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Canopus in Argos #1
Shikasta
This is the first volume in the series of novels Doris Lessing calls collectively Canopus in Archives . Presented as a compilation of documents, reports, letters, speeches and journal entries, this purports to be a general study of the planet Shikasta–clearly the planet Earth–to be used by history students of the higher planet Canopus and to be stored in the Canopian archives. For eons, galactic empires have struggled against one another, and Shikasta is one of the main battlegrounds.Johar, an emissary from Canopus and the primary contributor to the archives, visits Shikasta over the millennia from the time of the giants and the biblical great flood up to the present. With every visit he tries to distract Shikastans from the evil influences of the planet Shammat but notes with dismay the ever-growing chaos and destruction of Shikasta as its people hurl themselves towards World War III and annihilation.
539 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
446 people are currently reading
8809 people want to read
About the author
Doris Lessing
474 books3,179 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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March 10, 2025
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS -
NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER.
The Hollow Men
Eliot’s is indeed such an apt envoi for the Shikastan world, if you know the plot of this novel...
Doris Lessing seems to have been BORN to write sci-fi - though most of her critics were relatively aghast at such presumptuous temerity on her part, back in the 1970’s.
And whenever I consider the brilliance of this marvellous Nobel laureate - in the panoptic Vision of her superb novels like this one - it almost seems as if she saw the true nature of our glaringly dysfunctional age in all its broken and tragically fallen nature.
She did that through the medium of Science Fiction!
And it’s a Fall which our era acknowledges at appropriate times, but blithely glosses over when it doesn’t seem appropriate - when there are public good times to be had, for example.
Superficial good times, however, to the rulers of this Omelas-Clone world are almost ALWAYS appropriate. So in consequence Lessing’s view is much too deep for most of us to ever accept nowadays.
“Not with a Bang, but with a Whimper”...
As a Christian, however, I have very serious reservations about Lessing’s heavy-handed shaping of Shikasta according to a world-view that seriously undermines any hope we may have for the future of our world.
Nobody knows that future.
And Lessing very self-assuredly but misleadingly casts a pair of loaded dice.
I would for that reason also have serious reservations about recommending this book to those of my friends who have lived with depression at any point in their lives. As I (alas!) have...
We all tend to read with a “willing suspension of disbelief” - especially if, as it is with Lessing’s tale, it is a tale told by a Master.
For there can be no question that Lessing writes masterfully: but this book can plunge you into the Pit of Despair if you aren’t careful.
However, it is a superlative tale. And it has all the blockbuster force of her previous Realist writing, so caveat emptor!
Johor is an alien ambassador from the Canopean Empire, sent to save Earth (Shikasta) once again, in its Last Days. He has visited Earth from its earliest times, in different bodies.(!) His attitude, like Lessing’s, isn’t always upbeat, to say the least!
And the beginning of the book is its end, for Lessing herself has inserted a spoiler right at the outset.
If you have a fairly tough skin like me, you’ll be careful just how far you suspend that disbelief of yours, but you’ll nevertheless revel in Lessing’s radiant writing.
When I read her incredibly difficult Briefing for a Descent into Hell in 1976, I recognized her as a 20th-century Titan - it was unmistakably a work of genius.
Here was a brave woman who had personally grappled in single combat with many Demons - her own and the world’s - and she had won. But it was a Pyrrhic Victory.
So she saw the Good and the Bad. Very clearly (read her brilliant Massey Lectures which she delivered here in Canada - they’re available in compact book form).
Lessing’s dualism, unlike my own more mollified variety, was delineated in her own experience so starkly - and with such acute sensitivity - that her Sufism became the only valid response to her mounting pain that she could imagine.
That may be why the wonderful lyric passages in this book - especially her description of our planet in a paradisal Golden Age - bear comparison to the ecstatic utterances of that well-known Sufi, Rumi.
For both Rumi and Lessing have their little Jeremiads!
But though she lived to a ripe old age, she had absorbed and learned from all the bitter lessons of life.
She was nobody’s fool.
When the news of her Nobel Prize came out, she missed it. Trudging home from a grocery store with onerous bags, a mob of reporters on the doorsteps of her apartment building asked her for her reaction.
Not missing a beat, she retorted (and I paraphrase from my memory of the news story): “Well, and so what? I’ve won all the rest of ‘em!”
A great book - and a truly classic sci-fi masterpiece - but a DANGEROUS one for the oversensitive.
NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER.
The Hollow Men
Eliot’s is indeed such an apt envoi for the Shikastan world, if you know the plot of this novel...
Doris Lessing seems to have been BORN to write sci-fi - though most of her critics were relatively aghast at such presumptuous temerity on her part, back in the 1970’s.
And whenever I consider the brilliance of this marvellous Nobel laureate - in the panoptic Vision of her superb novels like this one - it almost seems as if she saw the true nature of our glaringly dysfunctional age in all its broken and tragically fallen nature.
She did that through the medium of Science Fiction!
And it’s a Fall which our era acknowledges at appropriate times, but blithely glosses over when it doesn’t seem appropriate - when there are public good times to be had, for example.
Superficial good times, however, to the rulers of this Omelas-Clone world are almost ALWAYS appropriate. So in consequence Lessing’s view is much too deep for most of us to ever accept nowadays.
“Not with a Bang, but with a Whimper”...
As a Christian, however, I have very serious reservations about Lessing’s heavy-handed shaping of Shikasta according to a world-view that seriously undermines any hope we may have for the future of our world.
Nobody knows that future.
And Lessing very self-assuredly but misleadingly casts a pair of loaded dice.
I would for that reason also have serious reservations about recommending this book to those of my friends who have lived with depression at any point in their lives. As I (alas!) have...
We all tend to read with a “willing suspension of disbelief” - especially if, as it is with Lessing’s tale, it is a tale told by a Master.
For there can be no question that Lessing writes masterfully: but this book can plunge you into the Pit of Despair if you aren’t careful.
However, it is a superlative tale. And it has all the blockbuster force of her previous Realist writing, so caveat emptor!
Johor is an alien ambassador from the Canopean Empire, sent to save Earth (Shikasta) once again, in its Last Days. He has visited Earth from its earliest times, in different bodies.(!) His attitude, like Lessing’s, isn’t always upbeat, to say the least!
And the beginning of the book is its end, for Lessing herself has inserted a spoiler right at the outset.
If you have a fairly tough skin like me, you’ll be careful just how far you suspend that disbelief of yours, but you’ll nevertheless revel in Lessing’s radiant writing.
When I read her incredibly difficult Briefing for a Descent into Hell in 1976, I recognized her as a 20th-century Titan - it was unmistakably a work of genius.
Here was a brave woman who had personally grappled in single combat with many Demons - her own and the world’s - and she had won. But it was a Pyrrhic Victory.
So she saw the Good and the Bad. Very clearly (read her brilliant Massey Lectures which she delivered here in Canada - they’re available in compact book form).
Lessing’s dualism, unlike my own more mollified variety, was delineated in her own experience so starkly - and with such acute sensitivity - that her Sufism became the only valid response to her mounting pain that she could imagine.
That may be why the wonderful lyric passages in this book - especially her description of our planet in a paradisal Golden Age - bear comparison to the ecstatic utterances of that well-known Sufi, Rumi.
For both Rumi and Lessing have their little Jeremiads!
But though she lived to a ripe old age, she had absorbed and learned from all the bitter lessons of life.
She was nobody’s fool.
When the news of her Nobel Prize came out, she missed it. Trudging home from a grocery store with onerous bags, a mob of reporters on the doorsteps of her apartment building asked her for her reaction.
Not missing a beat, she retorted (and I paraphrase from my memory of the news story): “Well, and so what? I’ve won all the rest of ‘em!”
A great book - and a truly classic sci-fi masterpiece - but a DANGEROUS one for the oversensitive.
January 23, 2023
This is a weird book. Not like, cute-weird, like what-did-I-just-read weird. It is, shall we say, a hot mess. And yet, there is a rare freedom of thought and expression here, and I cannot say, definitively, that it isn’t a work of genius, either.
Whenever frustration began to mount, Lessing would drop an image, or thought, or moment so arresting that all faith was renewed. Whenever the structure of the book seemed to go to pieces, Lessing would anchor herself in lived reality so definitively that her choices could no longer be denied.
The novel is very explicitly anti-colonial, and yet it takes race seriously as a category in ways that I find highly uncomfortable, taking ideas about race common to science fiction and fantasy—think elves, dwarves, giants—and ideas about race that undergirded the European imperial project, and allowing them to intermingle promiscuously, dangerously. The intelligence at the book’s center is fundamentally eugenicist, in a way that sits uncomfortably with Lessing’s piercing critique of empire, capitalism, consumerism, organized religion, indeed, the entire overarching structure of human civilization, which is, in Lessing’s view, profoundly and fundamentally corrupted.
And yet there is hope here, and beauty, and an attention to the realities of human life and experience that injects shot after shot of truth into Lessing’s heavy-handed theories of the world (and nonsensical spiritualism).
Interesting, too, is Lessing’s perspective on politics: for her, party politics are to the real work of organizing human society precisely as, for her, organized religion is to the real spiritual needs of mankind: that is, a mistake. A mistake in which the truly significant is inevitably subordinated to the trivial. And yet, no one could possibly confuse Lessing for being apolitical, or centrist—she is engaged in the radical rejection of all that divides us. That that rejection is futile is, perhaps, part of the point of the book. Or perhaps not.
Re: Colonized Planet 5, Shikasta is disjointed, at times incoherent, at times quite silly (not intentionally, and not in a good way.) But when it works, my God is it something transcendent.
Whenever frustration began to mount, Lessing would drop an image, or thought, or moment so arresting that all faith was renewed. Whenever the structure of the book seemed to go to pieces, Lessing would anchor herself in lived reality so definitively that her choices could no longer be denied.
The novel is very explicitly anti-colonial, and yet it takes race seriously as a category in ways that I find highly uncomfortable, taking ideas about race common to science fiction and fantasy—think elves, dwarves, giants—and ideas about race that undergirded the European imperial project, and allowing them to intermingle promiscuously, dangerously. The intelligence at the book’s center is fundamentally eugenicist, in a way that sits uncomfortably with Lessing’s piercing critique of empire, capitalism, consumerism, organized religion, indeed, the entire overarching structure of human civilization, which is, in Lessing’s view, profoundly and fundamentally corrupted.
And yet there is hope here, and beauty, and an attention to the realities of human life and experience that injects shot after shot of truth into Lessing’s heavy-handed theories of the world (and nonsensical spiritualism).
Interesting, too, is Lessing’s perspective on politics: for her, party politics are to the real work of organizing human society precisely as, for her, organized religion is to the real spiritual needs of mankind: that is, a mistake. A mistake in which the truly significant is inevitably subordinated to the trivial. And yet, no one could possibly confuse Lessing for being apolitical, or centrist—she is engaged in the radical rejection of all that divides us. That that rejection is futile is, perhaps, part of the point of the book. Or perhaps not.
Re: Colonized Planet 5, Shikasta is disjointed, at times incoherent, at times quite silly (not intentionally, and not in a good way.) But when it works, my God is it something transcendent.
March 8, 2011
My favorite quotes from this book both come from the introduction:
But now they've got their act together, and Emissary Johor incarnates as the mortal human George Sherban. Much of what we find out about Sherban comes from his sister's account. I didn't completely buy him as a Christ-figure - it's been done too often, and Lessing doesn't bring enough new ideas to the table - but there are a couple of great moments. One in particular, when she's watching Johor/George working his guts out to try and save our miserable souls. She quietly observes
"Shikasta has as its starting point, like many others of the genre, the Old Testament. It is our habit to dismiss the Old Testament altogether because Jehovah, or Jahve, does not think or behave like a social worker."And, indeed, the overall effect is rather as though Olaf Stapledon had rewritten the Bible with a little help from E.E. Doc Smith and Michael Moorcock. We learn that the Earth's history is bound up with the shifting fortunes of a war between two galactic empires: Canopus, the good guys, and Puttiora, the bad guys. An accident occurred a few thousand years ago, since when the Puttiorans have been doing alarmingly well and the Canopeans have been fighting a desperate rearguard action. It's a bit of a mess, though there are good passages every now and then. I like the defensive way the Canopeans react to the Earthpeople's complaints about how they've been abandoned by their heavenly leaders. "We've regularly sent people to guide and comfort them! Well, except for a brief period during the last fifteen hundred years."
"I do think that there is something very wrong with an attitude that puts a 'serious' novel on one shelf and, let's say, First and Last Men on another."
But now they've got their act together, and Emissary Johor incarnates as the mortal human George Sherban. Much of what we find out about Sherban comes from his sister's account. I didn't completely buy him as a Christ-figure - it's been done too often, and Lessing doesn't bring enough new ideas to the table - but there are a couple of great moments. One in particular, when she's watching Johor/George working his guts out to try and save our miserable souls. She quietly observes
There were days when he was so tired he wasn't beautiful any more.I don't know about you, but that sends shivers down my spine.
April 16, 2022
Doris Lessing is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 with the formulation "with skepticism, passion and visionary power considered a divided civilization." There is an authoritative opinion that its main achievement was "Canopus in Argos".
I don't share it. As good as "Great Dreams" are, "Shikasta" is so impossibly heavy and pathetic and boring. I doubt that I will ever want to return and continue my acquaintance with the cycle, but I will tell you about what I have read. So, Shikasta is our Land. The first part of the narrative is constructed as a report of an observer of one of the more developed civilizations for the development of life on it, and about the penetration of evil into it with subsequent degradation in all areas.
According to the concept of the book, two powerful civilizations: Canopus and Sirius, connected by the relations of rival partners, control, support and direct the less developed forms of life in the universe in a good direction. Shikasta initially found herself under the patronage of Canopus, who planted a race of giants here. They took care of the young humanity, became its mentors and protectors. At that time, the world was flourishing, there were no murders and enmity, envy, jealousy - such a prototype of the Garden of Eden.
"Роза Мира" от Нобелианта
Неужели когда уничтожаются достижения культуры, истребляются народы, все ресурсы наций используются исключительно для войны, мораль стремится к нулю, все покупается и продается, возможно верить, что «в общем — то» все в порядке?
Дорис Лессинг лауреат Нобелевской премии по литературе 2007 года с формулировкой "со скептицизмом, страстью и провидческой силой рассмотревшей разделенную цивилизацию". Есть авторитетное мнение, что основным ее достижением стал именно "Канопуса в Аргосе".
Я его не разделяю. Насколько хороши "Великие мечты", настолько неподъемно тяжела пафосна и скучна "Шикаста". Сомневаюсь, что когда-нибудь захочу вернуться и продолжить знакомство с циклом, но о прочитанном - расскажу. Итак, Шикаста - это наша Земля. Первая часть повествования строится, как отчет наблюдателя одной из более развитых цивилизаций за развитием жизни на ней, и о проникновении на нее зла с последующей деградацией во всех областях.
Согласно концепции книги, две могущественные цивилизации: Канопус и Сириус, связанные отношениями партнеров-соперников, контролируют, поддерживают и направляют в благое русло менее развитые формы жизни во вселенной. Шикаста изначально оказалась под патронажем Канопуса, подселившего сюда расу гигантов. Они взяли на себя заботу о юном человечестве, стали его наставниками и защитниками. В то время мир процветал, не было убийств и вражды, зависти, ревности - такой прообраз Эдемского сада.
Но после на планету проникли резиденты Путтиэры, паразитической цивилизации, не имеющей собственных ресурсов благотворного творческого начала, делающего существование осмысленным. Путтиэра пробавляется пиратством и кражами, заставляя деградировать все, чего касается. На Шикасте начался упадок. Спасая гигантов, их эвакуировали. Отсюда у всех народов мифы о богах, вознесшихся к небесам.
Аборигены оказались предоставлены самим себе, беспомощны и беззащитны (изгнание из Рая). Города в одночасье разрушились, прежние источники энергии исчезли, люди начали тяжкое существование. По меньшей мере один раз человеческая цивилизация достигала нынешнего уровня развития и уничтожала себя в войне, начиная с начала. В эту историю вписываются мифы о Великом потопе и Вавилонской башне.
Вторая часть - современность, середина двадцатого века, рассказ от лица девочки-подростка Рэйчел, чьему старшему брату суждено стать новым Мессией, который объединит людей и воссоздаст цивилизацию после очередного крушения. Что благополучно происходит, мировая гармония в финале восстановлена, хотя без множества жертв, предсказуемо, не обошлось.
Лессинг великая женщина и прекрасный писатель, но "Шикаста", во-многом перекликаясь с "Розой Мира" Даниила Андреева, вполовину не так интересна и логически непротиворечива.
I don't share it. As good as "Great Dreams" are, "Shikasta" is so impossibly heavy and pathetic and boring. I doubt that I will ever want to return and continue my acquaintance with the cycle, but I will tell you about what I have read. So, Shikasta is our Land. The first part of the narrative is constructed as a report of an observer of one of the more developed civilizations for the development of life on it, and about the penetration of evil into it with subsequent degradation in all areas.
According to the concept of the book, two powerful civilizations: Canopus and Sirius, connected by the relations of rival partners, control, support and direct the less developed forms of life in the universe in a good direction. Shikasta initially found herself under the patronage of Canopus, who planted a race of giants here. They took care of the young humanity, became its mentors and protectors. At that time, the world was flourishing, there were no murders and enmity, envy, jealousy - such a prototype of the Garden of Eden.
"Роза Мира" от Нобелианта
Неужели когда уничтожаются достижения культуры, истребляются народы, все ресурсы наций используются исключительно для войны, мораль стремится к нулю, все покупается и продается, возможно верить, что «в общем — то» все в порядке?
Дорис Лессинг лауреат Нобелевской премии по литературе 2007 года с формулировкой "со скептицизмом, страстью и провидческой силой рассмотревшей разделенную цивилизацию". Есть авторитетное мнение, что основным ее достижением стал именно "Канопуса в Аргосе".
Я его не разделяю. Насколько хороши "Великие мечты", настолько неподъемно тяжела пафосна и скучна "Шикаста". Сомневаюсь, что когда-нибудь захочу вернуться и продолжить знакомство с циклом, но о прочитанном - расскажу. Итак, Шикаста - это наша Земля. Первая часть повествования строится, как отчет наблюдателя одной из более развитых цивилизаций за развитием жизни на ней, и о проникновении на нее зла с последующей деградацией во всех областях.
Согласно концепции книги, две могущественные цивилизации: Канопус и Сириус, связанные отношениями партнеров-соперников, контролируют, поддерживают и направляют в благое русло менее развитые формы жизни во вселенной. Шикаста изначально оказалась под патронажем Канопуса, подселившего сюда расу гигантов. Они взяли на себя заботу о юном человечестве, стали его наставниками и защитниками. В то время мир процветал, не было убийств и вражды, зависти, ревности - такой прообраз Эдемского сада.
Но после на планету проникли резиденты Путтиэры, паразитической цивилизации, не имеющей собственных ресурсов благотворного творческого начала, делающего существование осмысленным. Путтиэра пробавляется пиратством и кражами, заставляя деградировать все, чего касается. На Шикасте начался упадок. Спасая гигантов, их эвакуировали. Отсюда у всех народов мифы о богах, вознесшихся к небесам.
Аборигены оказались предоставлены самим себе, беспомощны и беззащитны (изгнание из Рая). Города в одночасье разрушились, прежние источники энергии исчезли, люди начали тяжкое существование. По меньшей мере один раз человеческая цивилизация достигала нынешнего уровня развития и уничтожала себя в войне, начиная с начала. В эту историю вписываются мифы о Великом потопе и Вавилонской башне.
Вторая часть - современность, середина двадцатого века, рассказ от лица девочки-подростка Рэйчел, чьему старшему брату суждено стать новым Мессией, который объединит людей и воссоздаст цивилизацию после очередного крушения. Что благополучно происходит, мировая гармония в финале восстановлена, хотя без множества жертв, предсказуемо, не обошлось.
Лессинг великая женщина и прекрасный писатель, но "Шикаста", во-многом перекликаясь с "Розой Мира" Даниила Андреева, вполовину не так интересна и логически непротиворечива.
April 7, 2020
The full title is Canopus in Argos: Archives Re: Colonized Planet 5: Shikasta: Personal, Psychological, Historical Documents Relating to Visit by JOHOR (George Sherban): Emissary Grade 9: 87th of the Period of the Last Days.
To begin, we receive a Preface from the Nobel-winning author. It contains a brief defense of S-F as a literary form. Lessing’s contribution to S-F is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Totaling over 1100 pages, her 5 novel series constitutes an exhaustive study of a fictionalized galactic civilization.
The alien perspective is intriguing. We hear about negotiated agreements between Sirius and Canopus, after a ruinous war. Some large-scale backstory, non-traditional storytelling, a detached voice, disembodied, disorienting and disarming. I sank into the scientific narrative like I became immersed in Olaf Stapledon’s works. He was an acknowledged influence of Lessing’s and signs of his work are everywhere, down to the skeleton of the novel’s framework.
In what will become dense social commentary, the author introduces by degrees, an astoundingly complex level of world building, a dense architecture of philosophies, and then proceeds in the method established by Stapledon in Last and First Men and Star Maker. At first glance, this book could appear to be a similar masterpiece. The further you read, the more you will realize that is not so.
The subject veers dramatically as Lessing probes the furthest reaches of the human mind, but the message gets clogged with political agendas. The use of an inhuman narrator presents difficulties, easily surmounted by fascinating juxtapositions. Get ready for dry imagery, a large number of fictional facts and abstractions, and a sense of the dangerous scale of the universe. The mode of communication is uneven throughout. Dozens of reports are interpolated from extraterrestrials and humans. At once, a distinctly skewed and innately logical setting makes way for execrations to come. The language employed borrows more from its established backstory than from societal constructs, except for the implementation of pervasive allegory, until the story shifts to modern times.
The most interesting part was the exploration of the catastrophe, which left behind work for the custodians of Shikastan Truth. Through Johor’s contribution to his planet’s experiment, Lessing makes use of allegorical devices, infusing the narrative with the sense of higher powers orchestrating vast reaches of space-time. How much of it is alien technology, and how much faith-based relics is hard to quantify.
The novel takes the form of a note in a bottle, a time capsule, or a testament. This form is broken, irreparably, as the novel progresses.
It speaks of the end of civilizations and of the galactic development of empiricism, it covers the varieties and forms of extraterrestrial life all too briefly. Subtle allegories ensue: consumerism, the food chain, until we begin to see that Shikasta is Earth. With worthy lyricism, Lessing describes this world as an outsider, and her work is surreally fascinating. Her fiercely intelligent prose slides into abstract forms and sensations. The microscopic details are uncanny, but the sweeping, bitter statements undercut what might have been a thought-provoking, instead of a thought-suppressing, conclusion.
The narrator utilizes the sort of foreigners’ bizarre verbal patterns you might expect from a multi-national author. There is an incredible verisimilitude inherent in the sustained stylistic choices. The hallucinogenic descriptions of nature lend to the charm of reading Shikasta, before it betrays your every hope for consistency. I loved the lumbering, slow, aching prose, the giant, gaping palaces and eldritch ruins. I found the accumulation of atmosphere and detail profoundly unsettling. The stark narration, ripe with ordure, was strikingly vivid. Canopus institutes their regime on the vibrant planet of Shikasta, manufacturing giants and conducting sociological studies. Their enemy is Shammat. We know the Canopeans inherit genetic memory. Degeneration does not afflict them. They suffer no death. Their colonization is posited on designed evolution, and we can only assume their space-faring civilization is immense. The main concern of this “study” is the biological experiments on Shikasta and the aftermath, wherein selective breeding leads to unexpected consequences.
The development of sentience and intelligence in the controlled environment is interesting. It is speculative writing of the highest caliber, until it plummets into an abyss of antihumanism. The tension between galactic empires would have been a more stimulating subject, but I gather there will be further developments in that arena later in the series. She regales us with essays on the controlled distribution of wealth. Instead of plausible advanced technologies we get enigmatic magic. In fact, almost no explanation for the Canopeans’ powers intrudes. We must sit through 300 pages recounting the dry history of mankind, a saddening cultural survey, lacking any sign of sophistication. She exits the uncanny valley and only enters into the land of the canny, the trite and the wickedly accusatory.
She takes a scientific view of sex. But the traces of feminism are surprisingly light. Johor can change physical form. He understands acclimatization, but the more sacred knowledge he imparts, the more perverted the Shikastan experiment becomes. The clandestine alien subjugation of a civilization by a higher one is not original, but she started off in a convincing way. The planetary Petri dish, the control group, makes for a fine set-up. Recall that Johor refrains from corrupting society’s innocence with the introduction of advanced tech, but Taufiq becomes almost entirely human. Johor has an affinity with beasts, and uses this to his advantage as he seeks to modernize the brutes. His comrades practice micromanagement of a race already spiraling out of their control. Johor’s tasks and duties are at first vague, and his communication from Canopus is not enlightening, but it becomes clear he is meant to moderate the chaos.
Human symbiosis with the planet has always been tenuous, but Lessing drives home the fact that we have made a fine mess of things.
Luckily, we are given the emissary’s explanation along the way. He is a measurer of vibrations. These vibrations are the invisible forces at work, crafting the environment.
The Shikastan’s are told their function as lesser beings in service to Canopus, he bears the news of their loss of freedom, in one of the most stirring passages, and a fall results.
“A whole race will cease,” he says. This is the destruction of the self through hyper awareness. A competition for survival begins after the reliance of higher powers ceases. However, Johor’s prophetic powers and the development of the telepathic survival trait do little to prevent widespread degradation.
The fates of races are determined by the caprices of stars. Lessing distorts her religious allegory with many misappropriated Biblical references, only to castigate and belittle all organized religions later on.
Determinism and the possibility of anticipating the future follow attempts to placate the disintegration of their evolutionary project. The enemy emerges from their mishaps. Beginning with the Edenic people among which evil does not exist, she depicts society before sin, and Shammat, as sin, is labeled, and makes short work of any sign of Canopean progress. Johor’s immersion in another culture describes this scenario beautifully. He contemplates whether awareness of sin is a weakness. The garden falls through lack of adequate resources in the face of limitless wants. Shammat is syphoning off the life of planets. This is the enigmatic enemy, or the name he has given the force antagonistic to the aims of Canopus. Parasitism as an inevitable variation of progress from symbiots.
Loss of judgement en masse in the face of changing environmental constraints, sin as death, “disobedience to the master plan” causing the fall of Shikasta, and other parabolic constraints sheer away little by little, the fabulous invention Lessing spent 100 pages crafting.
The slow and assured death in the environment without divine intervention goes unchecked for 31 millenia. The plight of mutants and outsiders, those cast off and forsaken cry out from her pages. Possessed of no faith in a higher power, blessed were they in their ignorance, they fail to live up to the standards of the Canopean empire, which are divine in nature. Without religious beliefs they begin preternaturally innocent, but innocence soon falls by the wayside. Discovery that your planet is an artificial construct, would be enough to alter most peoples’ perception. Your society and development from beast hood was unnatural and programmed. The Natives and Giants are the 2 sentient species created by Canopus. The resultant diaspora dissolves the clever societal dichotomies she threatened to enumerate.
The signature is Johor’s distinguishing power. The loss of innocence is described as a descent into fear and dissolution. The rise of prophets as a result of chaos and the birth of religion, the rebellion of the spirit all come to the fore as Johor’s influence wanes. A multitude of afflictions intrude upon disorganized society, the tribes scatter, the disbalance physically manifests as a disease of the flesh. Their faith and awareness brings them torment and destruction. Disorder is measured by permeating vibrations in the environment which the natives misuse for their own pleasure. The destruction of the idealized past occurs repeatedly. They lose immortality and fall into perpetual cycles of death and sin, degenerate back into animals, devolution and reversion.
The intrusion of belief systems and humanity’s reliance on its environmental conditions, segregation and the survivalist mindset, and resistance to higher laws, all erupt from the misuse of Canopean stones. The patterns of stones create vibrations, in the sense that imposed order endows inhabitants with prosperity. The stones possess divine, or Canopean, power. Johor warns inhabitants with prohibitions and pointing out their in-progress destruction. He chooses disciples to spread the Truth from Canopus.
Shammat emanates, sows destruction. Johor tries to establish Laws. He communes with nature as a prophet seeking guidance. We learn of boosters, conductors and planet programming, Sirius, Effluon 3, Puttiora, pollution, abstract corruption, filtering and enhancing brain power, physical manifestations of conceptualizations, and a destructive force as supernatural as the stones. This allegory allows us to contemplate the destructive nature of our technology and our reliance on higher systems to function. Shammat uses Shikastans as transmitters. Out of darkness it came, sapping strength, beauty and intellect, which to Canopus, are measurable resources.
In his marvelous journey of discovery, Johor seeks to limit the spread of Shammat. The first murder occurs in an attempt to communicate divine Truth. Intimations of intoxication, idolatry and addiction are obvious consequences.
Love had been provided and engendered in the genetic make-up of their forebears. They must relearn progress, invention, adaption, intuition. They have to reinvent every basic device, the building blocks of civilization, SOWF (substance-of-we-feeling) = manna - the source of progress and human sentience. It is what separates Shikastans from animals.
Another disciple, Taufiq, is an agent, an instrument of the way toward life and immortal divinity. He espouses idealism. We recognize him amid our wars, government and culture.
An abrupt shift around page 100 brings us to modern Earth, still called Shikasta. The second section of the book is a direct castigation of privileged white society. Pettiness, avarice, socialist spoofs, small and frivolous revolutions, every expression of vanity. Supplemental reports give extraneous detached viewpoints, lassoing in cults and the minutiae of wasted lives, every category of sin is dissected in a discomfiting, clinical way. The writing degrades steadily from logical argument to execrable melodrama. It becomes a searing history text which cultivates a disgusted, ashamed tone of oppressive derogating, recounting all the missteps in human affairs, an endless series of disturbing protests against flawed individuals.
Perhaps Lessing was so ensconced in the omniscient extraterrestrial perspective, she let pessimism run rampant. She is excessive and obsessive in her portrayal of human folly. It seems to come from a place of anger, is spiteful and mean-spirited.
The repetitions, reinterpretations, and restating her theses statements becomes the modus operandi of the second half of the novel. There is a continual reinforcement of the depressing worthlessness of human beings. The shorter the lifespan, the worse the human maladjustments become, and a vestigial belief in former immunity to death remains as a carry-over to haunt them.
Rachel's journal presents a stilted human viewpoint, but after all the macrocosmic speculation, her foibles, whining and minuscule troubles appear petty, void and contrived, inserted for a dramatic shift in the scientific tone.
Lessing indulges in bald satire, on the changeable minds of men, makes light of the power struggles during and after the World Wars, progress, justice, vain ambitions, etc. Humans have an innate fear of Canopus, which is dimensionless, reinterpreted through religious agendas, Taufiq assumed human form and diverges from his mission, finds religion to be a tool for ruling castes, espouses pacifism and points out human flaws again.
The book is a survey of human corruption, the death of the spirit, a forecast of the bleak fate awaiting us. Post-human speculation comes singly, much like the new men in Stapledon. We see increased involvement by extraterrestrial agents, decreased population split into giants, little people, hybrids and natives, a mixed species majority, the persistence of evil in human nature (seems unjustly attributed to Shammat) mass extinction due to Shikasta's axis shift. Canopeans choose strategic, selective incarnations and visibility, and introduce experimental methods to combat the “revolt against the gods.”
The law of inevitable division and subdivision remains, operating through currents carried through stone patterns, Canopean vibrancies are simply eugenics, and even with their civilization-building experiments, they cannot prevent acts of God.
The Shikastans are victims of themselves, Canopeans deliberate and destroy some tribes, their insistence on their own morality becomes questionable. It reminds us in the most unpleasant way of the soulless behavior, cruelty, and small acts of terrorism that pervade our history.
To begin, we receive a Preface from the Nobel-winning author. It contains a brief defense of S-F as a literary form. Lessing’s contribution to S-F is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Totaling over 1100 pages, her 5 novel series constitutes an exhaustive study of a fictionalized galactic civilization.
The alien perspective is intriguing. We hear about negotiated agreements between Sirius and Canopus, after a ruinous war. Some large-scale backstory, non-traditional storytelling, a detached voice, disembodied, disorienting and disarming. I sank into the scientific narrative like I became immersed in Olaf Stapledon’s works. He was an acknowledged influence of Lessing’s and signs of his work are everywhere, down to the skeleton of the novel’s framework.
In what will become dense social commentary, the author introduces by degrees, an astoundingly complex level of world building, a dense architecture of philosophies, and then proceeds in the method established by Stapledon in Last and First Men and Star Maker. At first glance, this book could appear to be a similar masterpiece. The further you read, the more you will realize that is not so.
The subject veers dramatically as Lessing probes the furthest reaches of the human mind, but the message gets clogged with political agendas. The use of an inhuman narrator presents difficulties, easily surmounted by fascinating juxtapositions. Get ready for dry imagery, a large number of fictional facts and abstractions, and a sense of the dangerous scale of the universe. The mode of communication is uneven throughout. Dozens of reports are interpolated from extraterrestrials and humans. At once, a distinctly skewed and innately logical setting makes way for execrations to come. The language employed borrows more from its established backstory than from societal constructs, except for the implementation of pervasive allegory, until the story shifts to modern times.
The most interesting part was the exploration of the catastrophe, which left behind work for the custodians of Shikastan Truth. Through Johor’s contribution to his planet’s experiment, Lessing makes use of allegorical devices, infusing the narrative with the sense of higher powers orchestrating vast reaches of space-time. How much of it is alien technology, and how much faith-based relics is hard to quantify.
The novel takes the form of a note in a bottle, a time capsule, or a testament. This form is broken, irreparably, as the novel progresses.
It speaks of the end of civilizations and of the galactic development of empiricism, it covers the varieties and forms of extraterrestrial life all too briefly. Subtle allegories ensue: consumerism, the food chain, until we begin to see that Shikasta is Earth. With worthy lyricism, Lessing describes this world as an outsider, and her work is surreally fascinating. Her fiercely intelligent prose slides into abstract forms and sensations. The microscopic details are uncanny, but the sweeping, bitter statements undercut what might have been a thought-provoking, instead of a thought-suppressing, conclusion.
The narrator utilizes the sort of foreigners’ bizarre verbal patterns you might expect from a multi-national author. There is an incredible verisimilitude inherent in the sustained stylistic choices. The hallucinogenic descriptions of nature lend to the charm of reading Shikasta, before it betrays your every hope for consistency. I loved the lumbering, slow, aching prose, the giant, gaping palaces and eldritch ruins. I found the accumulation of atmosphere and detail profoundly unsettling. The stark narration, ripe with ordure, was strikingly vivid. Canopus institutes their regime on the vibrant planet of Shikasta, manufacturing giants and conducting sociological studies. Their enemy is Shammat. We know the Canopeans inherit genetic memory. Degeneration does not afflict them. They suffer no death. Their colonization is posited on designed evolution, and we can only assume their space-faring civilization is immense. The main concern of this “study” is the biological experiments on Shikasta and the aftermath, wherein selective breeding leads to unexpected consequences.
The development of sentience and intelligence in the controlled environment is interesting. It is speculative writing of the highest caliber, until it plummets into an abyss of antihumanism. The tension between galactic empires would have been a more stimulating subject, but I gather there will be further developments in that arena later in the series. She regales us with essays on the controlled distribution of wealth. Instead of plausible advanced technologies we get enigmatic magic. In fact, almost no explanation for the Canopeans’ powers intrudes. We must sit through 300 pages recounting the dry history of mankind, a saddening cultural survey, lacking any sign of sophistication. She exits the uncanny valley and only enters into the land of the canny, the trite and the wickedly accusatory.
She takes a scientific view of sex. But the traces of feminism are surprisingly light. Johor can change physical form. He understands acclimatization, but the more sacred knowledge he imparts, the more perverted the Shikastan experiment becomes. The clandestine alien subjugation of a civilization by a higher one is not original, but she started off in a convincing way. The planetary Petri dish, the control group, makes for a fine set-up. Recall that Johor refrains from corrupting society’s innocence with the introduction of advanced tech, but Taufiq becomes almost entirely human. Johor has an affinity with beasts, and uses this to his advantage as he seeks to modernize the brutes. His comrades practice micromanagement of a race already spiraling out of their control. Johor’s tasks and duties are at first vague, and his communication from Canopus is not enlightening, but it becomes clear he is meant to moderate the chaos.
Human symbiosis with the planet has always been tenuous, but Lessing drives home the fact that we have made a fine mess of things.
Luckily, we are given the emissary’s explanation along the way. He is a measurer of vibrations. These vibrations are the invisible forces at work, crafting the environment.
The Shikastan’s are told their function as lesser beings in service to Canopus, he bears the news of their loss of freedom, in one of the most stirring passages, and a fall results.
“A whole race will cease,” he says. This is the destruction of the self through hyper awareness. A competition for survival begins after the reliance of higher powers ceases. However, Johor’s prophetic powers and the development of the telepathic survival trait do little to prevent widespread degradation.
The fates of races are determined by the caprices of stars. Lessing distorts her religious allegory with many misappropriated Biblical references, only to castigate and belittle all organized religions later on.
Determinism and the possibility of anticipating the future follow attempts to placate the disintegration of their evolutionary project. The enemy emerges from their mishaps. Beginning with the Edenic people among which evil does not exist, she depicts society before sin, and Shammat, as sin, is labeled, and makes short work of any sign of Canopean progress. Johor’s immersion in another culture describes this scenario beautifully. He contemplates whether awareness of sin is a weakness. The garden falls through lack of adequate resources in the face of limitless wants. Shammat is syphoning off the life of planets. This is the enigmatic enemy, or the name he has given the force antagonistic to the aims of Canopus. Parasitism as an inevitable variation of progress from symbiots.
Loss of judgement en masse in the face of changing environmental constraints, sin as death, “disobedience to the master plan” causing the fall of Shikasta, and other parabolic constraints sheer away little by little, the fabulous invention Lessing spent 100 pages crafting.
The slow and assured death in the environment without divine intervention goes unchecked for 31 millenia. The plight of mutants and outsiders, those cast off and forsaken cry out from her pages. Possessed of no faith in a higher power, blessed were they in their ignorance, they fail to live up to the standards of the Canopean empire, which are divine in nature. Without religious beliefs they begin preternaturally innocent, but innocence soon falls by the wayside. Discovery that your planet is an artificial construct, would be enough to alter most peoples’ perception. Your society and development from beast hood was unnatural and programmed. The Natives and Giants are the 2 sentient species created by Canopus. The resultant diaspora dissolves the clever societal dichotomies she threatened to enumerate.
The signature is Johor’s distinguishing power. The loss of innocence is described as a descent into fear and dissolution. The rise of prophets as a result of chaos and the birth of religion, the rebellion of the spirit all come to the fore as Johor’s influence wanes. A multitude of afflictions intrude upon disorganized society, the tribes scatter, the disbalance physically manifests as a disease of the flesh. Their faith and awareness brings them torment and destruction. Disorder is measured by permeating vibrations in the environment which the natives misuse for their own pleasure. The destruction of the idealized past occurs repeatedly. They lose immortality and fall into perpetual cycles of death and sin, degenerate back into animals, devolution and reversion.
The intrusion of belief systems and humanity’s reliance on its environmental conditions, segregation and the survivalist mindset, and resistance to higher laws, all erupt from the misuse of Canopean stones. The patterns of stones create vibrations, in the sense that imposed order endows inhabitants with prosperity. The stones possess divine, or Canopean, power. Johor warns inhabitants with prohibitions and pointing out their in-progress destruction. He chooses disciples to spread the Truth from Canopus.
Shammat emanates, sows destruction. Johor tries to establish Laws. He communes with nature as a prophet seeking guidance. We learn of boosters, conductors and planet programming, Sirius, Effluon 3, Puttiora, pollution, abstract corruption, filtering and enhancing brain power, physical manifestations of conceptualizations, and a destructive force as supernatural as the stones. This allegory allows us to contemplate the destructive nature of our technology and our reliance on higher systems to function. Shammat uses Shikastans as transmitters. Out of darkness it came, sapping strength, beauty and intellect, which to Canopus, are measurable resources.
In his marvelous journey of discovery, Johor seeks to limit the spread of Shammat. The first murder occurs in an attempt to communicate divine Truth. Intimations of intoxication, idolatry and addiction are obvious consequences.
Love had been provided and engendered in the genetic make-up of their forebears. They must relearn progress, invention, adaption, intuition. They have to reinvent every basic device, the building blocks of civilization, SOWF (substance-of-we-feeling) = manna - the source of progress and human sentience. It is what separates Shikastans from animals.
Another disciple, Taufiq, is an agent, an instrument of the way toward life and immortal divinity. He espouses idealism. We recognize him amid our wars, government and culture.
An abrupt shift around page 100 brings us to modern Earth, still called Shikasta. The second section of the book is a direct castigation of privileged white society. Pettiness, avarice, socialist spoofs, small and frivolous revolutions, every expression of vanity. Supplemental reports give extraneous detached viewpoints, lassoing in cults and the minutiae of wasted lives, every category of sin is dissected in a discomfiting, clinical way. The writing degrades steadily from logical argument to execrable melodrama. It becomes a searing history text which cultivates a disgusted, ashamed tone of oppressive derogating, recounting all the missteps in human affairs, an endless series of disturbing protests against flawed individuals.
Perhaps Lessing was so ensconced in the omniscient extraterrestrial perspective, she let pessimism run rampant. She is excessive and obsessive in her portrayal of human folly. It seems to come from a place of anger, is spiteful and mean-spirited.
The repetitions, reinterpretations, and restating her theses statements becomes the modus operandi of the second half of the novel. There is a continual reinforcement of the depressing worthlessness of human beings. The shorter the lifespan, the worse the human maladjustments become, and a vestigial belief in former immunity to death remains as a carry-over to haunt them.
Rachel's journal presents a stilted human viewpoint, but after all the macrocosmic speculation, her foibles, whining and minuscule troubles appear petty, void and contrived, inserted for a dramatic shift in the scientific tone.
Lessing indulges in bald satire, on the changeable minds of men, makes light of the power struggles during and after the World Wars, progress, justice, vain ambitions, etc. Humans have an innate fear of Canopus, which is dimensionless, reinterpreted through religious agendas, Taufiq assumed human form and diverges from his mission, finds religion to be a tool for ruling castes, espouses pacifism and points out human flaws again.
The book is a survey of human corruption, the death of the spirit, a forecast of the bleak fate awaiting us. Post-human speculation comes singly, much like the new men in Stapledon. We see increased involvement by extraterrestrial agents, decreased population split into giants, little people, hybrids and natives, a mixed species majority, the persistence of evil in human nature (seems unjustly attributed to Shammat) mass extinction due to Shikasta's axis shift. Canopeans choose strategic, selective incarnations and visibility, and introduce experimental methods to combat the “revolt against the gods.”
The law of inevitable division and subdivision remains, operating through currents carried through stone patterns, Canopean vibrancies are simply eugenics, and even with their civilization-building experiments, they cannot prevent acts of God.
The Shikastans are victims of themselves, Canopeans deliberate and destroy some tribes, their insistence on their own morality becomes questionable. It reminds us in the most unpleasant way of the soulless behavior, cruelty, and small acts of terrorism that pervade our history.
January 10, 2019
First read January 2005
This book does three ambitious things.
1. It takes the Old Testament of the Bible as inspiration for its mythical geo-historical content, but instead of an angry bearded guy in charge, it has a super-advanced utopian-collectivist space-travelling civilization colonising Earth and then struggling to maintain a shadow of hope and stability through thousands of literally star-crossed years when the unfortunate planet is fed on and influenced by another, evil space-travelling civilization.
2. It attempts to realistically predict the Old-Testament apocalypse playing out some time in the immediate future with the disintegration of most the structures of international organisation, collapse of Europe, rise of China, epidemics, famine, culmination in World War III, and the aftermath. Lessing actually bothers to imagine the details
3. It does these things while breaking and rebuilding the form of the novel. The principle subtext to the plot, coarsely outlined above in points 1 and 2, is a nuanced but severe indictment of the crimes of European and especially English imperialism. Its condemnation of wanton, wasteful, greedy, arrogant, careless behaviour, and the uncomfortable plea (one that cannot be reasonably made by a White person, and is accordingly made very un-reasonably here) to the systematically oppressed peoples of the Earth not to slaughter White people in revenge, could have been the subject of a sanctimonious essay.
There is nothing of the essay about Shikasta. There is no author voice. The book presents itself as 'documents relating to visit by Johor...' and much of it is narrated by this Johor, emissary, envoy, agent of Canopus, the benevolent interstellar coloniser of Earth. That he is an unreliable narrator is reiterated several times. He often speaks of being 'affected' by 'emanations' and circumstances on Shikasta, and 'The Archivists' who narrate the various extracts from Canopean official documents comment on Johor's judgement. The Archivists are not reliable either. For one thing, they are concerned with the broad sweep of events on a global scale, and for another Johor and other agents' reports criticise them for their imperfect understanding of local conditions.
When Johor is incarnated, Christlike, as George, we know we can't rely on him as we know he will not 'remember' being Johor, his life experience will affect him, and we have already seen one of his colleagues wander from the path planned for him by Canopus. In fact, George might have been the best choice of narrator for the time of the 'Last Days', but Lessing abandons direct narration altogether at this point and instead has the last 200 pages worth of events unfold through a variety of documents, principally the diary of George's (yes, of course unreliable) younger sister.
Perhaps most importantly, we are not made to assume that Canopus represents Lessing. Canopus is concerned that the 'White races' escape extermination because they are 'genetically useful' animals for the overall health of the species. This 'eugeneticist' stance, revealed only towards the end of the book, casts a slightly sinister shadow over Canopus' return to power over Earth.
Finally, I will comment on the picture painted here of human beings, through multiple sources and events. It is a dim one. We are weak, foolish and highly suggestible animals, neither wise and kind enough to build our own geometrically pleasing anarchist utopia (Johor calls power hierarchies 'the Degenerative Disease') without the vital flow of substance-of-we-feeling (fellow-feeling) from Canopus, nor wicked and stupid enough to build our own hell (the present state of humanity on Earth) without the influence of an evil parasitic influence feeding on violence and waste.
so says Johor of the time when the ancient, utopian civilisation began to collapse. The best a Shikastan can do is struggle to thrive and support her brothers and sisters against all the odds, and wait for the return of Canopus.
This premise of human dependency is problematic for me, but I think it contains its own negation - since the book is *actually* written by a Shikastan. Lessing asserts the unreliability of all her narrators, allowing a space for the weak-human thesis to be a colonial misunderstanding of the colonised.
This book does three ambitious things.
1. It takes the Old Testament of the Bible as inspiration for its mythical geo-historical content, but instead of an angry bearded guy in charge, it has a super-advanced utopian-collectivist space-travelling civilization colonising Earth and then struggling to maintain a shadow of hope and stability through thousands of literally star-crossed years when the unfortunate planet is fed on and influenced by another, evil space-travelling civilization.
2. It attempts to realistically predict the Old-Testament apocalypse playing out some time in the immediate future with the disintegration of most the structures of international organisation, collapse of Europe, rise of China, epidemics, famine, culmination in World War III, and the aftermath. Lessing actually bothers to imagine the details
3. It does these things while breaking and rebuilding the form of the novel. The principle subtext to the plot, coarsely outlined above in points 1 and 2, is a nuanced but severe indictment of the crimes of European and especially English imperialism. Its condemnation of wanton, wasteful, greedy, arrogant, careless behaviour, and the uncomfortable plea (one that cannot be reasonably made by a White person, and is accordingly made very un-reasonably here) to the systematically oppressed peoples of the Earth not to slaughter White people in revenge, could have been the subject of a sanctimonious essay.
There is nothing of the essay about Shikasta. There is no author voice. The book presents itself as 'documents relating to visit by Johor...' and much of it is narrated by this Johor, emissary, envoy, agent of Canopus, the benevolent interstellar coloniser of Earth. That he is an unreliable narrator is reiterated several times. He often speaks of being 'affected' by 'emanations' and circumstances on Shikasta, and 'The Archivists' who narrate the various extracts from Canopean official documents comment on Johor's judgement. The Archivists are not reliable either. For one thing, they are concerned with the broad sweep of events on a global scale, and for another Johor and other agents' reports criticise them for their imperfect understanding of local conditions.
When Johor is incarnated, Christlike, as George, we know we can't rely on him as we know he will not 'remember' being Johor, his life experience will affect him, and we have already seen one of his colleagues wander from the path planned for him by Canopus. In fact, George might have been the best choice of narrator for the time of the 'Last Days', but Lessing abandons direct narration altogether at this point and instead has the last 200 pages worth of events unfold through a variety of documents, principally the diary of George's (yes, of course unreliable) younger sister.
Perhaps most importantly, we are not made to assume that Canopus represents Lessing. Canopus is concerned that the 'White races' escape extermination because they are 'genetically useful' animals for the overall health of the species. This 'eugeneticist' stance, revealed only towards the end of the book, casts a slightly sinister shadow over Canopus' return to power over Earth.
Finally, I will comment on the picture painted here of human beings, through multiple sources and events. It is a dim one. We are weak, foolish and highly suggestible animals, neither wise and kind enough to build our own geometrically pleasing anarchist utopia (Johor calls power hierarchies 'the Degenerative Disease') without the vital flow of substance-of-we-feeling (fellow-feeling) from Canopus, nor wicked and stupid enough to build our own hell (the present state of humanity on Earth) without the influence of an evil parasitic influence feeding on violence and waste.
It was as if I had been given the task of telling someone in perfect health that he would shortly become a moron, but that he must do his best to remember some useful facts, which were a... b.... c...
so says Johor of the time when the ancient, utopian civilisation began to collapse. The best a Shikastan can do is struggle to thrive and support her brothers and sisters against all the odds, and wait for the return of Canopus.
This premise of human dependency is problematic for me, but I think it contains its own negation - since the book is *actually* written by a Shikastan. Lessing asserts the unreliability of all her narrators, allowing a space for the weak-human thesis to be a colonial misunderstanding of the colonised.
June 6, 2008
i first read Shikasta fifteen years ago, and found it fantastic but very difficult. Rereading it now i felt differently, it was both a lot easier but also a lot less impressive.
A white woman who grew up in Zimbabwe back when it was Rhodesia become a nobel laureate in literature last year. Amongst her reactions were something like "what took you so long" and "my science fiction was my most important work."
Shikasta is the first book in Lessing's science fiction series, and it is very much a long, at times moving at times embarrassing examination of colonialism, oppression, and what Christians (of which Lessing is not one) would term the "fall from grace". This is not a zippy action tale, there is no clever word-play or mind bending concepts, rather this book is Lessing's indictment of all of human history, and of human beings propensity to hurt and mistreat one another and the world we live in. It climaxes with an actual trial in which the "white race" stands accused of all the crimes of euro-imperialism, and ends with most of humanity being killed in some kind of war, the few survivors returning to a state of grace as "Shammat" (Lessing's stand-in for the Devil) retreats from the planet.
There's lots in here, but not a lot which is great. Some descriptions are quite evocative, the build-up in which we are introduced to Shikasta (that's the alien's name for Earth) prior to the fall from grace, all this is very well done, though with a lot of loopy politics.
i feel bad giving this book three stars - it really felt like several books within one volume, and the first third (describing Shikasta's fall from paradise, so to speak) and the last sixty pages (basically from the Trial on) were four-five star material (and i rarely give five stars) - unfortunately what came between, the case studies and Rachel Sherban's journal, were more like one-two star material.
This book is not one i would recommend to most people. You have to have high tolerance for a kind of shameless self-righteousness and earnestness normally associated with teenaged angst. i consider myself to have much less problem with that stuff than most people, but still at times i felt embarrassed for Lessing.
On the other hand, it is an interesting period-piece, both ahead of its time and also mired in how things looked thirty years ago. In many ways the world is following pretty much the path Lessing prochesied, in some ways it seems even worst off.
A white woman who grew up in Zimbabwe back when it was Rhodesia become a nobel laureate in literature last year. Amongst her reactions were something like "what took you so long" and "my science fiction was my most important work."
Shikasta is the first book in Lessing's science fiction series, and it is very much a long, at times moving at times embarrassing examination of colonialism, oppression, and what Christians (of which Lessing is not one) would term the "fall from grace". This is not a zippy action tale, there is no clever word-play or mind bending concepts, rather this book is Lessing's indictment of all of human history, and of human beings propensity to hurt and mistreat one another and the world we live in. It climaxes with an actual trial in which the "white race" stands accused of all the crimes of euro-imperialism, and ends with most of humanity being killed in some kind of war, the few survivors returning to a state of grace as "Shammat" (Lessing's stand-in for the Devil) retreats from the planet.
There's lots in here, but not a lot which is great. Some descriptions are quite evocative, the build-up in which we are introduced to Shikasta (that's the alien's name for Earth) prior to the fall from grace, all this is very well done, though with a lot of loopy politics.
i feel bad giving this book three stars - it really felt like several books within one volume, and the first third (describing Shikasta's fall from paradise, so to speak) and the last sixty pages (basically from the Trial on) were four-five star material (and i rarely give five stars) - unfortunately what came between, the case studies and Rachel Sherban's journal, were more like one-two star material.
This book is not one i would recommend to most people. You have to have high tolerance for a kind of shameless self-righteousness and earnestness normally associated with teenaged angst. i consider myself to have much less problem with that stuff than most people, but still at times i felt embarrassed for Lessing.
On the other hand, it is an interesting period-piece, both ahead of its time and also mired in how things looked thirty years ago. In many ways the world is following pretty much the path Lessing prochesied, in some ways it seems even worst off.
June 17, 2019
They say North America is full of troubles but I said I didn’t want to listen any longer.I have always admired Doris Lessing’s vision as a novelist and a humanist; The Golden Notebook was (as was The Diaries of Jane Somers, about which I wrote at length, and very personally, here) such an important book to me, and continues to be to this day, and I think its focus on our deep psychological and interpersonal rifts is still highly visionary, ominously prescient.
With that said, and perhaps because sci-fi and “space fiction” (as Lessing has termed the Canopus in Argos series) are not my cup of tea, I haven’t begun to touch these works of hers until now. And in the hands of a lesser novelist, without Lessing’s politics and her vision (here, too, is when her Sufism begins to be apparent in her fiction), this might have been a much, much weaker novel than it was. I’ve upgraded my rating to 4 stars from 3/3.5 on the simple grounds that this is, after all, Doris Lessing.
But I was riveted, especially by the early and later reportage sections. (It makes sense that these are archival, scattered sources, some reportage and some letters, some trial transcripts and some diaristic memoirs.) Lessing has in essence re-envisioned the entire history of the earth in Shikasta; the earliest, and most difficult, dense, laborious, sections deal with her space galaxy revision of the creationist tales from the Old Testament. These are ingenious and transcend both time and space—pun not intended. However, some of the later sections—with Shikasta, aka Earth, on the brink of World War 3—seem dated to us now in their historical, post-Soviet references, but they were highly visionary and even uncouth when she published this series. Many negative reviews seem to be misreading or not understanding this, and therefore taking this book out of context, which is unfair to a work that was truly groundbreaking for its time and still has relevance to our own.
Conceived as a single book which morphed into five volumes, I look forward to dipping into the other ones soon. Some of Lessing’s visions about our world and the inner workings of humanity—how we function, how we lack qualities that would otherwise see us excel as a human race, and how other planets might have experimented on us, and, ultimately, failed—are revolutionary for her time period (she was one of the first bestselling female authors to turn to sci-fi, and she was criticized for Shikasta upon its publication, for a variety of reasons, not least of which was genre).
My advice would be to not approach these books unless you are already well-versed in Lessing’s main humanist themes that much of her work broaches: some more successfully than others. And if you’re expecting sci-fi of the intergalactic spaceship and alien sort, well… this is also not for you. (Even though both do sort of exist in this novel.) But if you’re curious about an alternate history about how the world was created, and how we went wrong—especially in this day and age when we have gone so wrong—then this is a fun, uneven, and somewhat pactchworked read to consider.
Just don’t judge Lessing on this book, please: in her defense, I think working in a new genre caused her to take on more than she could chew in one dose, hence the subsequent books she didn’t at first foresee. And perhaps she gets better at writing “space fiction” in those; maybe she even gets closer to the pulse of the sexual political strain—that she touches on briefly here—of our Shikastan crisis as we launch into a geopolitical world that she could not have predicted, and yet, given the founding mythology she creates in Shikasta makes a little more sense, perhaps, to the disillusioned.
October 25, 2021
I have fond memories of reading Doris Lessing's space opera series ”Canopus In Argos” but do not remember that much of the actual content in those books beyond the broad strokes: The series' basic concept of rivalling extraterrestrial empires influencing human history behind the scenes; most of the viewpoint characters being aliens in human disguise; as well as Lessing predicting a near future where the People's Republic of China becomes the Earth's dominant superpower. As a result I decided to give the 1st book in the series, ”Shikasta”, the only entry I own physically, a re-read.
”Shikasta” is a weirder book than I remember. Not only does it take the entire Erich von Däniken/Zechariah Sitchin-style ancient aliens concept and tell it from the sufficiently advanced aliens' viewpoint for most of the page count, a fairly rare conceit in the genre. Lessing also frequently shifts between multiple narrators. Then we have the fact that several chapters are excerpts from in-story nonfiction books, political communiqués or newspaper articles - a technique I also encountered in John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar". In the final third of ”Shikasta” most of the viewpoint characters are humans; the most notable being a British family whom the alien spy Johor lives among disguised as a human named George Sherban, as well as an extremely sarcastic Chinese diplomat.
Another thing that makes ”Shikasta” an odd reading experience is its lack of a conventional plot. Instead, the novel is presented as a ”secret history of humanity” I am not sure how much of Lessing believed in herself. Quite a few popular conspiracy theories can be found in embryonic form as subplots in ”Shikasta”. Examples include Lessing connecting cryptids such as Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Yeti to ufology by explaining those hairy humanoids as products of alien genetic experiments (along with modern humans themselves) as well as gnomes, giants etc being relict populations of different alien races that still maintain secluded communities in isolated areas of the planet. Later on, when ”Shikasta” gets around to covering the 20th century, the reader is treated to detailed descriptions of secret space programs with military bases and armed spacecraft operated by the Earth's rivalling superpowers well out of view from the general public, with only conspiracy theorists even considering their existence. These secret space program theories would later receive quite a bit of attention from ufologists like Walter Bosley, Richard Dolan, Michael Salla and Timothy Green Beckley... in addition to functioning as the main concept for the 1998 computer game ”Battlezone” which depicts the Space Race as a cover story for the US and the USSR fighting across the solar system for control of supertechnology left behind by ancient aliens. (an expansion pack was later released featuring the PRC as a third playable faction, as a further connection to "Shikasta")
Speaking of the predictions about the history of the 20th and 21st centuries made by Lessing in ”Shikasta”, they are hit-and-miss. Along with the PRC becoming a world superpower, Lessing also predicts most of Africa falling within its sphere of economic and political influence as well the formation of a unified European superstate who later gets into a 2nd Cold War with the PRC. All of this is very astute for a novel written in the 1970's. I hope this does not later turn into a full-blown World War 3 fought between the EU and the PRC as Lessing predicts! On the other hand, a good chunk of the chapters about Europe's future fixate on the activities of left-wing militias consisting of bored rich kids whom the reader is probably meant to read as a commentary on the Red Army Faction, Symbionese Liberation Army and whatnot. Something that feels rather risible in today's world, when Latin America and SOME Asian countries are the only places where left-wing militancy remains at the same level as during the Cold War. Terrorism in Europe has instead largely become the province of Islamists and Neo-Nazis. (mind you Greece is seeing a resurgence of anarchist militancy but from the type of anarchists who consider themselves ”beyond left and right”.. make of that as you will!) In-story, Johor interprets these aspiring urban guerrillas along with the horrors of British imperialism as more examples of how barbaric humans become without guidance from sufficiently advanced extraterrestrials. If Johor's opinions correspond to Lessing's own, which is far from certain, it is an extremely cynical view of humanity presented in here.
To be honest, I think the above example is a good synecdoche for my experience of re-reading ”Shikasta”. On one hand I am impressed by the ambition shown by the author, and how many new twists she offers on science-fiction clichés that were already old hat in the 1970's. On the other hand, I felt that she bit off more than she could chew in terms of nuts-and-bolts storytelling at every step of the writing process. The frequent shifts between so many viewpoint characters is a good example, since it's just not all of Lessing's protagonists who are very interesting. The chapters told from the perspectives of a British family whom Johor lives with struck me as downright boring, at least if you compare to the diaries of the sarcastic Chinese diplomat mentioned above who is many things but never dull. I enjoyed the audacious conspiracy theories about ancient astronauts from duelling astral empires, Bigfeet and Yetis being the results of alien biological experiments et cetera are in focus or secret space battles during the Cold War. I also found out that Lessing was quite talented at describing beautifully desolate landscapes and elaborately planned ancient cities, making me wonder what a more traditional swords-and-sandals fantasy novel by her would read like.
I myself did not mind re-reading ”Shikasta” despite having to take it off my list of all-time favourite novels afterwards. Then again I have a soft spot for overambitious weirdo 1960's/1970's science-fiction and am something of a nerd about ufology, conspiracy theories and obscure political conflicts. At least I would recommend it to people interested in the origins of conspiracy theories, as well as people who gravitate towards extremely ambitious novels that don't always work.
For the record I remember the ”Canopus In Argos” series improving with each novel, despite not remembering much of their actual plot either. Perhaps I should give them a re-read as well?
”Shikasta” is a weirder book than I remember. Not only does it take the entire Erich von Däniken/Zechariah Sitchin-style ancient aliens concept and tell it from the sufficiently advanced aliens' viewpoint for most of the page count, a fairly rare conceit in the genre. Lessing also frequently shifts between multiple narrators. Then we have the fact that several chapters are excerpts from in-story nonfiction books, political communiqués or newspaper articles - a technique I also encountered in John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar". In the final third of ”Shikasta” most of the viewpoint characters are humans; the most notable being a British family whom the alien spy Johor lives among disguised as a human named George Sherban, as well as an extremely sarcastic Chinese diplomat.
Another thing that makes ”Shikasta” an odd reading experience is its lack of a conventional plot. Instead, the novel is presented as a ”secret history of humanity” I am not sure how much of Lessing believed in herself. Quite a few popular conspiracy theories can be found in embryonic form as subplots in ”Shikasta”. Examples include Lessing connecting cryptids such as Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Yeti to ufology by explaining those hairy humanoids as products of alien genetic experiments (along with modern humans themselves) as well as gnomes, giants etc being relict populations of different alien races that still maintain secluded communities in isolated areas of the planet. Later on, when ”Shikasta” gets around to covering the 20th century, the reader is treated to detailed descriptions of secret space programs with military bases and armed spacecraft operated by the Earth's rivalling superpowers well out of view from the general public, with only conspiracy theorists even considering their existence. These secret space program theories would later receive quite a bit of attention from ufologists like Walter Bosley, Richard Dolan, Michael Salla and Timothy Green Beckley... in addition to functioning as the main concept for the 1998 computer game ”Battlezone” which depicts the Space Race as a cover story for the US and the USSR fighting across the solar system for control of supertechnology left behind by ancient aliens. (an expansion pack was later released featuring the PRC as a third playable faction, as a further connection to "Shikasta")
Speaking of the predictions about the history of the 20th and 21st centuries made by Lessing in ”Shikasta”, they are hit-and-miss. Along with the PRC becoming a world superpower, Lessing also predicts most of Africa falling within its sphere of economic and political influence as well the formation of a unified European superstate who later gets into a 2nd Cold War with the PRC. All of this is very astute for a novel written in the 1970's. I hope this does not later turn into a full-blown World War 3 fought between the EU and the PRC as Lessing predicts! On the other hand, a good chunk of the chapters about Europe's future fixate on the activities of left-wing militias consisting of bored rich kids whom the reader is probably meant to read as a commentary on the Red Army Faction, Symbionese Liberation Army and whatnot. Something that feels rather risible in today's world, when Latin America and SOME Asian countries are the only places where left-wing militancy remains at the same level as during the Cold War. Terrorism in Europe has instead largely become the province of Islamists and Neo-Nazis. (mind you Greece is seeing a resurgence of anarchist militancy but from the type of anarchists who consider themselves ”beyond left and right”.. make of that as you will!) In-story, Johor interprets these aspiring urban guerrillas along with the horrors of British imperialism as more examples of how barbaric humans become without guidance from sufficiently advanced extraterrestrials. If Johor's opinions correspond to Lessing's own, which is far from certain, it is an extremely cynical view of humanity presented in here.
To be honest, I think the above example is a good synecdoche for my experience of re-reading ”Shikasta”. On one hand I am impressed by the ambition shown by the author, and how many new twists she offers on science-fiction clichés that were already old hat in the 1970's. On the other hand, I felt that she bit off more than she could chew in terms of nuts-and-bolts storytelling at every step of the writing process. The frequent shifts between so many viewpoint characters is a good example, since it's just not all of Lessing's protagonists who are very interesting. The chapters told from the perspectives of a British family whom Johor lives with struck me as downright boring, at least if you compare to the diaries of the sarcastic Chinese diplomat mentioned above who is many things but never dull. I enjoyed the audacious conspiracy theories about ancient astronauts from duelling astral empires, Bigfeet and Yetis being the results of alien biological experiments et cetera are in focus or secret space battles during the Cold War. I also found out that Lessing was quite talented at describing beautifully desolate landscapes and elaborately planned ancient cities, making me wonder what a more traditional swords-and-sandals fantasy novel by her would read like.
I myself did not mind re-reading ”Shikasta” despite having to take it off my list of all-time favourite novels afterwards. Then again I have a soft spot for overambitious weirdo 1960's/1970's science-fiction and am something of a nerd about ufology, conspiracy theories and obscure political conflicts. At least I would recommend it to people interested in the origins of conspiracy theories, as well as people who gravitate towards extremely ambitious novels that don't always work.
For the record I remember the ”Canopus In Argos” series improving with each novel, despite not remembering much of their actual plot either. Perhaps I should give them a re-read as well?
February 28, 2017
No pude terminarlo. Cuando iba por el tercio del libro (que se me hizo eterno) decidí abandonarlo. No quise seguir perdiendo el tiempo en una lectura que no va conmigo porque, siendo honesta, el libro no es malo, su planteamiento es bastante interesante. Propone que la evolución de la vida en los planetas es controlada por tres milenarios imperios galácticos rivales, quienes, a través de pequeñas intervenciones, en equilibrio con los diferentes eventos astrales, van dirigiendo el destino de las especies. Cada uno de los imperios tiene diferentes características que, por supuesto, imprimen en los planetas y que en ocasiones, entran en conflicto desbaratando el plan que uno u otro pudiera tener.
A pesar de lo anterior, debo reconocer que la lectura se me hizo muy pesada y poco motivadora. Los sucesos se van desarrollando con tanta pasividad, que se siente que no se avanza, casi podría compararla con el concepto de evolución, tan usado en la novela (los efectos de las intervenciones que realizan los imperios sólo se ven reflejados cientos, o incluso, miles de años después). Tampoco ayuda el hecho de que prácticamente no hay diálogos, ya que casi todo el libro está escrito simulando el informe del emisario de uno de los imperios.
Tampoco es un misterio que Shikasta es la Tierra (de hecho, en la edición que leí está explícito en su contratapa) y en ese contexto, la lectura se transforma en un informe de la evolución de nuestro planeta a través de la mirada de los intervencionistas de otros planetas que luego, bien podrían ser los profetas que se nombran en los escritos de diferentes religiones. Ese toque pseudo religioso tampoco me gustó.
A pesar de lo anterior, debo reconocer que la lectura se me hizo muy pesada y poco motivadora. Los sucesos se van desarrollando con tanta pasividad, que se siente que no se avanza, casi podría compararla con el concepto de evolución, tan usado en la novela (los efectos de las intervenciones que realizan los imperios sólo se ven reflejados cientos, o incluso, miles de años después). Tampoco ayuda el hecho de que prácticamente no hay diálogos, ya que casi todo el libro está escrito simulando el informe del emisario de uno de los imperios.
Tampoco es un misterio que Shikasta es la Tierra (de hecho, en la edición que leí está explícito en su contratapa) y en ese contexto, la lectura se transforma en un informe de la evolución de nuestro planeta a través de la mirada de los intervencionistas de otros planetas que luego, bien podrían ser los profetas que se nombran en los escritos de diferentes religiones. Ese toque pseudo religioso tampoco me gustó.
February 4, 2013
This is absolutely the most janky book I have ever read.
from the 1st Dictionary of Nate:
janky--JANE-key (adjective); 1: thrown together at random; patchwork. 2: containing multiple elements, many of which contradict each other, and some that are mutually exclusive 3:top-heavy; lurching randomly in every direction at once 4:aspirations beyond achievement, and/or aspirations that are impossible to achieve 5:distinctive in being completely psychotic 6:something designed over the course of eons by a lunatic chimpanzee with his hair on fire who is in the constant process of attempting to lift himself up by his nonexistent shoelaces while simultaneously swallowing himself whole
Let me say that I like janky things. They are fun to try to grasp, even though grasping them is by their nature impossible. I can't give this book 5 stars, though, because I just can't take a single word of it seriously. Alice in Wonderland for very patient adults. Aliens didn't just build the pyramids--they built the rest of the planet, too!
I liked this book, despite how difficult it was to read. But I have incredibly bizarre tastes, and I like to think about things that almost anyone else would consider way to outlandish for contemplation. If you don't have an incredibly fierce dedication and a love for being totally lost, I wouldn't bother.
from the 1st Dictionary of Nate:
janky--JANE-key (adjective); 1: thrown together at random; patchwork. 2: containing multiple elements, many of which contradict each other, and some that are mutually exclusive 3:top-heavy; lurching randomly in every direction at once 4:aspirations beyond achievement, and/or aspirations that are impossible to achieve 5:distinctive in being completely psychotic 6:something designed over the course of eons by a lunatic chimpanzee with his hair on fire who is in the constant process of attempting to lift himself up by his nonexistent shoelaces while simultaneously swallowing himself whole
Let me say that I like janky things. They are fun to try to grasp, even though grasping them is by their nature impossible. I can't give this book 5 stars, though, because I just can't take a single word of it seriously. Alice in Wonderland for very patient adults. Aliens didn't just build the pyramids--they built the rest of the planet, too!
I liked this book, despite how difficult it was to read. But I have incredibly bizarre tastes, and I like to think about things that almost anyone else would consider way to outlandish for contemplation. If you don't have an incredibly fierce dedication and a love for being totally lost, I wouldn't bother.
April 26, 2019
I read this edition in 1979. Bought the hardcover, even! Went on to buy the rest in hardcover, and devour them, enjoying the bravura performances that they were...but they're not good SF. The genre's conventions are simply disregarded, if (and this is by no means certain) Lessing was even aware of them.
My rating is for my memory of the melancholic mournful musicality of the prose. I'm not going to claim that, forty years on, I retain a grasp the subtleties of the story told, and I don't have the book anymore. But what's stuck with me is the fact that I *didn't* feel I was growing a uterus as I read, which is what Marion Zimmer Bradley's and Joanna Russ's books made me feel...and what Lessing's own non-genre books quite frequently made (and make) me feel.
I'm not at all sure a re-read of the book would be wise, but if the Kindle edition goes down to $1.99 I'll try it. At $5.99, nope nix nein nyet nuh-uh.
My rating is for my memory of the melancholic mournful musicality of the prose. I'm not going to claim that, forty years on, I retain a grasp the subtleties of the story told, and I don't have the book anymore. But what's stuck with me is the fact that I *didn't* feel I was growing a uterus as I read, which is what Marion Zimmer Bradley's and Joanna Russ's books made me feel...and what Lessing's own non-genre books quite frequently made (and make) me feel.
I'm not at all sure a re-read of the book would be wise, but if the Kindle edition goes down to $1.99 I'll try it. At $5.99, nope nix nein nyet nuh-uh.
August 20, 2012
I read this book shortly after it was first published. I've since finished re-reading it in its eBook form.
It was hard. But then, Lessing's "Briefing for a Descent into Hell" was hard, and worth the trouble.
Shikasta was then, and remains, a book of huge scope. It runs across all of human history, adding in pre-history and moving forward beyond today and into the future.
As I read it I fancied I discovered echoes of "The Four-Gated City", the final book in Lessing's Children of Violence series. I still found that in the second reading.
What I did take away from the book this time, however, is the thought that Lessing didn't, at the time, have much faith in us humans, in our societies. True, the book ends with paradise being rediscovered, recreated. but only through outside agency - the Canopeans. Of course, the book's contention is that our descent into the unhealthy societies we live in is also due to outside agency, outside influence - that of Shammat.
Still, the feeling that we are unable to build societies that function well permeates the book. I disagree with the premise, but I still, even after a second reading, regard the book as masterful.
It was hard. But then, Lessing's "Briefing for a Descent into Hell" was hard, and worth the trouble.
Shikasta was then, and remains, a book of huge scope. It runs across all of human history, adding in pre-history and moving forward beyond today and into the future.
As I read it I fancied I discovered echoes of "The Four-Gated City", the final book in Lessing's Children of Violence series. I still found that in the second reading.
What I did take away from the book this time, however, is the thought that Lessing didn't, at the time, have much faith in us humans, in our societies. True, the book ends with paradise being rediscovered, recreated. but only through outside agency - the Canopeans. Of course, the book's contention is that our descent into the unhealthy societies we live in is also due to outside agency, outside influence - that of Shammat.
Still, the feeling that we are unable to build societies that function well permeates the book. I disagree with the premise, but I still, even after a second reading, regard the book as masterful.
September 10, 2024
I found this book difficult to read and kept coming back to it. Other reviews will do a much better job than me. The story is for me science fiction with nature versus nurture. Humans don’t come out of it well heading inevitably to catastrophe. Lessing’s politics and agenda of anti capitalism and going back to nature shine through with the writing.
Not sure I will read the remaining books.
Not sure I will read the remaining books.
December 2, 2014
Shikasta is the first of five volumes in Lessing's Canopus in Argos cycle. Lessing herself calls these books space fiction and explains that this genre (i.e. a type of science fiction) in her eyes is unjustifiably maligned and provides the opportunity to think beyond boundaries.
Essentially, the five books together represent nothing less than a holistic view of Earth and mankind. The planet Shikasta is clearly recognizable as Earth. Canopus is the home planet of a superior, almost transcendental civilization influencing Shikasta's development in the best possible way. Sirius hosts another more materialistically orientied space age civilization that will be thematized in the third volume. The antagonist of all these cultures is the Puttiora system with its rogue planet Shammat trying to destroy all positive efforts and draining energy and wealth from Shikasta.
This first volume is written from the view of Canopus. It's an odd assortment of direct reports, mostly from the envoy Johor but also in the form of memorandums, letters or entries from history books. It tells the whole history of Shikasta (Earth) from its beginning to a period in the future. Canopus first helps in the development of higher life forms by migrating species from one of their colonies, by building cities according to a structure of invisible energy flows and by establishing a direct 'energy channel' between Canopus and Earth, thereby transferring knowledge and guiding the development. Changes in the cosmic constellation interrupt this channel almost completely, with Shammat draining what is left. In effect, Shikasta enters a long era of regression that ends in a century of wars and finally WW III.
By creating these galactic entities, Lessing models each of them as an epitomization of human traits. Canopus incorporates everything mankind should aim for. Shammat is the embodiment of evil. Without adherence to superior motives, mankind will sink into barbarism. The whole of Lessings convictions see the light of day. Her belief in diversity and equality is obvious. At the same time, I recognize some ideas which might be considered opposite to this believe. Extraordinary people are supposed to take the lead, not necessarily in a democratic way. Interestingly, the Chinese take over dominance in this history of Earth from the Western cultures. Quite farsighted for 1979 when China was not much more than the poor brother of USSR. I also recognize some esoteric tendencies in her writing when it comes to the 'energies'.
A very interesting start into the cycle, proposing an 'alternative history' of Earth. I'm curious to learn more about the different planets, civilizations and ideas.
Essentially, the five books together represent nothing less than a holistic view of Earth and mankind. The planet Shikasta is clearly recognizable as Earth. Canopus is the home planet of a superior, almost transcendental civilization influencing Shikasta's development in the best possible way. Sirius hosts another more materialistically orientied space age civilization that will be thematized in the third volume. The antagonist of all these cultures is the Puttiora system with its rogue planet Shammat trying to destroy all positive efforts and draining energy and wealth from Shikasta.
This first volume is written from the view of Canopus. It's an odd assortment of direct reports, mostly from the envoy Johor but also in the form of memorandums, letters or entries from history books. It tells the whole history of Shikasta (Earth) from its beginning to a period in the future. Canopus first helps in the development of higher life forms by migrating species from one of their colonies, by building cities according to a structure of invisible energy flows and by establishing a direct 'energy channel' between Canopus and Earth, thereby transferring knowledge and guiding the development. Changes in the cosmic constellation interrupt this channel almost completely, with Shammat draining what is left. In effect, Shikasta enters a long era of regression that ends in a century of wars and finally WW III.
By creating these galactic entities, Lessing models each of them as an epitomization of human traits. Canopus incorporates everything mankind should aim for. Shammat is the embodiment of evil. Without adherence to superior motives, mankind will sink into barbarism. The whole of Lessings convictions see the light of day. Her belief in diversity and equality is obvious. At the same time, I recognize some ideas which might be considered opposite to this believe. Extraordinary people are supposed to take the lead, not necessarily in a democratic way. Interestingly, the Chinese take over dominance in this history of Earth from the Western cultures. Quite farsighted for 1979 when China was not much more than the poor brother of USSR. I also recognize some esoteric tendencies in her writing when it comes to the 'energies'.
A very interesting start into the cycle, proposing an 'alternative history' of Earth. I'm curious to learn more about the different planets, civilizations and ideas.
April 26, 2019
I first read this book over 20 years ago. I reread it a couple of times in the following 10 years. I am not a person who rereads books; especially not novels. My reading comprehension is and always has been extremely high. So I generally get it when I first read it. The fact that I read this book multiple times is an indication of the importance that this work holds in the constellations of some people’s universes.
I made the mistake of reading some of the negative reviews. I am astonished at the lack of perception that I saw there. It is apparent to me that the one star reviewers are aptly describing themselves and their own deficiencies in their critiques - regardless of what they "think" they're doing (e.g., one reviewer's major criticism was that it was boring. I was prompted to wonder if he is bored often in his life? People who are easily bored seem to have as their most impressive personality characteristic the fact that they are boring to the point of tears. I want to cry, "Please stop being so boring!")
Ms. Lessing's prose could easily be found to be boring by people who need fast, quick, explosive, chop, chop narratives, spiffy dialogues, risque sex, and high tension, high drama, blah de blah blah. Hopefully dear reader, you are not one of those. Because the world has too, too many superficial shallow people who can't think in depth or at length and we just don't need any more of them. We need thoughtful people who can pause for a moment and look very carefully so as to see what is there to be seen by a seer. It is the seers who save the bored from being hit by the bus that they failed to see because they couldn't be bothered to look. We need seers. Be a seer. Doris can show you the way.
Thank you.
I made the mistake of reading some of the negative reviews. I am astonished at the lack of perception that I saw there. It is apparent to me that the one star reviewers are aptly describing themselves and their own deficiencies in their critiques - regardless of what they "think" they're doing (e.g., one reviewer's major criticism was that it was boring. I was prompted to wonder if he is bored often in his life? People who are easily bored seem to have as their most impressive personality characteristic the fact that they are boring to the point of tears. I want to cry, "Please stop being so boring!")
Ms. Lessing's prose could easily be found to be boring by people who need fast, quick, explosive, chop, chop narratives, spiffy dialogues, risque sex, and high tension, high drama, blah de blah blah. Hopefully dear reader, you are not one of those. Because the world has too, too many superficial shallow people who can't think in depth or at length and we just don't need any more of them. We need thoughtful people who can pause for a moment and look very carefully so as to see what is there to be seen by a seer. It is the seers who save the bored from being hit by the bus that they failed to see because they couldn't be bothered to look. We need seers. Be a seer. Doris can show you the way.
Thank you.
August 17, 2023
Three and a half stars.
In the prologue Doris Lessing describes her book as a science fiction novel, at least tacitly, but within this genre it is difficult to classify this novel. To say it clearly, I think that the author writes what she wants, without taking into account the publisher or the reader. I have no problem with this, after all it is her novel.
I am not saying that it is not a good book, I think that it is -remember that she won the Nobel Prize-; but you don't know what to expect: first we find ourselves on an unknown planet, which seems almost an allegory; but then you find out that this planet, Shikasta (or Rohanda), is actually referring to our Earth. In other words, another allegory that overlaps with the first one, but progressively abandons it to enter a realistic narrative about a family of activists, that is, quite close to the author's own biography and then... the next thing would be to explain the ending and I can't do it. All this said very schematically, of course.
Summary, my opinion: the author's writing is delightful, highlighting the use of human psychology as the true impulse of the story that she is telling us. It is also worth noting the explicit ideological or activist content of the book, another choice that belongs only to the author. It is not a perfect book, but I liked it enough to propose reading the sequels, in a possible future... I remember a review I read some time ago about a novel by Iain M. Banks (it was The Algebraist), in which it says -more or less- that it was not the best of his novels, but that a flawed novel by this author was preferable to a successful one by less talented authors. I think this argument can be applied to Shikasta.
In the prologue Doris Lessing describes her book as a science fiction novel, at least tacitly, but within this genre it is difficult to classify this novel. To say it clearly, I think that the author writes what she wants, without taking into account the publisher or the reader. I have no problem with this, after all it is her novel.
I am not saying that it is not a good book, I think that it is -remember that she won the Nobel Prize-; but you don't know what to expect: first we find ourselves on an unknown planet, which seems almost an allegory; but then you find out that this planet, Shikasta (or Rohanda), is actually referring to our Earth. In other words, another allegory that overlaps with the first one, but progressively abandons it to enter a realistic narrative about a family of activists, that is, quite close to the author's own biography and then... the next thing would be to explain the ending and I can't do it. All this said very schematically, of course.
Summary, my opinion: the author's writing is delightful, highlighting the use of human psychology as the true impulse of the story that she is telling us. It is also worth noting the explicit ideological or activist content of the book, another choice that belongs only to the author. It is not a perfect book, but I liked it enough to propose reading the sequels, in a possible future... I remember a review I read some time ago about a novel by Iain M. Banks (it was The Algebraist), in which it says -more or less- that it was not the best of his novels, but that a flawed novel by this author was preferable to a successful one by less talented authors. I think this argument can be applied to Shikasta.
January 29, 2025
I'm of two minds about this book: It is a beautifully written novel touching on ideas from colonization to climate change to ideology itself. It has some of the most singular passages I have ever read. The story of Johor and his neighbor taking in cats followed by his ruminations on nature and humanity blew me away. Johor's passages in general are always a pleasure to read due to his poetic language. The trial of the white race was also a deeply affecting section that stunned me with its daring.
On the other hand, I found much of its frame narrative (of Canopus colonizing earth for its own good) to actively detract from what the themes of the story seem to be indicating. Despite how much of the story is about the evils of colonialism, Canopians are a benevolent race of colonizers seeking to give humanity the gift of long life and mental oneness enabled by SOWF. To make it even worse only humans of a certain breed can utilize it so they have to pursue a plan of covert eugenics to enable a future of true human solidarity. I also found the idea that humanity needs a stream of alien good vibes in order to improve to be deeply disagreeable.
As you can see from the fact I gave this 4 stars my love for the good parts of this novel clearly outweighed my misalignment with the frame, but the frame narrative certainly harmed the cohesiveness of the novel.
On the other hand, I found much of its frame narrative (of Canopus colonizing earth for its own good) to actively detract from what the themes of the story seem to be indicating. Despite how much of the story is about the evils of colonialism, Canopians are a benevolent race of colonizers seeking to give humanity the gift of long life and mental oneness enabled by SOWF. To make it even worse only humans of a certain breed can utilize it so they have to pursue a plan of covert eugenics to enable a future of true human solidarity. I also found the idea that humanity needs a stream of alien good vibes in order to improve to be deeply disagreeable.
As you can see from the fact I gave this 4 stars my love for the good parts of this novel clearly outweighed my misalignment with the frame, but the frame narrative certainly harmed the cohesiveness of the novel.
September 30, 2024
4.5*
This book will read as science fiction only—unless you're a Sufi (which I am not) or a long-time meditator (which I am). There's so much hidden beneath the surface! It was so clever of Lessing to embed her conclusions from being a practicing Sufi into a science fiction novel. This way, she avoided being dismissed as insane, allowing her ideas to be seen as daring and innovative rather than preposterous. Her insights, disguised within the story, will be recognised by those who have an inkling of what she has experienced for what they are, but will be interpreted by those who don't as science fiction.
I enjoyed the first half of the book (until Rachel Sherban's diary entries begin) much more than the second, which feels like it's dragging.
***
This book will read as science fiction only—unless you're a Sufi (which I am not) or a long-time meditator (which I am). There's so much hidden beneath the surface! It was so clever of Lessing to embed her conclusions from being a practicing Sufi into a science fiction novel. This way, she avoided being dismissed as insane, allowing her ideas to be seen as daring and innovative rather than preposterous. Her insights, disguised within the story, will be recognised by those who have an inkling of what she has experienced for what they are, but will be interpreted by those who don't as science fiction.
I enjoyed the first half of the book (until Rachel Sherban's diary entries begin) much more than the second, which feels like it's dragging.
***
Most of the surprise, pleasurable or otherwise, felt by them because of some development, is when an inner drive is working its way out by means of encounters or clashes of personalities. Folk wisdom encapsulates the knowledge that people often are drawn towards those who are bound to cause them pain. And it is true that the hidden power or force, that drives Shikasta along its difficult and painful roads, and which is felt by some of them as a "guide" or "inner monitor" is not one that may consider "happiness" or "comfort" when it is operating to bring some individual nearer to self-knowledge, understanding.
It is not necessary, most of the time, to direct an individual into this or that relationship or situation - components of his or her personality, aspects of themselves they may not be aware of at all, will push them, by the laws of attraction or repulsion, into the places, or near to the people, who will benefit them.
December 1, 2008
This is a very depressing book, an alternate take on human history, but I like being miserable so I dug it. It is very well-written and I don't feel it is slow-moving at all. Ms. Lessing does a great job of making such a ( seemingly ) far-fetched story believable.
One thing--Am I the only person who noticed the similarity to "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" by G.I. Gurdjieff? The plot and even some of the writing style are so much alike. Since Ms. Lessing was a student of Sufism and Idries Shah I imagine she was acquainted with Gurdjieff's work.
Anyway--recommended for P.K. Dick fans and other dissatisfied, paranoid types. You know who you are!!!
One thing--Am I the only person who noticed the similarity to "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" by G.I. Gurdjieff? The plot and even some of the writing style are so much alike. Since Ms. Lessing was a student of Sufism and Idries Shah I imagine she was acquainted with Gurdjieff's work.
Anyway--recommended for P.K. Dick fans and other dissatisfied, paranoid types. You know who you are!!!
August 5, 2016
I enjoy Doris Lessing and I enjoy speculative fiction. Somehow though, the combination had a tragic outcome. An attempt to be clever that fails in an impenetrable epistolary mess. If you want great epistolary spec-fic, try The Prestige by Christopher Priest instead. If you want great Lessing, read anything by her that's realist. Ignore this novel. Erase it - if you can - from you memory because Lessing was actually a super talented writer.
May 22, 2017
This work is kin to Oryx and Crake, and to a lesser extent Babel-17: conservative where it needs to be progressive, progressive where it needs to be informed, and all in all amounting to little more than a done to death rehashing of various mainstream assumptions sprinkled with a few intriguing hints at veritable open fields. The insensate jabbering on and on about the evils of history with nary a holistic breakdown into tiers of intra community issues and intersectional community action outside the jurisdiction of the status quo is, I imagine, one reason why liberals are laughed at so much. I expected a history lesson from the back cover description (indeed, I expected much more, given this is yet another Christian writing fanfiction about Jewish people à la Paradise Lost and Joseph and His Brothers, but where the latter succeeded via specificity and a refusal and/or inability to use the Shoah as narrative fodder, this one bloated itself beyond the realm of redemption), but I did not expect key plot points and climactic turnings to be based on a few proclaimed factoids that were either dramatic oversimplifications, ahistorical applications, or flat out wrong in terms of scientific conjecture. True, that was then and this is now, but now is when I'm making the decision to continue reading this series, and seeing how little I got out of its first iteration, I must say nay.
'White' people have the greatest genetic diversity: false, even with all the expanded boundaries applied to this artificial construct. Whiteness, and race in general, is an incontrovertible biological construct that has veritable and significant impact on the various sciences: false. The concept of blackness related to a specific people is anything more than a convenient aesthetic excuse utilized for commercial purposes whose convenience has evolved alongside its evolving antithesis of whiteness: false. Thus crumbles a great deal of this narrative's final moments, rendering its initial stories of utopia with all its sentimental murmurings about defective pale mutants (nice eugenics there) and hearty brown utopians (noble savage, anyone)? Even without those few obnoxiously persistent fairy tales driving the course of supposedly logical conclusions, we have an outsider's obsession with Hinduism that apparently legally cancels out all the evils of Euro colonialism, a Magical Crazy Person (We never should have locked up the useful ones! but they seem to have been the better for it, for what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, of course.), the equating of depending on another to the Absolute Evil of parasitism (As if the eugenics weren't bad enough. It helps that I'm currently playing a video game birthed of a critique of Rand's objectivism, and the bombastic pieces of this narrative that are supposedly in the voice of the Absolute Evil go right alone with the repeated warnings against the "parasite" that fill the video games background acoustics), and a complete and utter lack of self-reflection on part of the benevolent alien for which this is all a little scientific experiment. As I've said before, I don't give authors the benefit of the doubt anymore, so if Lessing isn't going to critique her mystical mojo of a seemingly paradisaical ethical system that works only when it isn't questioned, I'll have to do it for her.
It was exhausting reading Beijing Coma and watching various mechanics of legal courts and political backgrounds put a stop to policies that would have concretely resulted in the outright deaths of increasing numbers of people while carting this around. All those paragraphs glibly rendering those real life discussions and maneuverings and dialectics as worthless actions that said nothing and resulted in nothing, and the only excuse is it's because the participants are young, and therefore know nothing of what is at stake. Again, that was then and this is now, but God's Bits of Wood was published nearly two decades before this, and that seems nearly enough time for it to have been translated and made its way to the hands of an author so seemingly concerned for the generic space of "Africa" and its social movements. If Ma Jian ever read this, he'd probably laugh his head off at the portrayal of those calm and efficient and silently menacing Chinese that frame the last few hundred pages, positive stereotypes doing nothing to reaffirm the humanity of the stereotyped. As such, I'm glad Lessing's dead, else she'd probably have something to say to that group of under-21's who are looking to sue Trump for fucking up the Earth to the point that it will no longer be livable after he is dead while they live on. If this isn't true, she could have least given me something novel to work on instead of repeating all this history I already know about and all these outdated jargon that means as much to me on a logical level as the tooth fairy or the boogeyman. Seeing as how my reading trend has been with Lessing, this might just me getting old and cranky, but considering she's the one writing off those in their mid-20's as doomed to building castles in the sky, what does that make me?
'White' people have the greatest genetic diversity: false, even with all the expanded boundaries applied to this artificial construct. Whiteness, and race in general, is an incontrovertible biological construct that has veritable and significant impact on the various sciences: false. The concept of blackness related to a specific people is anything more than a convenient aesthetic excuse utilized for commercial purposes whose convenience has evolved alongside its evolving antithesis of whiteness: false. Thus crumbles a great deal of this narrative's final moments, rendering its initial stories of utopia with all its sentimental murmurings about defective pale mutants (nice eugenics there) and hearty brown utopians (noble savage, anyone)? Even without those few obnoxiously persistent fairy tales driving the course of supposedly logical conclusions, we have an outsider's obsession with Hinduism that apparently legally cancels out all the evils of Euro colonialism, a Magical Crazy Person (We never should have locked up the useful ones! but they seem to have been the better for it, for what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, of course.), the equating of depending on another to the Absolute Evil of parasitism (As if the eugenics weren't bad enough. It helps that I'm currently playing a video game birthed of a critique of Rand's objectivism, and the bombastic pieces of this narrative that are supposedly in the voice of the Absolute Evil go right alone with the repeated warnings against the "parasite" that fill the video games background acoustics), and a complete and utter lack of self-reflection on part of the benevolent alien for which this is all a little scientific experiment. As I've said before, I don't give authors the benefit of the doubt anymore, so if Lessing isn't going to critique her mystical mojo of a seemingly paradisaical ethical system that works only when it isn't questioned, I'll have to do it for her.
It was exhausting reading Beijing Coma and watching various mechanics of legal courts and political backgrounds put a stop to policies that would have concretely resulted in the outright deaths of increasing numbers of people while carting this around. All those paragraphs glibly rendering those real life discussions and maneuverings and dialectics as worthless actions that said nothing and resulted in nothing, and the only excuse is it's because the participants are young, and therefore know nothing of what is at stake. Again, that was then and this is now, but God's Bits of Wood was published nearly two decades before this, and that seems nearly enough time for it to have been translated and made its way to the hands of an author so seemingly concerned for the generic space of "Africa" and its social movements. If Ma Jian ever read this, he'd probably laugh his head off at the portrayal of those calm and efficient and silently menacing Chinese that frame the last few hundred pages, positive stereotypes doing nothing to reaffirm the humanity of the stereotyped. As such, I'm glad Lessing's dead, else she'd probably have something to say to that group of under-21's who are looking to sue Trump for fucking up the Earth to the point that it will no longer be livable after he is dead while they live on. If this isn't true, she could have least given me something novel to work on instead of repeating all this history I already know about and all these outdated jargon that means as much to me on a logical level as the tooth fairy or the boogeyman. Seeing as how my reading trend has been with Lessing, this might just me getting old and cranky, but considering she's the one writing off those in their mid-20's as doomed to building castles in the sky, what does that make me?
Over and over again, people who have been kept on the move mentally, always having to defend and sharpen and refine their perceptions of events, will suddenly find themselves in a spotlight focussed on them by the many publicity machines, will be made national figures, will be frozen, in fact, in public attitudes. Again and again, valuable people become neutralised, made into—often—figures of fun, at the least lose their impetus, their force.
April 20, 2014
I really wanted to like this but it was just too dull. I really wanted to finish this but life is too short. I got nearly two hundred pages in and just found myself dreading reading time because I knew I would have to pick this up.
There's no plot for the reader to follow. There are no characters for the reader to engage with. There is no point to this narrative other than to show how stupid and corrupt humanity is. Yeah, well, I already know that and this is not what I call entertainment.
This is my first book by Doris Lessing and I wouldn't necessary rule out another of her books; the prose was fine. I would just need to make sure that whatever else she wrote was not like this.
There's no plot for the reader to follow. There are no characters for the reader to engage with. There is no point to this narrative other than to show how stupid and corrupt humanity is. Yeah, well, I already know that and this is not what I call entertainment.
This is my first book by Doris Lessing and I wouldn't necessary rule out another of her books; the prose was fine. I would just need to make sure that whatever else she wrote was not like this.
December 17, 2021
(It may contain spoilers not related to the actual plot, but to various ideas therein):
Many people did not like this book, probably because it is more of a political and historical report than an actual novel with a plot, even though events do flow through time sequence.
But in my opinion, it blends together various interesting esoteric and SF concepts, even though some have to be inferred and they exist in disguise.
For example, I believe the book somehow accepts the idea of reincarnation, in my view clearly implied through certain passages.
The novel does use some well known SF concepts and methods, for example the existence of various alien empires influencing human affairs and civilization. I think it also draws from various ancient mythological sources and accepts the cyclic nature of phenomena and civilizations. In fact, this idea of star (astrological) influences as being somehow stronger than the alien empires' temporal purposes, is drawn from various ancient sources. Lessing was a very learned person.
The political and sociological analyses are also interesting, and they reveal Lessing's bent towards supporting the downtrodden and poor people. Her description of various individuals in political groups reveal her in depth knowledge of human psychology.
The book is written with a wealth of ideas and concepts, but may be lacking in intensity of plot and
lacks suspense in my view. Still, it can be read on various levels and one can sense a human, a super-human (alien) and a divine level of things, where, even though cycles seem to exist, Good is implied to finally prevail.
Given that it was finished in 1978 per the prologue, it contains ideas further explored in SF much later.
The main problem with this book may be that it is not exactly a novel, the main advantage is its wealth of political, sociological and other ideas.
Many people did not like this book, probably because it is more of a political and historical report than an actual novel with a plot, even though events do flow through time sequence.
But in my opinion, it blends together various interesting esoteric and SF concepts, even though some have to be inferred and they exist in disguise.
For example, I believe the book somehow accepts the idea of reincarnation, in my view clearly implied through certain passages.
The novel does use some well known SF concepts and methods, for example the existence of various alien empires influencing human affairs and civilization. I think it also draws from various ancient mythological sources and accepts the cyclic nature of phenomena and civilizations. In fact, this idea of star (astrological) influences as being somehow stronger than the alien empires' temporal purposes, is drawn from various ancient sources. Lessing was a very learned person.
The political and sociological analyses are also interesting, and they reveal Lessing's bent towards supporting the downtrodden and poor people. Her description of various individuals in political groups reveal her in depth knowledge of human psychology.
The book is written with a wealth of ideas and concepts, but may be lacking in intensity of plot and
lacks suspense in my view. Still, it can be read on various levels and one can sense a human, a super-human (alien) and a divine level of things, where, even though cycles seem to exist, Good is implied to finally prevail.
Given that it was finished in 1978 per the prologue, it contains ideas further explored in SF much later.
The main problem with this book may be that it is not exactly a novel, the main advantage is its wealth of political, sociological and other ideas.
August 2, 2011
Doris Lessing was first recommended to me by Karen Spilke, my next-door neighbor in the senior year at Union Theological Seminary, who read part of her Golden Notebook aloud while I was driving her car up to visit her parent's summer house near Leeds, New York. I had certainly heard of Lessing before and this reading put it back in my head to get down to reading her fiction.
Then, Shikasta came out, a science fiction novel by the intended. Great! I bought it in hardcover and two of the subsequent novels in the series as well. During a Christmas break from Loyola University Chicago I got down to reading it.
Wow! It was terrible. Nah, it couldn't be that bad. I persisted, finishing the thing. It really was terrible--a heavy-handed, moralistic allegory about Earth filled with half-baked ideas, pseudo-science and idiosyncratic religiousity. But maybe I was just stupid. After all, "When asked about which of her books she considers most important, Lessing chose the Canopus in Argos science fiction series (1979–1983)." Surely, I must have been missing something.
Subsequent reading of volumes three and five of the five-part series did nothing to help me appreciate Lessing's work.
Then, Shikasta came out, a science fiction novel by the intended. Great! I bought it in hardcover and two of the subsequent novels in the series as well. During a Christmas break from Loyola University Chicago I got down to reading it.
Wow! It was terrible. Nah, it couldn't be that bad. I persisted, finishing the thing. It really was terrible--a heavy-handed, moralistic allegory about Earth filled with half-baked ideas, pseudo-science and idiosyncratic religiousity. But maybe I was just stupid. After all, "When asked about which of her books she considers most important, Lessing chose the Canopus in Argos science fiction series (1979–1983)." Surely, I must have been missing something.
Subsequent reading of volumes three and five of the five-part series did nothing to help me appreciate Lessing's work.
December 29, 2020
A book like Shikasta is hard to describe and difficult to reflect upon. It's full of ideas. Perhaps so many ideas that it is too big and too full to truly coalesce into itself and become that perfect creation that every book has the potential to be. But that's not unfamiliar territory for Lessing, an author who often got away from herself when she was writing but also, often, and maybe even always, wrote something that really mattered when she did. I finished reading Shikasta convinced that it is a book that, actually, truly matters.
Of course, it is somewhat of a relic. Books like this are hard to imagine these days. Comprehensive and self-certain, combatting formulas and tropes, reimagining the very shape of a novel without having the shield of being sold for that reimagination. Meandering and missing in characters and plot for portions, perhaps overly didactic in its ideals and morals in others. Maybe a bit too smart and well-imagined because it stands on its own, but begs for something more to build up what it was saying. At times obvious in a way that feels like it undermines the intelligence that built this book up.
But this is Doris Lessing, after all. A bright, clear observer who was also a bright, clear, direct writer. And she didn't need to prove her intelligence to you at all, thank you very much, because you must have already accepted it once you picked this novel up, thank you very much.
Recently my friend and I were talking about books. It was after he had read his first (and then, immediately afterwards, his second) book by Nadine Gordimer. We were trying to understand why it is that most books that we seem to be reading these days - at least the ones that are published regularly - can't really do what it is that Nadine was doing (and, I would suggest, Doris as well, among others).
Of course, it is worth remembering that even in their lives, the Nadines and the Doris' of the world were the exception. But there was something in the water and in the air that meant literature was tackling the very purpose of life itself.
As I was walking home from the bookstore today, where I purchased old used paperback copies of the remainder of Lessing's Canopus in Archives series, I couldn't help but explore this idea a bit. And it might just come down to a vision of history and humanity that was developed - a political thought that was big and expansive, that felt like it had an understanding of power and relationships on a big inhuman scale, and that saw it in the deeply personal and then in the broadly historic. And in this book we see all of Doris' talent in that regard on full display - the broad strokes of history and the small bits of the individual as agent and victim thereof. and then that unusual and unique imaginative power for worlds, individuals, events, and situations.
It may never have been displayed better than here.
This book is a triumph. Not an absolute one, of course, because I don't think Lessing ever wrote a perfect creation. But it is a triumph nonetheless. I think I can now confidently state that Doris Lessing is one of my favourite authors.
Of course, it is somewhat of a relic. Books like this are hard to imagine these days. Comprehensive and self-certain, combatting formulas and tropes, reimagining the very shape of a novel without having the shield of being sold for that reimagination. Meandering and missing in characters and plot for portions, perhaps overly didactic in its ideals and morals in others. Maybe a bit too smart and well-imagined because it stands on its own, but begs for something more to build up what it was saying. At times obvious in a way that feels like it undermines the intelligence that built this book up.
But this is Doris Lessing, after all. A bright, clear observer who was also a bright, clear, direct writer. And she didn't need to prove her intelligence to you at all, thank you very much, because you must have already accepted it once you picked this novel up, thank you very much.
Recently my friend and I were talking about books. It was after he had read his first (and then, immediately afterwards, his second) book by Nadine Gordimer. We were trying to understand why it is that most books that we seem to be reading these days - at least the ones that are published regularly - can't really do what it is that Nadine was doing (and, I would suggest, Doris as well, among others).
Of course, it is worth remembering that even in their lives, the Nadines and the Doris' of the world were the exception. But there was something in the water and in the air that meant literature was tackling the very purpose of life itself.
As I was walking home from the bookstore today, where I purchased old used paperback copies of the remainder of Lessing's Canopus in Archives series, I couldn't help but explore this idea a bit. And it might just come down to a vision of history and humanity that was developed - a political thought that was big and expansive, that felt like it had an understanding of power and relationships on a big inhuman scale, and that saw it in the deeply personal and then in the broadly historic. And in this book we see all of Doris' talent in that regard on full display - the broad strokes of history and the small bits of the individual as agent and victim thereof. and then that unusual and unique imaginative power for worlds, individuals, events, and situations.
It may never have been displayed better than here.
This book is a triumph. Not an absolute one, of course, because I don't think Lessing ever wrote a perfect creation. But it is a triumph nonetheless. I think I can now confidently state that Doris Lessing is one of my favourite authors.
March 9, 2015
I don’t recommend this book. Actually I don’t think it should have ever seen print. Don’t get me wrong, I like slow, deep books with profound spiritual and political messages, especially if their science fiction. I don’t recommend this book for one reason: it is inexcusable boring. Let me explain. I liked the three page introduction, where Lessing makes some important comments about science fiction. The first half of the novel, a retelling of the Old Testament with SF elements, is kind of interesting and kind of boring. The second half, set in the near future as the planet experiences a global catastrophe, is not interesting and unbearably tedious. I have never before understood the saying, “bored to tears,” until I had actual moisture welling in my eyes from boredom. It was like a physical revulsion to this level tediousness. The last twenty pages were a force of will. My wife asked me why I was so irritable and snappish all the time. Didn't Lessing have a friend or a well-meaning editor to politely mention that she shouldn’t inflict the world with this extended exercise in sadism? Even as an introduction to an extended series (It’s interesting that the jacket cover has summaries of the then-unpublished second and third books) this is a failure. The ending is the most bathetic ending, and not in a good, Kafka-like way, that I have ever had the experience to read. Reading Le Guin’s review before I thought she was being overly harsh but now I think she was much too polite. Any profound spiritual or political message is lost on me since I just refuse to believe that any message of importance could be this boring.
May 10, 2017
I am including this book in my "favorites" because of the unusual impact it had on me for about 25 years. I have the 1981 paperback image that's shown. I read most of the book sometime soon after that. It's a rather old book, but, still, I'll use the spoiler alert since what I'm going to say reveals something not that far from the end.
I finally read the end in 2007. I don't quite remember how it ended, but whatever I feared was blunted.
I finally read the end in 2007. I don't quite remember how it ended, but whatever I feared was blunted.
September 5, 2010
This novel is the first of Lessing's classic "Canopus in Argos: Archives" series. It differs from much modern science fiction in that is defies classification. In part science fiction, in part psychological-religious exploration, in part modern doomsday tale, in part pseudo-historical documentation, the story follows the earthly life of Geoge Sherban, human incarnation of the Canopan being Johor. George/ Johor visits a near future Earth where human society is on the brink of total breakdown. Johor/George is depicted on the one hand as scientific observer of humanity and on the other as Prophet trying to help them overcome their worst traits. Lessing's novel in some parts expresses a detachment akin to the the science fiction of Olaf Stapledon. At other places, a character is followed in a way similar to those employed by Ursula LeGuin and Dorothy Bryant. Shikasta is a fascinating and troubling story all at the same time. Other novels in "Canopus in Argos: Archives" series include The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five and The Making of the Representative for Planet 8.
July 19, 2014
Rating 1¾ of 5 stars.
I had to abandon this book!
I read about half of it and skimmed the other half, reading some pages here and there. It just didn't work for me. I was bored almost all of the time. The writing style is way too wordy to me, the sentences too long where they don't necessarily have to be.
I neither found a coherent story, nor any characters to care for, and parts of it is too much of a lecture to me. This, combined with the biblical/mystical/esoteric undertones was enough to finally drop this book.
The first five percent where OK, and I thought it might develop into something interesting, but, alas it didn't.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
I had to abandon this book!
I read about half of it and skimmed the other half, reading some pages here and there. It just didn't work for me. I was bored almost all of the time. The writing style is way too wordy to me, the sentences too long where they don't necessarily have to be.
I neither found a coherent story, nor any characters to care for, and parts of it is too much of a lecture to me. This, combined with the biblical/mystical/esoteric undertones was enough to finally drop this book.
The first five percent where OK, and I thought it might develop into something interesting, but, alas it didn't.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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