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"Doris Lessing's Science Fiction" (1979) Summary and Analysis
Doris Lessing's work belongs to "a continuum all her own somewhere between John Milton and L. Ron Hubbard;" artistically she is more closely allied with George Eliot than any other serious contemporary novelists, according to Gore Vidal. His assessment of Lessing's work is based primarily on "Shikasta, which seems to use Old Testament moral themes although it is more Sufi-like in spirit because Lessing believes it is possible to "Plug-in" to an overmind, Ur-Mind or unconscious that makes all sorts of improbabilities and "coincidences" possible."
Vidal admits that Shikasta "is the work of a formidable imagination" and that her storytelling capabilities are first-rate. Although her work redounds with classical themes and solemnity in its depiction of good and evil, the nature of free will and morality, its most recent precursor is probably the writing of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., whom Lessing admires. In Lessing's novel, Shikastans are programmed by outside forces,...
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This section contains 310 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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