Lessing Is More
In a response to breaking news, I am almost deliriously happy that Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the oldest recipient of this award ever.
Her powerfully resonating novels struck painfully at humanity and its failings, laying out a damning indictment of human life while holding out hope for the future. Her Canopus in Argos series highlighted the human race through the eyes of fictional aliens, underlining deep truths about how humans mislead each other and the consequences of such behaviour.
On a personal note, I read Shikasta, the first book in that series, in the first few weeks of my national service experience; the series kept me going through three relationships and my specialist training. I am deeply indebted to Ms Lessing for being as great an influence in my perceptions of humanity as C S Lewis was with The Screwtape Letters.
And she likes cats too!
Her powerfully resonating novels struck painfully at humanity and its failings, laying out a damning indictment of human life while holding out hope for the future. Her Canopus in Argos series highlighted the human race through the eyes of fictional aliens, underlining deep truths about how humans mislead each other and the consequences of such behaviour.
On a personal note, I read Shikasta, the first book in that series, in the first few weeks of my national service experience; the series kept me going through three relationships and my specialist training. I am deeply indebted to Ms Lessing for being as great an influence in my perceptions of humanity as C S Lewis was with The Screwtape Letters.
And she likes cats too!
etched with acid at 8:29:00 pm
2 Comments:
I studied The Grass is Singing for my "O" Levels...
You're a cat person too??
Hmm... The Grass Is Singing was, I think, her first novel. Yes, I'm a cat person. Persona felis.
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