The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (Canopus in Argos: Archives) [Paperback]

Doris Lessing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1988

The fourth 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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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About the Author

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 Summer Before the Dark" 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 "The Cleft". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Vintage (June 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679720154
• ISBN-13: 978-0679720157
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Joining up, October 22, 2001

By 

Philip Challinor - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (Paperback)

Planet 8, a promising outpost of the Empire of Canopus, undergoes a catastrophic climate change. Canopus had planned to move the people to a similar planet, Rohanda; but the wrecking of these plans, as detailed in Lessing's Shikasta and The Sirian Experiments, means that a more arduous course must be taken. As their home freezes with appalling rapidity, the people of Planet 8 must first adapt to the new conditions and then transcend them by forging a group identity which will preserve their society's heritage. They already possess the germ of this collective mind - most obviously in their custom of changing the names of individuals according to the social function they happen to be performing at the time - but there is still a long, hard way to go. Despite its science-fictional plot, The Making of the Representative is closer in style to the social/psychological myth-making of The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five; certainly the prose is equally lyrical, and although the characters are (perhaps inevitably, given the theme) less well drawn as individuals, it's still a vivid, poignant, sometimes visionary piece. Appropriately, given its choral potentialities, the book was the basis of an opera by Philip Glass.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of strength, October 31, 2003

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (Paperback)

The people of Planet Eight had happy, productive lives. They seemed born with knowledge of themselves and their visible environment. With Canopus' teaching, they were developing as a culture, strengthening their social structures and integrating new knowledge into their world-view. They knew that their whole people had a future planned among the stars, as citizens of star-spanning society.

Then their sunny, warm planet started to chill. Within a generation, tropical landscape became snowscape everywhere on the planet. Conditions changed so that the promise of their future could not be kept.

It takes some time for the stage to be set properly, but I think this where the real story begins. It is about a people struggling to adapt to increasingly harsh truths presented by the world around them. As conditions worsen, they harden themselves to successively more drastic steps that must be taken to survive. That, I think, is the tragedy of this story: the determination to survive, knowing that the only way goes against all that ever mattered to them. It is about the personal cost of sustaining faith and hope in the face of crushing realities.

More than the others in Lessing's Canopus series, I find this book ambiguous. It is as well written and well paced as the others, and it conveys the same serenity and certainty. This book, however, addresses especially complex issues. I do not share the view that Lessing expresses. I don't have to, though, to appreciate this as a remarkable, personal expression.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uncle!, October 18, 2010

By 

Melissa McCauley (North Little Rock, AR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (Paperback)

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.