First read January 2005This 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 It takes the Old Testament of the Bible as inspiration for its mythical geo-historical content, but instead of an angry bearded guy in charge, it has a super-advanced utopian-collectivist space-travelling civilization colonising Earth and then struggling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 details3. 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.
My favorite quotes from this book both come from the introduction:"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.""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."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." 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 observesThere 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.
What do You think about Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta (1979)?
La mayor parte del libro carece de una trama concisa. Es más bien un ensayo disfrazado de ciencia ficción mística, una serie de reflexiones sobre la condición humana y lo que nos depara el futuro, con una trama difusa de fondo. Muchas de estas reflexiones se hacen un poco repetitivas pero hay algunas realmente interesantes que dan que pensar. Al principio el libro resulta muy confuso, porque la verdad es tiene un planteamiento bastante raro. Shikasta es la Tierra y al parecer hay tres imperios de seres intergalácticos que han tenido que ver con nuestro desarrollo. Canopus, los buenos, Sammat, los malos, y Sirius, que está por ahí pero no hace mucha cosa. Al parecer son capaces de ir a la "Zona 6" (cuesta mucho descubrir qué es eso, creo que sería algo así como la sala de espera donde las almas aguardan a introducirse en un cuerpo) y encarnarse en un humano (o lo que sea). Nacerán sin memoria, pero serán personas con ciertas habilidades y un alma buena. Es un lío, creo que no voy a intentar explicároslo que si no esto se hace muy largo.Muchas de las cosas que dicen me parecen muy absurdos. El comportamiento de la gente resulta muy poco creíble y todo ese rollo de los ejércitos de la juventud no sé a cuento de qué viene. La división entre buenos y malos es demasiado marcada, pero se contrarresta por el hecho de no ser esta una lucha abierta. El libro se me ha hecho un poco largo y pesado, no es absorbente aunque resulte interesante.
—Liontinx
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.
—Kevin J Mackey
The first volume in Doris Lessing's much praised sci-fi quintet is a truly curious piece of literature. I almost hesitate to call it a novel, due to its erratic structure. Lessing's style here brings to mind Virginia Woolf, early Jack Vance and most of all William S. Burroughs. "Shikasta" is very much like "The Naked Lunch" even though its sci-fi setting creates a bit more congruence between the individual stories, manifesto's, apologies and philosophical as well as mythological deconstructions the whole of the book is composed of. There are a lot of familiar aspects of anthropological science fiction present, but this time the culture examined isn't an imagined one but our very own human civilization. I'm still not sure if that's commendably sharp and direct or just simplistic and easy. After all, the power of speculative fiction lies in its ability to analyze cultural phenomena taken out of their politically bound context, hopefully resulting in unbiased and fresh conclusions.There are enough original thoughts and themes in "Shikasta" for several books; it's packed with innovation and wisdom. But there are so very many obvious and underwhelming ingredients present alongside all the good stuff that even the most ingenious sparks of creative force are diluted and fail to impress with their full potential. And the fact that the book is a collection of fictious reports, often authentically dry, makes it a bit heavy. Even though some of the chapters are very interesting and entertaining- and Lessing's talent as a storyteller is apparent on many pages- the lack of coherence disrupts the novel as a whole. I guess I can even say that readability isn't one of "Shikasta's" numerous virtues.Still, after all the criticism I must state that I found this odd acquaintance a surprisingly pleasant and satisfying read. It will probably be very hard to find a book that equals this magnitude of dryish weirdness. Worth trying out, if you dare. And if this proves to be too much for you, don't hesitate to try the other, completely standalone volumes in the "Canopus in Argos" quintet, they are much more focused and literary in form.
—Mikael Kuoppala
