Lessing amid the stars

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 17

Lessing amid the stars

Canopus In Argos: Archives. ‘The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five.’ By Doris Lessing. Cape; 1980. 245 pp. $17.75.

(Reviewed by

Graham Billing)

"Marriages" is an extended mvth which mans- Doris Lessing readers may not find very interesting. It lacks a sound basis in what tve would call concrete reality. Its created world is almost entirely emotional and symbolic. Yet if the reader accepts that continuing to the end might involve no ordinary emotional experience it would be well to be patient. ‘‘Marriages’’ is the second volume in “Archives.” One is not quite sure if the over-all title“ Canopus In Argos” refers to the star in the constellation Argo, or if a more definite reference is being made to the ancient Egyptian Canoptic vessel used for holding the entrails of embalmed bodies after their use in divination. Canopus, too. was the helmsman who guided King Menelaus to Troy. Of the first volume. ’ "Shikasta" (meaning the human race) "The Times", wrote that it was "an astounding humanity,, spirit, earth, stars, soul, resources, virtue, evil, pre-Eden forever." Perhaps “Marriages” is equally ambitious, even though its canvas is the interior emotional life of men and women, how they differ and how they interact. Reading it I was frequently reminded of Martha Quest in “The Golden Notebook” and her repeated attempts to relate femaleness to maleness in some kind of easy fusion, ot her “quest” for social satisfaction through Communism as an integrating political force, and of her final — I think despairing — acceptance that ’ one had, after, all,, to live alone. The same themes are explored in “Marriages.” There are five “Zones” in the book’s world. Zone One is unknowable and unattainable, Zone. Two is attainable by those willing to completely sublimate the flesh to the spirit (a spiritual longing inherent in all “beings” but which few attempt to fulifil). In Zone Three the

dominant force is feminine, intuitive and sensual. Zone Four is dominated by male aggression in the sexual and every other sphere. Zone Five appears to be a demented mixture of the whole lot, inhabited by nomadic, sensual barbarians. It is a book shot through with the almost. Cabalistic wisdom of the 1970 s women’s movement, and a daunting book for the male reviewer. One feels privileged, however, that Doris Lessing has shared, some of the inner knowledge of what it means to strive to be a whole woman. One feels humbled that one has not-understood some of it before. One is sometimes haunted in the night with the thought that some other great mystery is locked in the book. But I am afraid I do not find the “people" and the "scenes'’ real enough to be hurt, or frightened, or elated by “Marriages." and with the greatest respect I do wish Doris Lessing would come, back to earth.