I just didn't get it, I hate to say. I've liked other Lessing I've read.

The best part was the rambling, pointless afterward about South Pole explorers. No, really. It was at least interesting and coherent. ( )

Canopus in Argos: Archives 4

grim ( )

In her afterword to her novel Lessing says:
“Back from the sociological speculation to this little book of mine. I can’t say I enjoyed writing it, for the snow and the ice and cold seemed to get into me and slow my thoughts and processes”
And I have to say I didn’t always enjoy reading it. There is a soporific quality in some of the writing and Lessing occasionally strays into la-la land.

This is the fourth novel in Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives; her science fiction series where her imagined universe is controlled by the Canopians: a benevolent god like race or entities who strive to nurture planets and their populations in their development, however there are other forces at work who strive to disrupt this process. On one of these planets: Rohanda, which had all the natural advantages the evil forces of disruption were gaining control and Canopus renamed the planet Shikasta; the broken one. Shikasta of course is another name for our Earth.

Lessing’s Conopus series is written as though the author was dipping into the archives to select certain key events and so the novels do not necessarily follow on from each other and can be read as stand alone books. This is especially true of The Making of the Representative for planet 8, where Lessing imagines a developing world where its human like population is benefiting from the knowledge and wisdom of representatives from Canopus who visit and make suggestions for improvements. On one of these visits Canopus strongly advises the population of planet 8 to build a wall right round the circumference of their planet and supplies the materials. It takes the population a whole year to build their wall and not long after it is finished their planet suffers a climate change resulting in an ice age. The ice and snow is held at bay by the wall and the population relocate behind it, representatives from Canopus tell the people that they expect the ice to eventually cover their planet but Canopus will transport the people to a new planet, the promising Rohanda.

Lessing tells the story from the point of view of one of the planet 8’s representatives; Doeg who is the story teller and historian for his people. Much of the book is about the struggle for survival in an encroaching ice age, but Lessing’s style places the reader a few steps away from the intensity of the action. It is like reading an historical report, albeit one written by an eye witness. Conditions on the planet get worse and the Canopian Johor arrives to live among the planets representatives as they battle for survival. It appears now as though the promised airlift to another planet is not going to happen. Lessing indulges in some speculation on a sort of afterlife or transcendence into another mental state and there are passages in the book such as this:

“While we laboured and fought and exhorted and forced the doomed wretches up and out of their lethargy, we were being changed molecule by molecule, atom by atom. And in the unimaginable vast spaces between the particles of the particles of the particles of the electrons and neutrons and protons - between the particles that danced and flowed and vibrated? Yes, in these faint webs or lattices or grids of pulses, changes went on over which we had no control. Which we could not chart or measure. Thoughts - but where were they, in the empty spaces of our beings? - that once we had regarded tolerently, or with approval, as necessary, were now being rejected by what we had become.”

The vast majority of the people on planet 8 sink into a cold induced lethargy, huddling together in ice block houses waiting to die. It is only the few remaining representatives along with Johor who seek some sort of salvation. If it was Lessing’s intention to impart a feeling of lethargy and hopelessness in the reader then I think she has succeeded. It is a short novel of 161 pages, but feels longer, it is supplemented by the authors afterword of a further 30 pages in which she uses the story of Scott of the Antartica’s disastrous attempts to reach the South Pole as a sort of warning against Nationalism.

The moral of the story; and I suspect there might be one could be that if we rely on God for our salvation then some of us might achieve some transcendence of the spirit, but for most people it would lead to our doom. Interesting to speculate on this theme, but you would need to be motivated by these thoughts and ideas to fully enjoy this novel. This one didn’t quite do it for me, Lessing has lost some of the magic of her previous books in the Canopus series and so 3.5 stars. ( )

This is a very slim book – however, it could not keep my interest long enough to finish it. Reading this novella requires real dedication, because it has no chapters and no breaks.

Planet 8 is besieged by drastic climate change, and the inhabitants change their entire society on the advice of Canopus, another, more advanced race. The buildup was incredibly slow, and I frequently found my eyes sliding off the page. I finally gave up when I found myself grinding my teeth at the thought of picking up the book again.
( )