original name for Tormance was Tortprism, and that Tolkien had three copies of A Voyage to Arcturus in his personal library. Professor Robert Davis spoke on his own first encounter with the novel, on Gnosticism, and Lindsay's influence on Philip Pullman. Novelist Nina Allan spoke about A Voyage to Arcturus's place in early science fiction, its being one of the first voyages into inner space, and the book's relevance to her own novel, The Rift. Afterwards, there were some illuminating questions and answers. The whole event came in at one and three-quarter hours, and is well worth a watch.

The Centre's blog also featured a Voyage to Arcturus illustration gallery, with some familiar and new (to me) pieces.

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