From Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the fifth and final instalment in the visionary novel cycle 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. 'The Sentimental Agents ...' is set in the declining Volyen Empire as the empires of Sirius and Shammat compete to overwhelm it with rhetoric and false sentiment. The Canopean Empire deploys covert agents to help the Volyens resist. But one of these agents, Incent, succumbs to 'Undulant Rhetoric', and Agent Klorathy must go to Volyen to help him see through the empty words that have beguiled him. Once more employing alien races to identify human failings, Lessing uses social and political satire to show how we misuse speech (and speeches) and delude ourselves with self-aggrandizing notions about the primacy of emotion. Her renowned insight into human behaviour goes hand in hand here with a vein of humour that sees her writing in the tradition of Voltaire and Swift.
The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire
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The fifth and final volume in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives". It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.
Über den Autor
Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing', was published in 1950. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Fifth Child' and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and 'Walking in the Shade'. Her most recent novel is 'Alfred and Emily'.
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The realities of Rhetoric
31. Oktober 2001
Von Philip Challinor
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
The final, and funniest, instalment of the Canopus in Argos: Archives quintet finds Klorathy, the Canopean agent who befriended Ambien II in The Sirian Experiments, dispatched to the Volyen Empire to rescue a fellow agent who's fallen victim to the dreaded disease of Rhetoric. The Volyen Empire, until now a minor outpost of the collapsing Sirian Empire, is in the throes of revolutionary independence, and the intense prevalence of rhetorical disorders on all sides has made the inhabitants nearly as crazy as those poor unfortunates on Shikasta. The Canopean victim, Incent, alternates between charging about the system trying to reform everyone, and collapsing into hopeless languor when his efforts go inevitably askew. Klorathy introduces a Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases (tactfully disguised under the name Institute for Historical Research) and, in between chasing Incent around the place and apologising for his own occasional lapses ("Incent, WHAT are we going to do with you?"), manages to bring matters in the Volyen Empire to a fairly satisfactory conclusion. The conclusion to the quintet, however, is more than just fairly satisfactory. The light touch Lessing brings to this work may seem at odds with the epic or lyrical tone of the preceding four, but it enables the author to do two very difficult things. First, she can finish her massive enterprise on a suitably Canopean note - neither triumphalist nor sentimental, nor even, thanks to the satiric style, capable of being interpreted in a triumphalist or sentimental fashion. Second, she can point to a partial solution for some (most?) of the problems she's been talking about all along. It's slightly discomfiting to find that the super-civilised Canopean archivists list Tchaikovsky and Wagner under "Nineteenth-century Emoters and Complainers"; but the discomfiture serves to show how profoundly human beings are addicted to Rhetoric of all kinds - verbal, musical, emotional, physical. Cold turkey in our own case is undoubtedly a very bad idea, but we can at least recognise our condition and try to discipline it into working for us rather than against. The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire shows the kind of perspective we need if we're going to manage that before it's too late.
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Very timely, yet again
15. November 2003
Von wiredweird
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Taschenbuch
As I write this, Jessica Lynch is in the news, and analyses of the strange un-truths that led to George W's war, and legislation (by men) of medical practices (applicable only to women), and ... Maybe today isn't really different from all the other days in all the other years. As I read this book today, though, it speaks directly to today's triumphs of self-serving word-play over honesty and sanity.
Lessing's point is scarcely exaggeration: the intangible faculty of reason is subject to contagious disease, just as the physical body is. The first part of this book is a case study of a particularly acute and severe attack of rhetoric. Though not scientific, it gives enough detail for you to recognize the ailment when you see it yourself (and you will). Except for the details of topic, that poor sufferer's rantings could have come from yesterday's TV news.
Although I found the first half of this book very strong and clear, I felt that it weakened towards the end. The trial, prosecution of a culture instead of a person, barely sustained the thesis. I found the final passages of the book frankly disappointing, given its promising start.
In spite of the book's weaknesses, I find it very worthwhile. I will probably find it worthwhile and up to date when I read it again, years from now - although timely, this topic is timeless. Even more, it makes a satisfying companion to Lessing's other 'Canopus' books. I recommend it.
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Really a great book
13. Mai 2013
Von JD
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Of the five books in 'Canopus in Argos', this one is probably most entertaining. They are all great, but different. I would not read them in order, but perhaps this one is the best to start with even though it is the last. Lessing, as winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote many books and you might question if this series is up to that standard. Yes, definitely, they are worthy. They should be considered as possibly the best science fiction ever written. But they are not conventional books and I hope that you find their quality.
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