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Canopus in Argos #5
Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire
The fifth and final volume in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives". It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.
178 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
6 people are currently reading
633 people want to read
About the author
Doris Lessing
469 books3,152 followersDoris Lessing was born into a colonial family. both 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 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 22, 2019
"Şunu bir kural olarak düşünebilirsiniz: Hükümdarlarının kendi propagandalarına ne ölçüye dek inandığına bakarak, bir imparatorluğun olası ömrünü tahmin edilebilirsiniz..."
İmparatorluğun çok ötesinde, çok uzağındaki bir gezegende (yani belki de Dünya üzerindeysek eğer, emperyal güçlerin çok uzağındaki bir üçüncü dünya ülkesinde) yaşananlar, aslında galaksinin tamamına da örnek olabilecek şeyler. En çok da bize tabii. İçinde yaşadığımız ülkeden başlatıp filmi, Dünya Politika ve Sömürü Tarihine şöyle bir göz atarsak, hiçbir şeyin hiçbir zaman değişmediğini kolaylıkla görebiliyoruz. Yönetenler, yönetilenler, aldatılanlar, aldananlar... Antik Roma tarihinden, belki daha bile öncesinden başlıyor ve siyasetin var olduğu her yerde, asla bitmiyor.
Doris Lessing, bence serinin en iyi kitaplarından biriyle, müthiş bir hiciv eserine imza atıyor. Valla.
"Çünkü bu Söylemciler, biliyorlardı ki, kitlelerin daimi acılarını unutturabilecek gerçek veya hayali düşmanlar bulabilirlerse iktidarda kalabilirlerdi ancak..."
İmparatorluğun çok ötesinde, çok uzağındaki bir gezegende (yani belki de Dünya üzerindeysek eğer, emperyal güçlerin çok uzağındaki bir üçüncü dünya ülkesinde) yaşananlar, aslında galaksinin tamamına da örnek olabilecek şeyler. En çok da bize tabii. İçinde yaşadığımız ülkeden başlatıp filmi, Dünya Politika ve Sömürü Tarihine şöyle bir göz atarsak, hiçbir şeyin hiçbir zaman değişmediğini kolaylıkla görebiliyoruz. Yönetenler, yönetilenler, aldatılanlar, aldananlar... Antik Roma tarihinden, belki daha bile öncesinden başlıyor ve siyasetin var olduğu her yerde, asla bitmiyor.
Doris Lessing, bence serinin en iyi kitaplarından biriyle, müthiş bir hiciv eserine imza atıyor. Valla.
"Çünkü bu Söylemciler, biliyorlardı ki, kitlelerin daimi acılarını unutturabilecek gerçek veya hayali düşmanlar bulabilirlerse iktidarda kalabilirlerdi ancak..."
June 19, 2008
Every time I want to write something I remember the story and amend my words.
Doris Lessing's books never leave you, they insinuate themselves into deep crevices of your mind and stay there till needed and then they make themselves felt. She is always with me.
Doris Lessing's books never leave you, they insinuate themselves into deep crevices of your mind and stay there till needed and then they make themselves felt. She is always with me.
December 14, 2021
The funniest of the five books with lots of sarcasm and farce. It concerns primarily the dangers of political rhetoric and its emptiness and ability to motivate people to do things they would otherwise find abhorrent.
This series is didactic, even for Lessing, so this book was a relief in that it reassured me that she did indeed have a sense of humor lurking in her. I love love love Doris Lessing but at times she can be a bit ... rich.
I would not recommend this tetralogy to everyone. Its books are filled with interesting ideas, theories and perspectives, but each book feels a bit unfinished at the end because the stories don’t have typical arcs. Several of the characters are well-drawn but honestly are rarely more than talking heads for her ideas.
This series is didactic, even for Lessing, so this book was a relief in that it reassured me that she did indeed have a sense of humor lurking in her. I love love love Doris Lessing but at times she can be a bit ... rich.
I would not recommend this tetralogy to everyone. Its books are filled with interesting ideas, theories and perspectives, but each book feels a bit unfinished at the end because the stories don’t have typical arcs. Several of the characters are well-drawn but honestly are rarely more than talking heads for her ideas.
August 2, 2011
This book is adopts the guise of science fiction to attempt to perform a social satire. There is no science in the fiction and any relevant satire mostly escaped me. The story is also poor, although, to be fair, I read this after the first volume in the series, having missed the intervening ones.
November 7, 2012
I'm actually re-reading it again!
So dense...you got to read between the lines too...yet wonderful!
So dense...you got to read between the lines too...yet wonderful!
January 5, 2021
Höchst erstaunlich! Ich gebe zu: Es war reines Unwissen und besinnungslose Gier, die mich bei meiner Jagd nach englischen Secondhand-Büchern diesen schmalen und recht unansehnlichen Band mit dem kryptischen Titel "The sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire" hat einsacken lassen. Und so saß dieses Bändchen dann auch jahrelang unbeachtet auf meinem To-Read-Stapel.
Über die Feiertage habe ich es nun doch rausgegriffen und erst mit Enttäuschung festgestellt, dass es Band 5 einer fünfteiligen Reihe namens "Canopus in Argos" ist. Die anderen Bände habe ich natürlich nicht, is klar. Ich wollte es schon wieder wegtun, dachte aber: "Na, ich les' mal kurz rein." Und das war's dann. Innerhalb von 3 Tagen hatte ich es durch. Und wenn es mich nicht so sehr zum Denken angeregt und ich mir "Zwangspausen" auferlegt hätte, hätte ich es wohl an einem einzigen Tag verschlungen.
Ich habe bisher noch nichts anderes von Doris Lessing gelesen und bin auch kein großer Science Fiction Fan, bin also quasi als "Tabula Rasa" an dieses Büchlein herangegangen. Und dann: BÄM! Hochintellektuelle, politische, psychologische und sprachliche Augenöffner auf jeder Seite. Wahnsinn! Und ab der zweiten Hälfte habe ich dann auch noch begriffen, dass es voller Humor ist. Das hatte ich am Anfang ganz übersehen, weil mich die beschriebene Welt und die Konflikte & Betrachtungen so gefangen genommen haben.
Worte der Warnung: Man wird ohne Erklärung einfach mitten in die Welt der Volyans, Sirians und Canopeans geworfen. Man versteht am Anfang gar nichts und muss sich erstmal reinfuchsen. Die Charaktere sind etwas hölzern und dienen eher dem Austragen philosophischer Dispute, die Handlung ist recht schleppend und verworren, es gibt viele Ortswechsel und seeeehr viele Dialoge, u.a. im Rahmen einer Gerichtsverhandlung. Aber Mann, war das ein Fest für den Intellekt!
Ich spoilere hier jetzt einfach gar nichts, sondern empfehle diesen "Space Fiction"-Band (so hat Doris Lessing ihren Ausflug ins Science-Fiction-Genre genannt) wärmstens allen, die sich für Fragen der Beeinflussung von Menschen & Massen, für Sprache & Rhetorik, Manipulation, Tugenden, Ideologie, Aufklärung, Geschichte, Vernunft, Spiritualität und Fortschritt begeistern können. Das war für mich definitiv nicht das Letzte, was ich von Doris Lessing gelesen habe. Volle Punktzahl. Wirklich höchst erstaunlich!
Über die Feiertage habe ich es nun doch rausgegriffen und erst mit Enttäuschung festgestellt, dass es Band 5 einer fünfteiligen Reihe namens "Canopus in Argos" ist. Die anderen Bände habe ich natürlich nicht, is klar. Ich wollte es schon wieder wegtun, dachte aber: "Na, ich les' mal kurz rein." Und das war's dann. Innerhalb von 3 Tagen hatte ich es durch. Und wenn es mich nicht so sehr zum Denken angeregt und ich mir "Zwangspausen" auferlegt hätte, hätte ich es wohl an einem einzigen Tag verschlungen.
Ich habe bisher noch nichts anderes von Doris Lessing gelesen und bin auch kein großer Science Fiction Fan, bin also quasi als "Tabula Rasa" an dieses Büchlein herangegangen. Und dann: BÄM! Hochintellektuelle, politische, psychologische und sprachliche Augenöffner auf jeder Seite. Wahnsinn! Und ab der zweiten Hälfte habe ich dann auch noch begriffen, dass es voller Humor ist. Das hatte ich am Anfang ganz übersehen, weil mich die beschriebene Welt und die Konflikte & Betrachtungen so gefangen genommen haben.
Worte der Warnung: Man wird ohne Erklärung einfach mitten in die Welt der Volyans, Sirians und Canopeans geworfen. Man versteht am Anfang gar nichts und muss sich erstmal reinfuchsen. Die Charaktere sind etwas hölzern und dienen eher dem Austragen philosophischer Dispute, die Handlung ist recht schleppend und verworren, es gibt viele Ortswechsel und seeeehr viele Dialoge, u.a. im Rahmen einer Gerichtsverhandlung. Aber Mann, war das ein Fest für den Intellekt!
Ich spoilere hier jetzt einfach gar nichts, sondern empfehle diesen "Space Fiction"-Band (so hat Doris Lessing ihren Ausflug ins Science-Fiction-Genre genannt) wärmstens allen, die sich für Fragen der Beeinflussung von Menschen & Massen, für Sprache & Rhetorik, Manipulation, Tugenden, Ideologie, Aufklärung, Geschichte, Vernunft, Spiritualität und Fortschritt begeistern können. Das war für mich definitiv nicht das Letzte, was ich von Doris Lessing gelesen habe. Volle Punktzahl. Wirklich höchst erstaunlich!
Read
May 1, 2023This is the final book in the series. There is both a sense of finality at the end of this one, with the closing off of the narrative in a meaningful way, but also a sense of continuance beyond the novel, as the story ends in an ellipse.
This novel is told through the exchange of communications, small historical documents, reactions to events, and accountings of various goings-on. And so, like the first novel in the series, the story is often told in fractures and other slips of narrative rather than the continuous stories in the second and fourth novels. In this novel, yet another planet system, this time “Volyen” is attempting breach beyond its boundaries, declare itself an empire, and begin colonizing additional planets. Canopus, far superior in military might and political force is not threatened by this move, but is wary, and so it monitors the situation. Sirius, however, much smaller and less mighty is threatened, and sees this incursion as a potential act of war, along with a financial rivalry. And so the novel shows how the two empires conduct a kind of proxy war over a planet in their shared purview. And so this novel deals with a kind of de-colonization/power vacuum situation as forces draw back and leave room for opportunism. While Canopus is not an aggressor in this book, it’s sheer size and influence do allow for the violence that occurs throughout.
There are a few subplots that happen along the way as well. I want to close though with a passage from this novel. I am read to leave Canopus behind.
“But I have made my point. Which is not the slaughter of millions upon million, either by negligence or intention; not the imposition of the machinery of Terror; not the enslavement of populations. But that all these developments were described in words for purposes of enslavement, or manipulation, or concealment, or arousal; that tyrants were described as benefactors, butchers as social surgeons, sadists as saints, campaigns to wipe out whole nations as acts beneficial to these nations, war as peace, and a slow social degeneration, a descent into barbarism, as progress. Words, words, words, words…And when local diagnosticians told them of their condition, they cried enthusiastically, ‘What wonderfully interesting words!’ and when on as before.”
This novel is told through the exchange of communications, small historical documents, reactions to events, and accountings of various goings-on. And so, like the first novel in the series, the story is often told in fractures and other slips of narrative rather than the continuous stories in the second and fourth novels. In this novel, yet another planet system, this time “Volyen” is attempting breach beyond its boundaries, declare itself an empire, and begin colonizing additional planets. Canopus, far superior in military might and political force is not threatened by this move, but is wary, and so it monitors the situation. Sirius, however, much smaller and less mighty is threatened, and sees this incursion as a potential act of war, along with a financial rivalry. And so the novel shows how the two empires conduct a kind of proxy war over a planet in their shared purview. And so this novel deals with a kind of de-colonization/power vacuum situation as forces draw back and leave room for opportunism. While Canopus is not an aggressor in this book, it’s sheer size and influence do allow for the violence that occurs throughout.
There are a few subplots that happen along the way as well. I want to close though with a passage from this novel. I am read to leave Canopus behind.
“But I have made my point. Which is not the slaughter of millions upon million, either by negligence or intention; not the imposition of the machinery of Terror; not the enslavement of populations. But that all these developments were described in words for purposes of enslavement, or manipulation, or concealment, or arousal; that tyrants were described as benefactors, butchers as social surgeons, sadists as saints, campaigns to wipe out whole nations as acts beneficial to these nations, war as peace, and a slow social degeneration, a descent into barbarism, as progress. Words, words, words, words…And when local diagnosticians told them of their condition, they cried enthusiastically, ‘What wonderfully interesting words!’ and when on as before.”
December 2, 2014
Only few readers persevere through all five books of Canopus in Argos. Quite understandable, as these books are a mixed bag. As written in one of my previous reviews, I enjoyed books 1, 3 and this one. I didn't enjoy books 2 and 4. Other readers have reverse opinions.
The Sentimental Agents forms a kind of middle ground in the cycle. The book returns to the universal view of Shikasta and the Sirian experiments. At the same time, it doesn't take place in Shikasta, focusing instead on another minor place limited in scope like Marriages and Representatives.
This time, it's the inconsequential Volyen Empire with its central planet Volyen, its two moons and two occupied planets. In this volume, Lessing treats the importance of rhetorics and its dangers. In the context of the period when this book was written it can be seen as her commentary on the rhetorics of the cold war, with politicians spewing out empty notions and threats. It shows the hollow mechanisms at work and relegates these cold-war players to minor cogs in the huge machine of history taking its course.
The Sentimental Agents forms a kind of middle ground in the cycle. The book returns to the universal view of Shikasta and the Sirian experiments. At the same time, it doesn't take place in Shikasta, focusing instead on another minor place limited in scope like Marriages and Representatives.
This time, it's the inconsequential Volyen Empire with its central planet Volyen, its two moons and two occupied planets. In this volume, Lessing treats the importance of rhetorics and its dangers. In the context of the period when this book was written it can be seen as her commentary on the rhetorics of the cold war, with politicians spewing out empty notions and threats. It shows the hollow mechanisms at work and relegates these cold-war players to minor cogs in the huge machine of history taking its course.
May 17, 2021
Part five of five
The final volume of the authors extended, Gurdieff soaked, allegory on the life of humans, their inner nature and what is so wrong. So missing? What weren’t we taught that we should have been? And why not? War and rhetoric, the Virtue, shammat and so on. The aggressive and hypocritical Syrians. The weak and lazy Volyans. Easy enough to understand. The distant, elusive and ever so superior Canopeans who watch on and do nothing. The real lesson I learn, intended or otherwise, is never trust a Canopean. In a recent astronomy trip the star Canopus was pointed out to me. One Of the brighter ones. Blazing away in the general darkness. I shuddered.
Coming right down to earth, the publishers once again have padded over half the supposed book with excerpts from other works by the author. Whether this is intended as generosity or subterfuge I leave to your own judgement.
The final volume of the authors extended, Gurdieff soaked, allegory on the life of humans, their inner nature and what is so wrong. So missing? What weren’t we taught that we should have been? And why not? War and rhetoric, the Virtue, shammat and so on. The aggressive and hypocritical Syrians. The weak and lazy Volyans. Easy enough to understand. The distant, elusive and ever so superior Canopeans who watch on and do nothing. The real lesson I learn, intended or otherwise, is never trust a Canopean. In a recent astronomy trip the star Canopus was pointed out to me. One Of the brighter ones. Blazing away in the general darkness. I shuddered.
Coming right down to earth, the publishers once again have padded over half the supposed book with excerpts from other works by the author. Whether this is intended as generosity or subterfuge I leave to your own judgement.
October 29, 2010
reread it one time, i found this novel is pretty scary in a way, intergalactic evil plot etc. the genre people labeled this series as 'space opera' fails it, i think. that's why it isn't well recognised though Lessing.
June 12, 2021
2½. Actually a perceptive and clever novel, but a repetitive one that is too long and, as part of the larger series, a disappointing ending. Still, Lessing's "Canopus" series is very much worth your time, the first book being one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written, the third solid and the fourth brilliant. I've not been able to see how the second fits in with it all, except on the most superficial levels. They need to be read in order, but don't expect space-opera serialization; Lessing's science fiction is stringently intellectual, mind-expanding, and unlike anything else in the genre before or since.
December 14, 2021
I really enjoy reading Doris Lessing - I have read more than a dozen of her books - and I even like her most unusual works (The Cleft, Ben in the world etc). But this one is a hell of a mess. Sci fi is very useful to deal with sensitive themes that in the "real" world would be too hard to bear. But here it´s the opposite - those ideas Lessing tried to deal with would be better in a non-sci-fi setting - in fact, she did that elsewhere! Here, they are a mess. I really think this book is more a draft than a true novel.
December 31, 2021
As is has happened to me before with Lessing (looking at you "Briefing for a Descent into Hell) I found myself a bit at lost at the beginning, unable to follow a story I felt I had been told so many times before by the author. However, the unfolding of events and getting the know the characters in their most annoying/human ways, got me back to fully enjoying the Canopus universe.
I am a bit sad as this is the final volume of a series I have throughly enjoyed and that has given me bits of hope in these times of world despair. The imaginary resolution of human stupidity.
I am a bit sad as this is the final volume of a series I have throughly enjoyed and that has given me bits of hope in these times of world despair. The imaginary resolution of human stupidity.
September 4, 2020
Brilliant conclusion to the 5-book series.
July 9, 2021
Fascinating series of books. More social fiction than science fiction, each volume takes a different perspective on planetary evolution and interaction. A bit of a jigsaw puzzle of a read.
Read
July 2, 2022Doris Lessing, writing this book: "haha gottem"
(I still liked it)
(I still liked it)
November 25, 2019
Fabulous. She needs to be read widely, essentially as rhetorical speach is being used everywhere to dehumanise and encite groups and mobs who can't deal with the slightest of difference in opinions.
December 9, 2011
'After I left the hotel, through a lobby all excitement and noise – a trade delegation from the Sirian HQ on their planet Motz were just leaving, looking pleased with themselves – I walked straight into the park opposite. Some freely wandering gazelles came to greet me. They originate, as it happens, from Shikasta, stolen by Sirius and presented as part of a state gift. They licked my hands and nuzzled them, and I knew my emotional apparatus was nearly at Overload. Plant life in every stage of growth. The songs of birds. In short, the usual assault on one's stabilizing mechanisms. So hard did I find it to keep my emotional balance that I nearly went back into the hotel to join Incent.
Oh, the glamour of the natural life! The deceptions of the instinctual! The beguilements of all that pulses and oscillates! How I do yearn for Canopus and for its... but enough of that. Forgive my weakness.
I already suspected that the Canopean Empire was not as altruistic as it at first appeared, but in the fifth and final book of the series it also becomes apparent that its agents are fallible. The usual dispassionate stance of Canopus towards members of lesser species can be rocked, as its agents sometimes fall into a state where they are overtaken by emotion and easily swayed by rhetoric. When this happens agents are admitted to a Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases to undergo treatment designed to bring their emotions back into check and stop them from being affected so powerfully by words.
In this book Klorathy, who previously appeared in "The Sirian Experiments", guides the inhabitants of Volyen, its inhabited moons and neighbouring planets through the break-up of the Volyen Empire, while helping a junior agent called Incent through illness, relapses and recovery, and just about warding off the illness himself.
This isn't my favourite book in the series, although this book's stance against rhetoric and the power of words to rouse emotion and sway people to behave unreasonably was though-provoking. Incent's constant relapses and his alternating attraction to and shamed rejection of Shammat soon became tedious, although I was interested in the inhabitants of the Volyen system as they faced the break up of the Volyen Empire and invasion by Sirius and their reaction to the manipulation by Canopus.
Oh, the glamour of the natural life! The deceptions of the instinctual! The beguilements of all that pulses and oscillates! How I do yearn for Canopus and for its... but enough of that. Forgive my weakness.
I already suspected that the Canopean Empire was not as altruistic as it at first appeared, but in the fifth and final book of the series it also becomes apparent that its agents are fallible. The usual dispassionate stance of Canopus towards members of lesser species can be rocked, as its agents sometimes fall into a state where they are overtaken by emotion and easily swayed by rhetoric. When this happens agents are admitted to a Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases to undergo treatment designed to bring their emotions back into check and stop them from being affected so powerfully by words.
In this book Klorathy, who previously appeared in "The Sirian Experiments", guides the inhabitants of Volyen, its inhabited moons and neighbouring planets through the break-up of the Volyen Empire, while helping a junior agent called Incent through illness, relapses and recovery, and just about warding off the illness himself.
This isn't my favourite book in the series, although this book's stance against rhetoric and the power of words to rouse emotion and sway people to behave unreasonably was though-provoking. Incent's constant relapses and his alternating attraction to and shamed rejection of Shammat soon became tedious, although I was interested in the inhabitants of the Volyen system as they faced the break up of the Volyen Empire and invasion by Sirius and their reaction to the manipulation by Canopus.
November 25, 2012
The final installment to the five part science fiction saga by Doris Lessing is a compact examination on politics and society. It's about Volyen, a planet that's been exploited by an imperialistic superpower and is possibly escaping only to be the subject of another oppressor.
Most of the novel is made up of speeches made in the planet's parliament, and considering that the end result is surprisingly engaging. Lessing implies that rhetoric is the only force that makes a society: words become reality. And even as this view seems at first purely ironic, I felt in the end that she might actually be making a point. And heavy in rhetoric the novel is, as Lessing explores the whole concept of a society and the processes that form it.
Never before during this series has her text been as opinionated. Philosophy has given way to practicality and Lessing's socialist sensibilities are more visible than ever. She clearly expresses disappointment in both capitalist America and the Soviet Union, implying that capitalism can be every bit as threatening to freedom as communism and communism every bit as unequal and wasteful as capitalism. The novel declares through thinly veiled allegory that both are fundamentally unsustainable systems.
Most of the novel is made up of speeches made in the planet's parliament, and considering that the end result is surprisingly engaging. Lessing implies that rhetoric is the only force that makes a society: words become reality. And even as this view seems at first purely ironic, I felt in the end that she might actually be making a point. And heavy in rhetoric the novel is, as Lessing explores the whole concept of a society and the processes that form it.
Never before during this series has her text been as opinionated. Philosophy has given way to practicality and Lessing's socialist sensibilities are more visible than ever. She clearly expresses disappointment in both capitalist America and the Soviet Union, implying that capitalism can be every bit as threatening to freedom as communism and communism every bit as unequal and wasteful as capitalism. The novel declares through thinly veiled allegory that both are fundamentally unsustainable systems.
June 10, 2014
Om planeters/imperiers cykler. Moderplaneten Volyen, som liknar de västliga demokratierna ockuperar Volyendesta och Volyenadna. Många av de högre makthavarna i Volyen är kritiska till sitt eget samhälle och är spioner för planeten och imperiet Sirius räkning. Ju mer folket tror på den egna propagandan desto mer kortlivat blir imperiet, säger Lessing.
Governor Grice, under en period beundrare av Sirius, får till stånd en rättegång där Volyen står som anklagad för att inte ha gett sina barn kunskaper om dom mekanismer som styr dom som gruppvarelser. Kunskaper som varit länge kända och oomtvistade och som borde ingå i undervisningen precis som kroppens funktioner och hur samhällen styrs gör. Volyen åtalas också för att låta sitt samhälle förfalla och degenerera genom att inte upplysa om människans inneboende behov av att sträva och övervinna motstånd. Mat och omvårdnad är inte lika med kärlek. Att få allt man önskar sig i samma stund man önskar sig det är det inte heller. En hund som får för mycket mat blir sjuk, vet vi far illa. Detsamma gäller för människor och samhällen. Den första åtalspunkten är att Volyen inte efterlever sin konstitution
Mycket om retorik som en sjukdom
Governor Grice, under en period beundrare av Sirius, får till stånd en rättegång där Volyen står som anklagad för att inte ha gett sina barn kunskaper om dom mekanismer som styr dom som gruppvarelser. Kunskaper som varit länge kända och oomtvistade och som borde ingå i undervisningen precis som kroppens funktioner och hur samhällen styrs gör. Volyen åtalas också för att låta sitt samhälle förfalla och degenerera genom att inte upplysa om människans inneboende behov av att sträva och övervinna motstånd. Mat och omvårdnad är inte lika med kärlek. Att få allt man önskar sig i samma stund man önskar sig det är det inte heller. En hund som får för mycket mat blir sjuk, vet vi far illa. Detsamma gäller för människor och samhällen. Den första åtalspunkten är att Volyen inte efterlever sin konstitution
Mycket om retorik som en sjukdom
January 7, 2016
The last book of the Canopus in Argos: Archives series was in line with the one before in being a little bit more down-to-earth than the first three book of the series.
In this one Lessing focus its narrative in a small Empire of five planets where the emissaries from Canopus write the events as they happen and where the story is a developing as a continuation of the previous books, although not exactly after the previous books but when even the Sirius empire is on it verge to collapse.
As profound as ever Doris Lessing writes in this book on the development and fall of Empires and also about how Rhetoric is corrupting everything, specially people and how these people may act different when they are in groups and can be influenced by Rhetoric.
The counterpoint of Rhetoric is Virtue and the people of the falling Sirian Empire and the ones affected by them are searching for the Virtue to make things work better, or so they believe.
In this one Lessing focus its narrative in a small Empire of five planets where the emissaries from Canopus write the events as they happen and where the story is a developing as a continuation of the previous books, although not exactly after the previous books but when even the Sirius empire is on it verge to collapse.
As profound as ever Doris Lessing writes in this book on the development and fall of Empires and also about how Rhetoric is corrupting everything, specially people and how these people may act different when they are in groups and can be influenced by Rhetoric.
The counterpoint of Rhetoric is Virtue and the people of the falling Sirian Empire and the ones affected by them are searching for the Virtue to make things work better, or so they believe.
September 22, 2010
Considering that this is, in plot terms at least, a tale of aliens, interstellar empires and planetary invasions, you might be forgiven for expecting a little more in the way of action. Those who've read the previous books in the series, however, will know what to expect. Long cerebral discussions about revolutionary rhetoric and emotional manipulation for political ends fill large chunks of the text, and yet it's not as dry or dull as that might sound. It's even funny in places.
October 19, 2016
I didn't actually finish this book, though I tried. Surprisingly, though the book came out in the early 1980s, some of its ideas on political rhetoric were very relevant to today. But in the end the intellectual exercise just didn't sustain me enough to get all the way through. I needed more engaging characters and a stronger plot to keep going.
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July 7, 2008A fifth of five, but they are not in the right order although Shikasta comes first.
December 24, 2008
the 5th book in the series and the only one I read. complicated and philosophical. Very good though.
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February 1, 2015B1 R1 C8
June 30, 2015
This final installment in the series is a satire, and rather different from the other books.
January 22, 2016
its a summary of Lessing's own political views masquerading as a sci fi book
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