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Canopus in Argos #4
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 is the fourth volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Archives'.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Doris Lessing
478 books2,810 followersBoth of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 26, 2012
I'm not really a very happy or "positive" person, but neither am I unaware of the fantastic hoax that attempts to convince me of the invincible hopelessness of it all... when I see the love that the people I have been blessed to meet in this life possess... when I experience their fearless creativity... the warmth comes over me...
I am reminded of this book I read years ago, about a planet that dies, full of people and life, all going to die by a gradual freezing... I remember the tediousness of the book, going on and on... it grinds, like the ice it describes that covers the world and kills off the every last thing, little by little... the people have to do it, be it... there is no avoiding any of it, nor does Lessing let the reader avoid it... which is her point, so perfectly made... she takes us to the End, a real and final End... the last three people alive, huddled together, freezing to death loving, caring for each other in the face of certain death...
I'll never lose what Lessing gave me in that moment, the truth that it is a vast mistake to live for the hope of living, instead, one can only live in the certainty of dying, and in the face of that, loving anyway, loving because that is what is really eternal.
December 25, 2018
İmparatorluğun merkezine uzak, kendi hâlinde, iyi bir yaşama sahip naif bir gezegen düşünün. Halkı çok mutlu; zira bu gezegen, vadedilmiş topraklar kadar güzel. Aslında gerçekten de öyle sayılır: Kanopus İmparatorluğu’nun “yetiştirdiği” bir halk bu ve bu cennet gezegen sadece onlar için var. Yemyeşil bir bitki örtüsü, zengin doğal kaynaklar ve doğayla tam anlamıyla bütünleşmiş bir yaşam kültürü, sonsuza dek sürecekmiş gibi görünen bir hayat vadediyor onlara.
Fakat elbette işler yolunda gitmiyor –zira evren çok çetrefilli bir kara boşluktur– ve gezegenin iklimi ansızın değişiveriyor: Artık her yer kar, buz. Kanopus’a ellerini açıp yakaran bir kavme dönüşüyor Gezegen 8’liler de, çünkü çaresizlikle kavruluyorlar. Beyaz hapishanelerinden çıkmalarını sağlayacak tek güç, yaratıcılarının insafı.
Doris Lessing’in alegorik romanı Gezegen 8 (ya da tam ismiyle, Gezegen 8 Temsilcisinin Oluşturulması), uzayın derinliklerindeki hayali bir dünyayı anlatıyor olsa da, görüldüğü üzere neredeyse her Dünyalının kemiklerinde hissettiği bir ağıttan bahsediyor aslında. En çaresiz ânında en inançsızının bile doğaüstü bir yardım ihtimalini içten içe dilediği bir gezegenin evlatları olarak, bu feryada kulak vermemek imkânsız.
Lessing, serinin önceki ciltlerinde (örneğin Şikeste ve Sirius Deneyleri’nde) daha farklı bir yola gitmiş; dünya tarihini, bizzat dünyanın içindeyken hem de, exogenesis olgusuyla da birleştirerek öznel bir biçimde açıklamıştı. Serinin ikinci kitabı Evlilikler ise buradaki anlatıya daha yakındı; zira yine alegorik bir dünyada, bu kez kadın-erkek ilişkilerine odaklanıyordu.
Fakat Gezegen 8, daha da derinlere, en derine iniyor ve temel korkularımıza odaklanıyor; hatta aslında, bilinç sahibi her varlığın içinde yatmakta olan o bitimsiz, karanlık, heder edici tek duyguya: yalnızlığa.
Lessing’in bu noktadaki kavrayış seviyesi gerçekten etkileyici: Her türlü depreme dayanıklı, tamamen korunaklı, sıcacık ve eksiksiz odamızda da olsak; evrenin güvenli bir noktasında yüzen, her türlü olası felaketten uzak, cennet gibi bir gezegende de yaşasak, sonuç aynı. Hakiki bir çaresizlik ânında, sığınacak kimsemiz yok. (Hakiki çaresizlik, hakiki çaresizliktir yalnız; hiç kimsenin size yardım edemeyeceği anlar elbette vardır. Basit bir depresyon ya da dandik bir nükleer savaştan bahsetmiyorum yani.) Ve bu kimsesizliğin, bu yalnızlığın doğurduğu sonuç da her zaman aynı yere çıkıyor: Haykıran bir isyana dönüşüyor.
Zaten tam da bu noktada devreye giriyor yaratıcı; hem de inanıp inanmadığınızdan tamamen bağımsız olarak. (Gerçi, teknik olarak, ona ne kadar haykırsanız da boş. İnançlıysanız, Kader duvarına toslayan cümlelerden, inançsızsanız da uzayın derinliklerine giden başıboş ses dalgalarından ibaret kalıyor tüm o yakarılar.) Fakat yine de, ne olursa olsun isyan sürüyor işte; ve durumun garabeti burada daha da netleşiyor: Kaçınılmaz bir şekilde yok olup gideceğini bilse de insan, bunu kabullenmeyi bir türlü başaramıyor.
Her şeyin temelinde bu var: insanın içinde yatan, evrendeki varlığını anladığı andan itibaren başlayan yok olma korkusu.
Her neyse. Sanatçının görevi, umutsuzluğa kapılmak değil elbette ve Lessing de bunun farkında. Öyle ya da böyle, severek ayrılınan sevgiliyle gerçekleşen son bir buruk kucaklaşma gibi, muğlak bir katarsis ekliyor kitabının sonuna. Sevgili gezegenlerini terk edip bilinmeyen bir yolculuğa çıkan bir tür kolektif bilinç sayesinde, Kanopus da, ektiği tohumları bir şekilde biçmiş oluyor. Herkes kazanıyor.
Tabii, kitabın temelinde yatan bu yoğun duyguları da öyle alelade, basit bir biçimde aktarıyor falan değil Lessing; psikolojik darbelerinin yanı sıra etkileyici diliyle de öne çıkan bir roman bu. Güçlü karakterlerin o yorucu, bitmek bilmez mücadelesine daha ilk sayfalarda ortak oluyor okur ve acıyı da, çaresizliği de iliklerinde hissediyor. Gerçek bir feryat bu çünkü; kökleri insanın en derinlerine uzanıyor. Ve o kökleri izlerken seyredilen yol da parlak ve şiirsel bir dil olunca, roman da hakiki bir ağıta dönüşüyor.
Bunun yanında, kitabın en sonunda, baştan çıkarıcı bir sonsözü var Lessing’in; hem Gezegen 8 hem de Sirius Deneyleri’ne dair. Onu, bu alegorik bilimkurgu serisini yazmaya iten sebeplerden bahsediyor çokça; ve aslında, gerek romanın yazıldığı tarihe, gerekse (tam bir sanatçı öngörüsüyle) bugüne bakan gözlerini kocaman açıyor. Okura sorduğu temel soru şu: Bir sözcük, bir nesil için güçlü bir uyuşturucu olabilirken, bir sonraki nesil için nasıl öyle süt kadar sakinleştirici hâle gelebiliyor? Toplumsal evrimin acımasız kanıtı olan bu soru, Gezegen 8’in temellerini de atmış bir şekilde: Antarktika’nın kâşiflerinin, ilerleyen yıllarda kökten değişen imajları, ona kar ve buz altında süren bir maceranın kapılarını açmış.
Öyle ya da böyle. Yaratıcıya yakarı derdine düşmüşseniz ve Doris gibi yaratıcı da bir kişiyseniz, en yalnız anlarınızdan oluşan hezeyanlarınızı böyle yazıya döküp romana dönüştürebiliyorsunuz işte. Tanrı vergisi bir yetenek olsa gerek!
Ve söz yine oraya gelmişken... En tepedeki sorunun cevabı şudur belki de: Kanopus kimseyi terk etmedi, sevgili Gezegen 8’li; sen Kanopus’u terk etmekte çok geç kaldın.
Edebiyathaber.net
Fakat elbette işler yolunda gitmiyor –zira evren çok çetrefilli bir kara boşluktur– ve gezegenin iklimi ansızın değişiveriyor: Artık her yer kar, buz. Kanopus’a ellerini açıp yakaran bir kavme dönüşüyor Gezegen 8’liler de, çünkü çaresizlikle kavruluyorlar. Beyaz hapishanelerinden çıkmalarını sağlayacak tek güç, yaratıcılarının insafı.
Doris Lessing’in alegorik romanı Gezegen 8 (ya da tam ismiyle, Gezegen 8 Temsilcisinin Oluşturulması), uzayın derinliklerindeki hayali bir dünyayı anlatıyor olsa da, görüldüğü üzere neredeyse her Dünyalının kemiklerinde hissettiği bir ağıttan bahsediyor aslında. En çaresiz ânında en inançsızının bile doğaüstü bir yardım ihtimalini içten içe dilediği bir gezegenin evlatları olarak, bu feryada kulak vermemek imkânsız.
Lessing, serinin önceki ciltlerinde (örneğin Şikeste ve Sirius Deneyleri’nde) daha farklı bir yola gitmiş; dünya tarihini, bizzat dünyanın içindeyken hem de, exogenesis olgusuyla da birleştirerek öznel bir biçimde açıklamıştı. Serinin ikinci kitabı Evlilikler ise buradaki anlatıya daha yakındı; zira yine alegorik bir dünyada, bu kez kadın-erkek ilişkilerine odaklanıyordu.
Fakat Gezegen 8, daha da derinlere, en derine iniyor ve temel korkularımıza odaklanıyor; hatta aslında, bilinç sahibi her varlığın içinde yatmakta olan o bitimsiz, karanlık, heder edici tek duyguya: yalnızlığa.
Lessing’in bu noktadaki kavrayış seviyesi gerçekten etkileyici: Her türlü depreme dayanıklı, tamamen korunaklı, sıcacık ve eksiksiz odamızda da olsak; evrenin güvenli bir noktasında yüzen, her türlü olası felaketten uzak, cennet gibi bir gezegende de yaşasak, sonuç aynı. Hakiki bir çaresizlik ânında, sığınacak kimsemiz yok. (Hakiki çaresizlik, hakiki çaresizliktir yalnız; hiç kimsenin size yardım edemeyeceği anlar elbette vardır. Basit bir depresyon ya da dandik bir nükleer savaştan bahsetmiyorum yani.) Ve bu kimsesizliğin, bu yalnızlığın doğurduğu sonuç da her zaman aynı yere çıkıyor: Haykıran bir isyana dönüşüyor.
Zaten tam da bu noktada devreye giriyor yaratıcı; hem de inanıp inanmadığınızdan tamamen bağımsız olarak. (Gerçi, teknik olarak, ona ne kadar haykırsanız da boş. İnançlıysanız, Kader duvarına toslayan cümlelerden, inançsızsanız da uzayın derinliklerine giden başıboş ses dalgalarından ibaret kalıyor tüm o yakarılar.) Fakat yine de, ne olursa olsun isyan sürüyor işte; ve durumun garabeti burada daha da netleşiyor: Kaçınılmaz bir şekilde yok olup gideceğini bilse de insan, bunu kabullenmeyi bir türlü başaramıyor.
Her şeyin temelinde bu var: insanın içinde yatan, evrendeki varlığını anladığı andan itibaren başlayan yok olma korkusu.
Her neyse. Sanatçının görevi, umutsuzluğa kapılmak değil elbette ve Lessing de bunun farkında. Öyle ya da böyle, severek ayrılınan sevgiliyle gerçekleşen son bir buruk kucaklaşma gibi, muğlak bir katarsis ekliyor kitabının sonuna. Sevgili gezegenlerini terk edip bilinmeyen bir yolculuğa çıkan bir tür kolektif bilinç sayesinde, Kanopus da, ektiği tohumları bir şekilde biçmiş oluyor. Herkes kazanıyor.
Tabii, kitabın temelinde yatan bu yoğun duyguları da öyle alelade, basit bir biçimde aktarıyor falan değil Lessing; psikolojik darbelerinin yanı sıra etkileyici diliyle de öne çıkan bir roman bu. Güçlü karakterlerin o yorucu, bitmek bilmez mücadelesine daha ilk sayfalarda ortak oluyor okur ve acıyı da, çaresizliği de iliklerinde hissediyor. Gerçek bir feryat bu çünkü; kökleri insanın en derinlerine uzanıyor. Ve o kökleri izlerken seyredilen yol da parlak ve şiirsel bir dil olunca, roman da hakiki bir ağıta dönüşüyor.
Bunun yanında, kitabın en sonunda, baştan çıkarıcı bir sonsözü var Lessing’in; hem Gezegen 8 hem de Sirius Deneyleri’ne dair. Onu, bu alegorik bilimkurgu serisini yazmaya iten sebeplerden bahsediyor çokça; ve aslında, gerek romanın yazıldığı tarihe, gerekse (tam bir sanatçı öngörüsüyle) bugüne bakan gözlerini kocaman açıyor. Okura sorduğu temel soru şu: Bir sözcük, bir nesil için güçlü bir uyuşturucu olabilirken, bir sonraki nesil için nasıl öyle süt kadar sakinleştirici hâle gelebiliyor? Toplumsal evrimin acımasız kanıtı olan bu soru, Gezegen 8’in temellerini de atmış bir şekilde: Antarktika’nın kâşiflerinin, ilerleyen yıllarda kökten değişen imajları, ona kar ve buz altında süren bir maceranın kapılarını açmış.
Öyle ya da böyle. Yaratıcıya yakarı derdine düşmüşseniz ve Doris gibi yaratıcı da bir kişiyseniz, en yalnız anlarınızdan oluşan hezeyanlarınızı böyle yazıya döküp romana dönüştürebiliyorsunuz işte. Tanrı vergisi bir yetenek olsa gerek!
Ve söz yine oraya gelmişken... En tepedeki sorunun cevabı şudur belki de: Kanopus kimseyi terk etmedi, sevgili Gezegen 8’li; sen Kanopus’u terk etmekte çok geç kaldın.
Edebiyathaber.net
May 4, 2020
This very slim book took me longer to read than you'd imagine, but that didn't make it hard or boring - just that there was a lot to take in and I wanted to do Lessing's beautiful writing justice. The book's genre classification as sci-fi serves as huge nod to that genre's capacity to contain almost everything that can be thrown at it, because this is as far removed from battling spaceships, robot butlers, alien viruses, stars both trek and wars as it's possible to get.
This is a quiet, elegiac chronicle of the death of a planet - the eponymous planet 8. The inhabitants have been placed there and developed, maintained and guided by another, higher, more evolved species from the planet Canopus. Centuries ago, they landed in spaceships and told the inhabitants of Planet 8 to build a high thick wall around their planet, and high towers at their poles - and then, Planet 8 began to die. A slight shift in its orbit meant that temperatures lowered and the people, used to warm climes and an easy life slowly have to adapt to cold wind .... then snow .... then ice. And the slow, glacial, beautifully crystalline writing perfectly captures this chill falling across the planet.
What starts out as ecological catastrophe slowly becomes a meditation upon an almost Buddhist view of the universe - the narrator, Doeg, begins to make connections between the observations they had made through microscopes, delivered by Canopus, in which they had seen how everything they can see is made of smaller things and those smaller things made of things even smaller and those of things yet smaller still. And how what they perceive as solid is nothing more than the dance of atomic particles swirling in nothingness. He wonders if the higher awareness of Canopus sees the people of Planet 8 as particles that are part of a bigger whole that they are unable to perceive, as they are part of the dance themselves. And so the story ends, with the people dying ... and yet living on, in an altered state.
It was an extremely beautiful read: sad, but ultimately hopeful. The afterword, detailing Lessing's interest in the doomed Imperial Polar expeditions of Scott and his ilk give a fascinating insight into the origins of this and the other books in the "Canopus in Argos Archives" series.
(#3 in my Year of Reading Women)
This is a quiet, elegiac chronicle of the death of a planet - the eponymous planet 8. The inhabitants have been placed there and developed, maintained and guided by another, higher, more evolved species from the planet Canopus. Centuries ago, they landed in spaceships and told the inhabitants of Planet 8 to build a high thick wall around their planet, and high towers at their poles - and then, Planet 8 began to die. A slight shift in its orbit meant that temperatures lowered and the people, used to warm climes and an easy life slowly have to adapt to cold wind .... then snow .... then ice. And the slow, glacial, beautifully crystalline writing perfectly captures this chill falling across the planet.
What starts out as ecological catastrophe slowly becomes a meditation upon an almost Buddhist view of the universe - the narrator, Doeg, begins to make connections between the observations they had made through microscopes, delivered by Canopus, in which they had seen how everything they can see is made of smaller things and those smaller things made of things even smaller and those of things yet smaller still. And how what they perceive as solid is nothing more than the dance of atomic particles swirling in nothingness. He wonders if the higher awareness of Canopus sees the people of Planet 8 as particles that are part of a bigger whole that they are unable to perceive, as they are part of the dance themselves. And so the story ends, with the people dying ... and yet living on, in an altered state.
It was an extremely beautiful read: sad, but ultimately hopeful. The afterword, detailing Lessing's interest in the doomed Imperial Polar expeditions of Scott and his ilk give a fascinating insight into the origins of this and the other books in the "Canopus in Argos Archives" series.
(#3 in my Year of Reading Women)
April 17, 2015
don't read it unless you want to be knocked off your tracks.
personally i really enjoy being knocked off my tracks--ways of thinking become rote, calcified.
ok so now imagine: your planet is slowly freezing, from the poles up. nevermind the science here--this isn't about science--this is about what happens when an entire planet full of people is dying.
if you believe that we leave nothing behind but meat, this book may not do much for you. if you are a firm believer in a particular heaven or other afterlife, ditto. but if you're sure there must be something more than meat to us but don't subscribe to any of the general run of religious offerings, this is gonna be juicy territory indeed for you.
can't say more without spoiling, and i don't want to do that. not that the plot is really the value of this book, but still. read it, get your brain bent. i promise it'll feel good.
oh and ps. my edition has an afterword that's nearly as interesting as the book itself. it's been a while since i've read Lessing, but in that afterword i remember all the harsh, clear joy of living in her world.
personally i really enjoy being knocked off my tracks--ways of thinking become rote, calcified.
ok so now imagine: your planet is slowly freezing, from the poles up. nevermind the science here--this isn't about science--this is about what happens when an entire planet full of people is dying.
if you believe that we leave nothing behind but meat, this book may not do much for you. if you are a firm believer in a particular heaven or other afterlife, ditto. but if you're sure there must be something more than meat to us but don't subscribe to any of the general run of religious offerings, this is gonna be juicy territory indeed for you.
can't say more without spoiling, and i don't want to do that. not that the plot is really the value of this book, but still. read it, get your brain bent. i promise it'll feel good.
oh and ps. my edition has an afterword that's nearly as interesting as the book itself. it's been a while since i've read Lessing, but in that afterword i remember all the harsh, clear joy of living in her world.
May 20, 2022
Wow, I can't remember the last time it took me four months to read 120 pages. This book is an elegy for a planet that freezes over, wiping out all traces of life, and it is criminally boring.
The pace is glacial (which, admittedly, suits the main theme), but I could not get onboard with the narrator's voice. The descriptions are long-winded and expansive but cannot seem to decide on whether they want to be romantically flowery or biblically sparse. For all the descriptive passages that make up most of the book, Lessing seems to have decided to constrain herself when it comes to providing any accurate descriptions of the alien lifeforms we are reading about. So the animals they herd are referred to as "beasts of the field", and we are told their pets are small and white. I mean, throw me a bone, will you?
Now, I've read enough to know the problem here is not Lessing but me; she was going for an experience I just wasn't vibing with at all. And still, I cannot help but feel that she missed the mark in more ways than one. There was just too little going on to justify even a slim 120-page book. The themes are quickly wrung out and soon become repetitive.
I liked the ending, as it tied in beautifully with the themes of consciousness and transcendence that she bangs on about throughout the book, but the journey was just not worth it for me.
The pace is glacial (which, admittedly, suits the main theme), but I could not get onboard with the narrator's voice. The descriptions are long-winded and expansive but cannot seem to decide on whether they want to be romantically flowery or biblically sparse. For all the descriptive passages that make up most of the book, Lessing seems to have decided to constrain herself when it comes to providing any accurate descriptions of the alien lifeforms we are reading about. So the animals they herd are referred to as "beasts of the field", and we are told their pets are small and white. I mean, throw me a bone, will you?
Now, I've read enough to know the problem here is not Lessing but me; she was going for an experience I just wasn't vibing with at all. And still, I cannot help but feel that she missed the mark in more ways than one. There was just too little going on to justify even a slim 120-page book. The themes are quickly wrung out and soon become repetitive.
I liked the ending, as it tied in beautifully with the themes of consciousness and transcendence that she bangs on about throughout the book, but the journey was just not worth it for me.
March 1, 2018
non perdetevi la postfazione!
Come ogni libro di lessing, è straordinario.
Un racconto filosofico, sotto una coltre di gelo fantascientifico (il pianeta sta morendo nella morsa del freddo).
Si rimane avvinti da una pagina all'altra in una storia in cui tutto scompare sotto i nostri occhi: animali, natura, cibo, i nostri simili, forse l'umanità.
Bellissima l'immagine della speranza che nasce perché non vi è più speranza. Io l'ho letto come una riflessione sull'Io, ma tante letture sono possibili.
Come ogni libro di lessing, è straordinario.
Un racconto filosofico, sotto una coltre di gelo fantascientifico (il pianeta sta morendo nella morsa del freddo).
Si rimane avvinti da una pagina all'altra in una storia in cui tutto scompare sotto i nostri occhi: animali, natura, cibo, i nostri simili, forse l'umanità.
Bellissima l'immagine della speranza che nasce perché non vi è più speranza. Io l'ho letto come una riflessione sull'Io, ma tante letture sono possibili.
October 19, 2021
There's one comment Le Guin made about Lessing's science fiction being too much about aliens knowing better and humans just in the middle with no actual compass of what's wrong and what's right. This book is a perfect example of that and, at the same time, a nice reminder of our own insignificance. A little species making mistake after mistake, in the verge of a deep dream. A nice reflexion upon the sixth mass extinction.
December 2, 2014
This and book 2 (Marriages...) are the weakest volumes of the cycle. My recommendation is to skip those two which is easily doable as they have no significance for the rest of the Canopus cycle.
The story again is more narrowly focused in contrast to books 1 and 3. Planet 8 is entering an ice age, making survival of any species impossible. Canopus knows this and prepares to save the relevant traits of its inhabitants in selected representatives for Planet 8.
The central topic is individuality or more specifically the lack of real individuality and overestimation of each individuals' importance. Everybody deems himself to be unique while in fact none of us is extraordinary when seen in the context of all civilizations over time.
The Making is already the shortest book of the cycle but for what little content is there it's still too long and suffers from repetition.
The story again is more narrowly focused in contrast to books 1 and 3. Planet 8 is entering an ice age, making survival of any species impossible. Canopus knows this and prepares to save the relevant traits of its inhabitants in selected representatives for Planet 8.
The central topic is individuality or more specifically the lack of real individuality and overestimation of each individuals' importance. Everybody deems himself to be unique while in fact none of us is extraordinary when seen in the context of all civilizations over time.
The Making is already the shortest book of the cycle but for what little content is there it's still too long and suffers from repetition.
Read
April 8, 2023This is another of the more one-ff books of the five. Not to say that any one of them isn’t but this is one of the ones that feels like a singular tale, so much as a continuation of the broader narrative of the whole collection. In this novel we are on Planet 8 of the Canopean colonial empire, and its representative there is realizing the colony is doomed. Because of various conditions on the planets, namely the fast approaching of an ice age, the colony is unlikely to survive. Reaching out to Canopus over and over, the representative is able to contact Johar, from Book 1, but ultimately what feels able to be saved is only the story.
The very best Star Trek The Next Generation episode is “The Inner Light” where Picard is transposed into a lifeform’s final decades on a dying planet relates to the story here. This is final word on a civilization, and through the lens of a character whose otherwise life expectancy is millenia, this death feels especially deep. And so reading this novel has a kind of panic/deep sadness to it. This is the non-Imperial view of empire, the death of cultures under the empire while the empire is not particularly threatened. There are a lot of versions of this story in world literature, where an outside force is eradicating an entire culture, and often those stories are told through perspectives of assimilation such as the children of the newly synthesized country/empire after, or through the eyes of the colonizing force. Here, it’s through the eyes of a kind of sacrificial voice of the empire itself. And it’s bleak. The fear of losing the entire story and how that loss feels deeper than the loss of an individual is saddening and powerful.
Here’s what it feels like:
“What was our planet, which was out of so many? And, as we swept on there, ghosts among the ghostly worlds, we felt beside us, and in us, and with us, the frozen and dead populations that lay buried under the snows. Inside caves and huts and mounds of ice and snow and peoples of our world lay frozen–the carcasses of these were held there for as long as the ice stayed, before it changed, as everything must, to something else–a swirl of gases perhaps, or seas of leaping soil, or fire that had to burn until it, too, changed…must change…must become something else. But what these had been, our peoples, our selves— were with us then, were us, had become us–could not be anything but us, their representatives–and we, together, the Representative, at last found the pole that was the extremity of our old planet, the dark cold pole that had been built, once, to guide in the space-fleets of Canopus, when they visited us. There we left the planet, and came to where we are now. We, the Representative, many and one, came here, where Canopus tends and guards and instructs>
The very best Star Trek The Next Generation episode is “The Inner Light” where Picard is transposed into a lifeform’s final decades on a dying planet relates to the story here. This is final word on a civilization, and through the lens of a character whose otherwise life expectancy is millenia, this death feels especially deep. And so reading this novel has a kind of panic/deep sadness to it. This is the non-Imperial view of empire, the death of cultures under the empire while the empire is not particularly threatened. There are a lot of versions of this story in world literature, where an outside force is eradicating an entire culture, and often those stories are told through perspectives of assimilation such as the children of the newly synthesized country/empire after, or through the eyes of the colonizing force. Here, it’s through the eyes of a kind of sacrificial voice of the empire itself. And it’s bleak. The fear of losing the entire story and how that loss feels deeper than the loss of an individual is saddening and powerful.
Here’s what it feels like:
“What was our planet, which was out of so many? And, as we swept on there, ghosts among the ghostly worlds, we felt beside us, and in us, and with us, the frozen and dead populations that lay buried under the snows. Inside caves and huts and mounds of ice and snow and peoples of our world lay frozen–the carcasses of these were held there for as long as the ice stayed, before it changed, as everything must, to something else–a swirl of gases perhaps, or seas of leaping soil, or fire that had to burn until it, too, changed…must change…must become something else. But what these had been, our peoples, our selves— were with us then, were us, had become us–could not be anything but us, their representatives–and we, together, the Representative, at last found the pole that was the extremity of our old planet, the dark cold pole that had been built, once, to guide in the space-fleets of Canopus, when they visited us. There we left the planet, and came to where we are now. We, the Representative, many and one, came here, where Canopus tends and guards and instructs>
October 18, 2010
This is a very slim book – however, it could not keep my interest long enough to finish it. Reading this novella requires real dedication, because it has no chapters and no breaks.
Planet 8 is besieged by drastic climate change, and the inhabitants change their entire society on the advice of Canopus, another, more advanced race. The buildup was incredibly slow, and I frequently found my eyes sliding off the page. I finally gave up when I found myself grinding my teeth at the thought of picking up the book again.
Planet 8 is besieged by drastic climate change, and the inhabitants change their entire society on the advice of Canopus, another, more advanced race. The buildup was incredibly slow, and I frequently found my eyes sliding off the page. I finally gave up when I found myself grinding my teeth at the thought of picking up the book again.
November 19, 2009
A fairly slight tale which, if you edited out all the repetition and digression would be better as a short story a third of its current length. A couple of interesting ideas are briefly raised, but it's all very limp and wispy, and the ambiguous, quasi-mystical ending falls flat.
The afterword in which Lessing explains how she was inspired by reading about Scott's Antarctic expedition is far more engaging.
The afterword in which Lessing explains how she was inspired by reading about Scott's Antarctic expedition is far more engaging.
April 9, 2020
Science fiction is sometimes prophetic. For instance, Arthur C Clarke predicted satellites in geosynchronous orbit in his fiction. One must not underestimate the prophetic, though dystopic, vision in Doris Lessing's book 'The Making of the Representative of Planet 8', the third book in her Canopus in Argos: Archives. I read all five books a long time ago and have them in my bookshelf. The arrival of the Corona Virus pandemic made me return to this particular book.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ with an abiding interest in Christian mysticism and the Compassion of the Buddha, this second reading enlightened the eyes of my heart. Philip Glass, the minimalist composer, whom I had the privilege of meeting in the early 80s and interviewing, did an opera based on the book. However, the CD is unavailable and I have never been able to listen to his musical interpretation of the book. Glass also did an opera on another book in this series - The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five - which too I have been unable to access.
The thought came to me that perhaps Corona Virus is here to destroy humanity, a thought that is unthinkable to most people. Is the virus evil? Is it the hand of God sending forth judgment in Kalyug upon an evil populace as He did in Noahic times? What is humanity meant to do in such situations? Is there a future for the species? Will it survive in its present form on in another form? How is an individual meant to comprehend or cope with the inevitability of the death of the self, his or her loved ones, and the planet itself?
People, especially in India, increasingly resort to reading sacred scriptures, prayers, or indulging in superstitions as the fear of the virus spreads aided and abetted by helpless, panicky governments who seek to counter it on a war footing with militaristic measures. The virus laughs at it all, and keeps spreading.
The plot is similar in Lessing's work. Planet 8's people were created, seeded, taught and nurtured by Canopus, an interstellar super-civilisation that looks after many planetary civilisations that they generated through genetic experiments and cross-breeding of humanoid species. Canopus is a sort of Creator-God (remember the Engineers in the Alien series?) but a wise and benevolent 'God', not the angry, threatening sort encountered in the Bible and some religions. Planet 8 is near-paradise, the people are happy and live in peace and unity. Spaceships bring emissaries from Canopus to further their evolution in technologies and deepening the culture. "The officials of the Canopean Colonial Service were to be recognized by an authority they all had. But this was an expression of inner qualities, and not of a position in a hierarchy."
Canopus tells the Representatives of Planet 8, those in charge of food, shelter, clothing, farming, and the other critical needs of the people, that a huge wall must be built across the planet. No explanation is given but the people build it over time. Then, the weather changes drastically. Snow falls increase in severity and the planet moves into an Ice Age. Everything changes radically as ice builds up all the way to the wall that keeps it out. Flora and fauna change and the people change too with anger, crime and wars becoming a norm. Life is increasingly hard as ice comes a-conquering.
Canopus promises a space-lift of the people to another planet, Rohanda, which is being readied for them. Time passes and Doeg, the story teller and a Representative, realises that there will be no rescue. Johar, a Canopus emissary, comes with the bad news that "Rohanda is... (now) Shikasta, the broken one, the afflicted." This is a reference to the first book in the series: Shikasta. It becomes clear to all that there is no real hope left for the inhabitants of Planet 8.
Johar slowly and genlty enables Doeg and the other Representatives to enter their deepest selves and the veiled truth of what exactly the death of the planet will accomplish. They see that "Solidity, immobility, permanence ... There was nothing that did not move and change. Our world, our way of living, everything we had been - was done, was over. Finished."
Canopus knows that it is not almighty 'God' but only a super-civilisation. There is something else is beyond all the changes that are constant in the universe. This is a hint at the spiritual wisdom of Canopus which Johar now seeks to impart to Doeg and the Representatives, battling to help the people, wondering at the point of it all, and seeing death spread inexorably across the planet. They now ask themselves the hardest questions about the meaning of life and face their deepest fears and truths.
The Representatives make tough and poignant journeys across ice and snow in blizzards to help the people. But, in the end, the Wall breaks down and the population huddles down in snow tunnels and huts to die. The Representatives too are left awaiting death. But they discover that in being the Representatives, they now evolve into the Representative of Planet 8, containing all the people, and they make a spiritual shift into an entirely different dimension of life and being itself.
The book is reminiscent of the the Christian idea of the New Creation which is being formed amidst a humanity that is dying. This New Creation in Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, is representative of the species even as the Old Man dies. The Representative of Planet 8 is a reference to the Eastern Orthodox spiritual process of theosis or 'divinisation', a process of evolution whereby the human attains union with God.
The book also reminds me of "The Gameplayers of Xan" by MA Foster. In it too, a humanoid species escapes into what it is meant to become by means of a certain type of evolution. For those who like speculating through religion, mysticism or other ways on the future of mankind, Lessing's The Making of the Representative of Planet 8' is a must-read.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ with an abiding interest in Christian mysticism and the Compassion of the Buddha, this second reading enlightened the eyes of my heart. Philip Glass, the minimalist composer, whom I had the privilege of meeting in the early 80s and interviewing, did an opera based on the book. However, the CD is unavailable and I have never been able to listen to his musical interpretation of the book. Glass also did an opera on another book in this series - The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five - which too I have been unable to access.
The thought came to me that perhaps Corona Virus is here to destroy humanity, a thought that is unthinkable to most people. Is the virus evil? Is it the hand of God sending forth judgment in Kalyug upon an evil populace as He did in Noahic times? What is humanity meant to do in such situations? Is there a future for the species? Will it survive in its present form on in another form? How is an individual meant to comprehend or cope with the inevitability of the death of the self, his or her loved ones, and the planet itself?
People, especially in India, increasingly resort to reading sacred scriptures, prayers, or indulging in superstitions as the fear of the virus spreads aided and abetted by helpless, panicky governments who seek to counter it on a war footing with militaristic measures. The virus laughs at it all, and keeps spreading.
The plot is similar in Lessing's work. Planet 8's people were created, seeded, taught and nurtured by Canopus, an interstellar super-civilisation that looks after many planetary civilisations that they generated through genetic experiments and cross-breeding of humanoid species. Canopus is a sort of Creator-God (remember the Engineers in the Alien series?) but a wise and benevolent 'God', not the angry, threatening sort encountered in the Bible and some religions. Planet 8 is near-paradise, the people are happy and live in peace and unity. Spaceships bring emissaries from Canopus to further their evolution in technologies and deepening the culture. "The officials of the Canopean Colonial Service were to be recognized by an authority they all had. But this was an expression of inner qualities, and not of a position in a hierarchy."
Canopus tells the Representatives of Planet 8, those in charge of food, shelter, clothing, farming, and the other critical needs of the people, that a huge wall must be built across the planet. No explanation is given but the people build it over time. Then, the weather changes drastically. Snow falls increase in severity and the planet moves into an Ice Age. Everything changes radically as ice builds up all the way to the wall that keeps it out. Flora and fauna change and the people change too with anger, crime and wars becoming a norm. Life is increasingly hard as ice comes a-conquering.
Canopus promises a space-lift of the people to another planet, Rohanda, which is being readied for them. Time passes and Doeg, the story teller and a Representative, realises that there will be no rescue. Johar, a Canopus emissary, comes with the bad news that "Rohanda is... (now) Shikasta, the broken one, the afflicted." This is a reference to the first book in the series: Shikasta. It becomes clear to all that there is no real hope left for the inhabitants of Planet 8.
Johar slowly and genlty enables Doeg and the other Representatives to enter their deepest selves and the veiled truth of what exactly the death of the planet will accomplish. They see that "Solidity, immobility, permanence ... There was nothing that did not move and change. Our world, our way of living, everything we had been - was done, was over. Finished."
Canopus knows that it is not almighty 'God' but only a super-civilisation. There is something else is beyond all the changes that are constant in the universe. This is a hint at the spiritual wisdom of Canopus which Johar now seeks to impart to Doeg and the Representatives, battling to help the people, wondering at the point of it all, and seeing death spread inexorably across the planet. They now ask themselves the hardest questions about the meaning of life and face their deepest fears and truths.
The Representatives make tough and poignant journeys across ice and snow in blizzards to help the people. But, in the end, the Wall breaks down and the population huddles down in snow tunnels and huts to die. The Representatives too are left awaiting death. But they discover that in being the Representatives, they now evolve into the Representative of Planet 8, containing all the people, and they make a spiritual shift into an entirely different dimension of life and being itself.
The book is reminiscent of the the Christian idea of the New Creation which is being formed amidst a humanity that is dying. This New Creation in Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, is representative of the species even as the Old Man dies. The Representative of Planet 8 is a reference to the Eastern Orthodox spiritual process of theosis or 'divinisation', a process of evolution whereby the human attains union with God.
The book also reminds me of "The Gameplayers of Xan" by MA Foster. In it too, a humanoid species escapes into what it is meant to become by means of a certain type of evolution. For those who like speculating through religion, mysticism or other ways on the future of mankind, Lessing's The Making of the Representative of Planet 8' is a must-read.
November 24, 2012
The shortest novel in Doris Lessing's space fiction series is a surprisingly extensive allegory of the state of human civilization. It tells the story of a planet facing an ecological disaster that's turning it too cold for most of the life forms inhabiting it. The narrator is a member of a native humanoid race overseeing a possible relocation of his people. On top of the clear reference to our own global warming, humanity is also represented on a deeper level. Faced with possible extinction the race in this book falls into cultural apathy that feels very familiar. It's a tale of a people who have lost a sense of purpose, choosing passive existence over a constructive one.
Like all of the previous installments in the Canopus in Argos -series "The Making of the Representative for Planet 8" suffers from a certain aimlesness and lack of cohesion. This short piece is again filled with wisdom and innovation, but as far as form goes, it could definitely be more streamlined and complete. Fortunately form issues doesn't cripple the novel too much, again maybe just going together well with the authentically alien voice of the narrator, "The Sirian Experiments"-style.
Like all of the previous installments in the Canopus in Argos -series "The Making of the Representative for Planet 8" suffers from a certain aimlesness and lack of cohesion. This short piece is again filled with wisdom and innovation, but as far as form goes, it could definitely be more streamlined and complete. Fortunately form issues doesn't cripple the novel too much, again maybe just going together well with the authentically alien voice of the narrator, "The Sirian Experiments"-style.
March 4, 2008
Not sure what I think of this. It certainly tries to explain almost at a quantum level what happens when people enter Zone 6 (I presume). It was a bit wordy and difficult to follow but the descriptions of the ice were superb. A weaker book than the first three in the series.
December 24, 2008
I loved the image of the wall that threads through this novel. The idea that humans believe we can create technological fixes to control all natural (or not natural) phenomenon...and the inanity of this is beautiful.
September 3, 2015
The least hospitable of the Canopus books I've read, but beautiful in a harsh way. Feels both alien and universal.
July 30, 2017
"Ma forse, Johor, quando guardi questo pianeta con gli occhi di Canopus, non ci vedi affatto come individui, ma come combinazioni di individui che condividono una qualità che di fatto li rendere - ci rende - uno solo"
Quando ho acquistato "Un luogo senza tempo" senza conoscere né l'autrice né questo titolo in sè, mi sono ritrovata in mano un romanzo di fantascienza atipico ma dotato di un fascino non indifferente. Non un romanzo che parla di guerre intergalattiche, viaggi ed eroi, ma che si focalizza su un intero popolo colpito da un destino ineluttabile, una storia intimistica e per molti versi filosofica (e sotterraneamente anche politica). "Un luogo senza tempo" fa parte di una saga, "Canopus in Argos", ma ogni volume della stessa è come un pezzo di puzzle, ed è leggibilissimo slegato dagli altri. La narrazione ci presenta un lunghissimo e ininterrotto resoconto in prima persona (non ci sono capitoli o divisori). A parlare è Doeg, uno dei Rappresentanti di un piccolo mondo, chiamato genericamente Pianeta 8, che fa parte di un sistema di influenze molto più ampio sotto la direzione di Canopus "creatore, maestro e salvatore". Nel corso del romanzo non si potrà non pensare spesso, a questo riguardo, al sistema coloniale e all'influenza dell'Occidente, tecnologicamente e scientificamente più avanzato, nei riguardi dei Paesi del Terzo Mondo. Attraverso la voce del Rappresentante Doeg, apprendiamo la tragica storia della morte del mondo che conosceva, sia inteso come sistema di vita, sia come mutamento apocalittico del suo pianeta. Un'improvvisa Glaciazione planetaria costringerà la popolazione ad un mutamento velocissimo di stile di vita, facendo loro perdere i punti fondamentali su cui si basava la loro società e la loro stessa identità. Ecco quindi che la storia, ben presto, si rivolge verso l'intimità dell'individuo: Doeg, davanti al biancore accecante che, lungi da simboleggiare purezza indica il nulla che avanza ad inglobare un'intera cultura, inizia a interrogarsi sul proprio ruolo nel mondo, sulla vera natura della sostanza (sulla solidità solo apparente formata da miriade di piccole unità e infiniti spazi), sui rapporti che uniscono individuo e collettività, sulla vera natura dell'Io con la sua peculiare unicità che non è tuttavia una "unicità univoca", dato che si ripropone con infinite sfaccettature in tutti gli individui di una stessa razza. A questi interrogativi si uniscono quelli sulla vera natura di sentimenti e pensieri (dove sono, come sono fatti? Io sono i miei sentimenti o i miei pensieri?) e sul concetto di possibilità (e di conseguenza anche quello di multiverso). Questa immersione nei meandri dell'animo umano, alla ricerca della sostanza di quella che potremmo, in senso lato, definire "anima", conduce l'autrice verso una sorta di metempsicosi collettiva, una trasformazione e conversione di energia vitale (simile all'elettricità) che attraversa tutto l'universo: niente si perde, niente si distrugge.
Ho letto che per via di questi "romanzetti" di fantascienza la Lessing, tempo fa, ha perso la sua prima occasione di ricevere il Nobel per la letteratura. Resto perplessa: veramente l'aspetto esteriore di una trama può far passare in secondo piano le domande esistenziali che ci accompagnano da sempre?
Quando ho acquistato "Un luogo senza tempo" senza conoscere né l'autrice né questo titolo in sè, mi sono ritrovata in mano un romanzo di fantascienza atipico ma dotato di un fascino non indifferente. Non un romanzo che parla di guerre intergalattiche, viaggi ed eroi, ma che si focalizza su un intero popolo colpito da un destino ineluttabile, una storia intimistica e per molti versi filosofica (e sotterraneamente anche politica). "Un luogo senza tempo" fa parte di una saga, "Canopus in Argos", ma ogni volume della stessa è come un pezzo di puzzle, ed è leggibilissimo slegato dagli altri. La narrazione ci presenta un lunghissimo e ininterrotto resoconto in prima persona (non ci sono capitoli o divisori). A parlare è Doeg, uno dei Rappresentanti di un piccolo mondo, chiamato genericamente Pianeta 8, che fa parte di un sistema di influenze molto più ampio sotto la direzione di Canopus "creatore, maestro e salvatore". Nel corso del romanzo non si potrà non pensare spesso, a questo riguardo, al sistema coloniale e all'influenza dell'Occidente, tecnologicamente e scientificamente più avanzato, nei riguardi dei Paesi del Terzo Mondo. Attraverso la voce del Rappresentante Doeg, apprendiamo la tragica storia della morte del mondo che conosceva, sia inteso come sistema di vita, sia come mutamento apocalittico del suo pianeta. Un'improvvisa Glaciazione planetaria costringerà la popolazione ad un mutamento velocissimo di stile di vita, facendo loro perdere i punti fondamentali su cui si basava la loro società e la loro stessa identità. Ecco quindi che la storia, ben presto, si rivolge verso l'intimità dell'individuo: Doeg, davanti al biancore accecante che, lungi da simboleggiare purezza indica il nulla che avanza ad inglobare un'intera cultura, inizia a interrogarsi sul proprio ruolo nel mondo, sulla vera natura della sostanza (sulla solidità solo apparente formata da miriade di piccole unità e infiniti spazi), sui rapporti che uniscono individuo e collettività, sulla vera natura dell'Io con la sua peculiare unicità che non è tuttavia una "unicità univoca", dato che si ripropone con infinite sfaccettature in tutti gli individui di una stessa razza. A questi interrogativi si uniscono quelli sulla vera natura di sentimenti e pensieri (dove sono, come sono fatti? Io sono i miei sentimenti o i miei pensieri?) e sul concetto di possibilità (e di conseguenza anche quello di multiverso). Questa immersione nei meandri dell'animo umano, alla ricerca della sostanza di quella che potremmo, in senso lato, definire "anima", conduce l'autrice verso una sorta di metempsicosi collettiva, una trasformazione e conversione di energia vitale (simile all'elettricità) che attraversa tutto l'universo: niente si perde, niente si distrugge.
Ho letto che per via di questi "romanzetti" di fantascienza la Lessing, tempo fa, ha perso la sua prima occasione di ricevere il Nobel per la letteratura. Resto perplessa: veramente l'aspetto esteriore di una trama può far passare in secondo piano le domande esistenziali che ci accompagnano da sempre?
July 11, 2021
I arrived to THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR PLANET 8 through Philip Glass (because of the opera he wrote based on the novel) and Ursula K. LeGuin (because of her impecable writing mixing social themes with science fiction settings). I loathed every page and yet still think it is meticulously written. Bare with me as I explain why.
I can't think of a better work of literature suited to become a Philip Glass opera than THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE, its literary structure is analogous to minimalism and similar in structure to Steve Reich's MUSIC FOR 18 MUSICIANS. In Reich's monumental work, as described in analyses of the composition:
"Music for 18 Musicians is based on a cycle of eleven different chords, not “functionally” related to each other through any traditional tonal analysis. In the opening movement, Pulses, Steve Reich slowly unfolds through all eleven chords, introducing them in sequential order, before moving to the aptly titled Section 1. Each section between 1 and 11 is based on just one unique chord. Reich incorporates his trademark phasing idiom throughout the music, having two separate melodies go in and out of sync with each other. This creates the effect of “unison canons,” where a musical round (think of Row Row Your Boat) takes shape. Other compositional devices frequently incorporated include rhythmic augmentation and diminution, where musical ideas are stated in their principal form, then literally contracted or expanded after several repetitions of the principal idea."
Doris Lessing does exactly that, showing all in the opening pages and then introducing different ideas and vocabulary by sections, repeating them (ad-nauseum), letting them evaporate as each page passes, introducing a new section with a new strong imposition of ideas and vocabulary which resucitates a few ideas of the past section, just to be replaced by a new section, etcetera. This creates a woven structure of several strings of differente subjects that merge into a whole. The nearly-gratuitous repetition of words also blurs the passage of time, which is not clear in the novel, and which is a resource in musical minimalism to create textures that envelop your mind and senses instead of creating a naturally structured progression found in conventional musical compositions. Therefore, this makes -at least in my mind- an obvious excuse for Philip Glass to write an opera in his minimalist style, yet the composition has not been recorded since being publicly performed in 1986 (I'll let the reader conclude why). Therefore, the novel has a very carefully woven latticed structure, analogous to minimalist music.
While the novel might have been groundbreaking three decades ago, it certainly hasn't aged well. It reeks with cheap indocrination and new-age themes long passé (western interpretations of eastern mysticism, the search for a collective conciousness, and the mind's transmutation as a common entity with the universe).
Finally, I'd bet good money this novel would receive the world record of the written work with the most use of the words "blue" and "white" in the history of literature.
I can't think of a better work of literature suited to become a Philip Glass opera than THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE, its literary structure is analogous to minimalism and similar in structure to Steve Reich's MUSIC FOR 18 MUSICIANS. In Reich's monumental work, as described in analyses of the composition:
"Music for 18 Musicians is based on a cycle of eleven different chords, not “functionally” related to each other through any traditional tonal analysis. In the opening movement, Pulses, Steve Reich slowly unfolds through all eleven chords, introducing them in sequential order, before moving to the aptly titled Section 1. Each section between 1 and 11 is based on just one unique chord. Reich incorporates his trademark phasing idiom throughout the music, having two separate melodies go in and out of sync with each other. This creates the effect of “unison canons,” where a musical round (think of Row Row Your Boat) takes shape. Other compositional devices frequently incorporated include rhythmic augmentation and diminution, where musical ideas are stated in their principal form, then literally contracted or expanded after several repetitions of the principal idea."
Doris Lessing does exactly that, showing all in the opening pages and then introducing different ideas and vocabulary by sections, repeating them (ad-nauseum), letting them evaporate as each page passes, introducing a new section with a new strong imposition of ideas and vocabulary which resucitates a few ideas of the past section, just to be replaced by a new section, etcetera. This creates a woven structure of several strings of differente subjects that merge into a whole. The nearly-gratuitous repetition of words also blurs the passage of time, which is not clear in the novel, and which is a resource in musical minimalism to create textures that envelop your mind and senses instead of creating a naturally structured progression found in conventional musical compositions. Therefore, this makes -at least in my mind- an obvious excuse for Philip Glass to write an opera in his minimalist style, yet the composition has not been recorded since being publicly performed in 1986 (I'll let the reader conclude why). Therefore, the novel has a very carefully woven latticed structure, analogous to minimalist music.
While the novel might have been groundbreaking three decades ago, it certainly hasn't aged well. It reeks with cheap indocrination and new-age themes long passé (western interpretations of eastern mysticism, the search for a collective conciousness, and the mind's transmutation as a common entity with the universe).
Finally, I'd bet good money this novel would receive the world record of the written work with the most use of the words "blue" and "white" in the history of literature.
April 21, 2019
I haven't read the previous books in the Canopus in Argos series, but picked this one up at a friend's house when in need of something to read.
The book follows the representatives of a planet, designed and managed by a higher race of being called Canopus. They have an empire of many planets, and the representatives or governors of each are educated to care for their populations. Canopus begins as a trustworthy and caring power, who directs their subjects to do things for their own benefit.
We join the representatives of planet 8 as they build a wall at Canopus' direction to protect them from a coming ice age, while they await rescue to a more clement planet.
I read this book as the extinction rebellion protests were taking place in London and David Attenborough's climate change documentary was airing on TV. The book therefore felt immensely real, and so bleak. It felt very difficult to read, because it is so depressing.
Most frustrating is the blind obedience the representatives have for Canopus' orders, even when they know that rescue will not happen for everyone and that their people will all die. In the afterword (the most readable part of the book for me), it became more evident to me that this is a reference to how our civilisation appears to react with stupidity time and time again when we look back on history: wars, discrimination etc. Lessing discusses the impossibility of understanding the 'atmosphere' of the past when you're in the context of the present. So, inevitably, we will continue to make mistakes as a civilisation, while ignoring new ideas that could save us.
The book was challenging to read, but I'm sure to be thinking about its themes for a long while!!
The book follows the representatives of a planet, designed and managed by a higher race of being called Canopus. They have an empire of many planets, and the representatives or governors of each are educated to care for their populations. Canopus begins as a trustworthy and caring power, who directs their subjects to do things for their own benefit.
We join the representatives of planet 8 as they build a wall at Canopus' direction to protect them from a coming ice age, while they await rescue to a more clement planet.
I read this book as the extinction rebellion protests were taking place in London and David Attenborough's climate change documentary was airing on TV. The book therefore felt immensely real, and so bleak. It felt very difficult to read, because it is so depressing.
Most frustrating is the blind obedience the representatives have for Canopus' orders, even when they know that rescue will not happen for everyone and that their people will all die. In the afterword (the most readable part of the book for me), it became more evident to me that this is a reference to how our civilisation appears to react with stupidity time and time again when we look back on history: wars, discrimination etc. Lessing discusses the impossibility of understanding the 'atmosphere' of the past when you're in the context of the present. So, inevitably, we will continue to make mistakes as a civilisation, while ignoring new ideas that could save us.
The book was challenging to read, but I'm sure to be thinking about its themes for a long while!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2024
Planet 8 is a small, sparsely populated planet in the Canopean empire, which had a tropical climate year-round. When Canopus arrived, they were instructed to build a large black wall around the planet, which took many years to build. The main character, Doeg, who is a representative of the planet, who reported to the leaders of Canopus was one of the young men who worked on the wall. Many years later, after the wall was built, snow fell upon Planet 8. The drop in temperature and the increase in wind and snow, marked the beginning of an Ice Age that has fallen upon planet. The people take shelter on the southern side of the wall, but it will only be a matter of time before the wall will be breached.
This novella tells of the changes endured by the people as they try to survive the climate change, as food and shelter become scarce. While the beginning of the novella is interesting, as changes are made, the story becomes a never-ending description of snow and ice and the decreasing morale and will to live by the general population, as the death of all living things become imminent.
This novella tells of the changes endured by the people as they try to survive the climate change, as food and shelter become scarce. While the beginning of the novella is interesting, as changes are made, the story becomes a never-ending description of snow and ice and the decreasing morale and will to live by the general population, as the death of all living things become imminent.
March 24, 2022
In this book you suspect Canopus has taken a post-graduate degree in counselling a la Carl Rogers. Smiling, reflective, never answer directly, deflect the question. Sympathetic, sincere and, of course, always right. And yet this is probably the best book in the series. (Overlooking the endless paragraphs; straight out of 19th century legalese.) The inhabitants of a once warm and fruitful planet are freezing to death as the planet freezes. This was not intended by the superior body, Canopus, but the inevitable destruction of their physical (or perhaps habitual) lives and planet is the process by which their essential life is transferred and maintained. The protagonists become, as Lessing says, feelings, thought and will; but still material, a joint substance with new eyes. There’s an insistence on collective mentality and indirect teaching (not Carl Rogers). In the Afterword, Lessing talks historical and sociological repetition and wonders if our lives may be analogues of other things. Quite hopeful for such a bleak tale.
July 3, 2017
I read this first shortly after it's publication and my one sentence summary that I've retained in my mind for the last 30 odd years is that this is the book which talks about learning acceptance about how and when to meet one's fate.
I recommended it to my book club and I will be interested to hear their views on it later this week.
It's easy to focus on some of the book's flaws, DL herself said she found it hard to write, but I like it because it does contain some big questions and some attempts at answering them.
DL talks about the importance of having at least the potential of "goodness" to hand on to the next generation, she explores how the voice of reason is not listened to, that it "cannot reach the springs of unreason" and herself explains the book in the context of challenging us all to wonder more about our lives.
I think that the book is essentially uplifting, interested as it is in the manner of how life is lived rather than the length of it.
I recommended it to my book club and I will be interested to hear their views on it later this week.
It's easy to focus on some of the book's flaws, DL herself said she found it hard to write, but I like it because it does contain some big questions and some attempts at answering them.
DL talks about the importance of having at least the potential of "goodness" to hand on to the next generation, she explores how the voice of reason is not listened to, that it "cannot reach the springs of unreason" and herself explains the book in the context of challenging us all to wonder more about our lives.
I think that the book is essentially uplifting, interested as it is in the manner of how life is lived rather than the length of it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2021
Another great allegory
A woman on a dying planet, a leader of her people - slowly but inevitably freezing - asks the Canopan visitor why they are allowing this. Can’t they help. Can’t they rescue them. The Canopans are god like beings who in effect created the race on this planet for their own ends. He says no they can’t. Why not!!! She wonders what she is. Her consciousness, her inner essence. He replies enigmatically, ‘what do you think’. Honestly with supposed friends like this who needs enemies. I know what I would have told him. Where to stick his supposed daunting god like superiority. Which when it comes down to it is obviously just so much sand.
Once again over 50% of the ebook is padded with excerpts from the authors other works. Why do they do this? Because they can. Don’t they know how infuriating it is? Sure they do and care not one iota. Like the pain in the ___ Canopans.
A woman on a dying planet, a leader of her people - slowly but inevitably freezing - asks the Canopan visitor why they are allowing this. Can’t they help. Can’t they rescue them. The Canopans are god like beings who in effect created the race on this planet for their own ends. He says no they can’t. Why not!!! She wonders what she is. Her consciousness, her inner essence. He replies enigmatically, ‘what do you think’. Honestly with supposed friends like this who needs enemies. I know what I would have told him. Where to stick his supposed daunting god like superiority. Which when it comes down to it is obviously just so much sand.
Once again over 50% of the ebook is padded with excerpts from the authors other works. Why do they do this? Because they can. Don’t they know how infuriating it is? Sure they do and care not one iota. Like the pain in the ___ Canopans.
January 30, 2022
Più che un romanzo, questo libro è un lungo racconto di fantascienza, ambientato in un pianeta molto simile alla Terra di cui si conoscono i dettagli man mano che si prosegue con la lettura. I temi principali sono il cambiamento climatico, il rapporto fra uomo e Natura e il colonialismo, con i suoi pro e i suoi contro. La trama è un po' indefinita, sembra più un flusso di coscienza che un vero e proprio racconto. I personaggi risultano altrettanto evanescenti, senza una vera e propria personalità. Mi è piaciuto come scrive la Lessing, sicuramente leggerò qualche altro suo libro, ma questo non mi ha colpito, e anzi verso la fine mi ha proprio annoiata.
April 10, 2021
Short and to the point . Beautifully written about a planet slowly freezing and how the inhabitants handle it . The aftermath is also amazing as the author explains how she got the idea of the story from Shackleton and Admunsen,s trips to the South Pole . Shackleton and his British crew mostly perishing in the trip . The author explains this in her afterword which is a brilliant piece of writing. This is one of her sci - fi novels . But this is not the spaceship ray gun faster than warp speed kind of sci -fi . It’s more biblical for want of a better word .
July 31, 2022
The fact that the Author talks to the readers directly at the end of this in such a surprising manner is super cool. I mean if you've made it this far, you are a thousand pages into this incredibly interesting reality of this ladies making and then she talks to us, fun stuff, I clearly have a crush on Doris Lessing
June 1, 2018
I just didn't get it, I hate to say. I've liked other Lessing I've read.
The best part was the rambling, pointless afterward about South Pole explorers. No, really. It was at least interesting and coherent.
The best part was the rambling, pointless afterward about South Pole explorers. No, really. It was at least interesting and coherent.
August 12, 2018
Got this (from Book Traffic) on Neil Harding's recommendation and finished reading it Sept/Oct, 1996. Best book ever in many ways. Perhaps, also, an excuse of a book, a book masquerading as a book, but being actually a voice to us directly from Canopus.
March 26, 2020
some interesting ideas, but overly not very engaging for me. I mostly read it because I was interested to see what Doris Lessing was like after hearing the My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors song by Moxy Fruvus which has a line about spilling some dressing on Doris Lessing.
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