Funny that you should mention C. S. Lewis in that context, since his final novel, "Till We Have Faces", deals with exactly this subject (the imperial rationalization of cthonic goddess cult in the ancient Mediterranean hinterland) — and his judgement seems equivocal at best. It's ostensibly a Christian allegory but comes across almost more as a visionary defense of the anti-Christian feminist mysticism of subsequent decades. (At least to this reader).
(It's also an adaptation of an episode from the Metamorphoses! ...Apuleius's Metamorphoses, that is, not Ovid's. But still.)
Thank you, I will read that sooner rather than later. The same tale from Apuleius is retold in the middle of Pater's only completed novel, Marius the Epicurean, so the two traditions obviously converge there.
If you can find it (I had to buy it on kindle) you should maybe give Sphinx by David Lindsay a shot. It’s significantly different in form and function and I think would fit in interestingly on your Melville-James spectrum.
I’ve never read Voyage to Arcturus, but what I skimmed of it, and the summaries (a bad habit of mine) I’ve read over the years gave broadly the same impression you relay here. The best books I am aware of with gnosticism as their ostensible topic are probably those last three or so Philip K Dicks, and very specifically VALIS, which is as much about PKD’s late-life mental illness and the suspicion that maybe it is all just schizophrenic nonsense as it is about the voyage to the alien God.
I really disliked it. Speaking of bad habits, I had to put the YouTube audiobook on at double speed as I read to get through it. (I'm turning into my heroine, Ash del Greco, as you'll see.) I found VALIS, by contrast, extremely poignant and memorable; I haven't read it since I was 14 and never read the other two, so will have to revisit.
Lovely John! Really appreciate how deep you dive into all of these. You have a really nice style of reading and reviewing. Also look forward to when you finish a book!
Thank you, Sam! I will publish in print the book I'm currently serializing as soon as the serial is finished. I have three novels currently for sale in print on Amazon and elsewhere now.
Funny that you should mention C. S. Lewis in that context, since his final novel, "Till We Have Faces", deals with exactly this subject (the imperial rationalization of cthonic goddess cult in the ancient Mediterranean hinterland) — and his judgement seems equivocal at best. It's ostensibly a Christian allegory but comes across almost more as a visionary defense of the anti-Christian feminist mysticism of subsequent decades. (At least to this reader).
(It's also an adaptation of an episode from the Metamorphoses! ...Apuleius's Metamorphoses, that is, not Ovid's. But still.)
Thank you, I will read that sooner rather than later. The same tale from Apuleius is retold in the middle of Pater's only completed novel, Marius the Epicurean, so the two traditions obviously converge there.
If you can find it (I had to buy it on kindle) you should maybe give Sphinx by David Lindsay a shot. It’s significantly different in form and function and I think would fit in interestingly on your Melville-James spectrum.
I’ve never read Voyage to Arcturus, but what I skimmed of it, and the summaries (a bad habit of mine) I’ve read over the years gave broadly the same impression you relay here. The best books I am aware of with gnosticism as their ostensible topic are probably those last three or so Philip K Dicks, and very specifically VALIS, which is as much about PKD’s late-life mental illness and the suspicion that maybe it is all just schizophrenic nonsense as it is about the voyage to the alien God.
I really disliked it. Speaking of bad habits, I had to put the YouTube audiobook on at double speed as I read to get through it. (I'm turning into my heroine, Ash del Greco, as you'll see.) I found VALIS, by contrast, extremely poignant and memorable; I haven't read it since I was 14 and never read the other two, so will have to revisit.
Lovely John! Really appreciate how deep you dive into all of these. You have a really nice style of reading and reviewing. Also look forward to when you finish a book!
Thank you, Sam! I will publish in print the book I'm currently serializing as soon as the serial is finished. I have three novels currently for sale in print on Amazon and elsewhere now.