Books

  1. The Making of the Representative for Planet 8

    The Making of the Representative for Planet 8


  2. Theo's Odyssey

    Theo's Odyssey


  3. The Springs of Affection

    The Springs of Affection


  4. The White Bone

    The White Bone


  5. Rhode Island Blues

    Rhode Island Blues


  6. Swimmer

    Swimmer


  7. In This Block There Lives a Slag...: And Other Yorkshire Fables

    In This Block There Lives a Slag...: And Other Yorkshire Fables


  8. Terror Firma

    Terror Firma


  9. Birthday

    Birthday


  10. The Fat Woman's Joke

    The Fat Woman's Joke


  11. Three to See the King

    Three to See the King


  12. The Mulberry Empire

    The Mulberry Empire


  13. The Broken Chalice: Book Two of the Book of Man Trilogy (Book of Man Trilogy)

    The Broken Chalice: Book Two of the Book of Man Trilogy (Book of Man Trilogy)


  14. A Sorcerer's Treason (Isavalta Trilogy)

    A Sorcerer's Treason (Isavalta Trilogy)


  15. The Usurper's Crown (Isavalta Trilogy)

    The Usurper's Crown (Isavalta Trilogy)


  16. Green Mars (Voyager Classics S.)

    Green Mars (Voyager Classics S.)


  17. Hallowe'en Party (Poirot S.)

    Hallowe'en Party (Poirot S.)


  18. Poirot in the Orient: Omnibus

    Poirot in the Orient: Omnibus


  19. The Complete Tommy and Tuppence [BOX SET]

    The Complete Tommy and Tuppence [BOX SET]


  20. Cat Among the Pigeons (Poirot S.)

    Cat Among the Pigeons (Poirot S.)


  21. Shikasta: Re-colonised Planet 5 (Voyager Classics S.)

    Shikasta: Re-colonised Planet 5 (Voyager Classics S.)


  22. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Vol 2 (Collins Modern Classics S.)

    The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Vol 2 (Collins Modern Classics S.)


  23. A Darkening Stain

    A Darkening Stain


  24. Sharpe's Prey

    Sharpe's Prey


  25. The Final Country

    The Final Country


The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • A story of strength
  • Joining up
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
Doris Lessing
Manufacturer: Flamingo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:
  1. The Sirian Experiments
  2. SENTIMENTAL AGENTS (Canopus in Argos--Archives)
  3. Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5 (George Sherban Emissary)
  4. Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 (My Autobiography, To1949, Vol 1 1949)
  5. The Good Terrorist

ASIN: 0006547184

Book Description

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 is the fourth volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A story of strength.......2003-10-31

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.

4 out of 5 stars Joining up.......2001-10-23

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.
THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR PLANET 8
Average customer rating: Not rated
    THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR PLANET 8
    Lessing Doris
    Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover
    ASIN: B000HF5206
    The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
      Doris LESSING
      Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover
      ASIN: B000OP88HS
      Canopus in Argos 4: Archives-- The Making of the Representative For Planet 8
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Canopus in Argos 4: Archives-- The Making of the Representative For Planet 8
        Doris Lessing
        Manufacturer: New York Knopf 1982.
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover
        ASIN: B000P50PJQ
        CANOPUS IN ARGOS: ARCHIVES The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          CANOPUS IN ARGOS: ARCHIVES The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
          Doris Lessing
          Manufacturer: Alfred Knopf
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover
          ASIN: B000G3FME0
          The making of the representative for Planet 8: An opera in three acts
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            The making of the representative for Planet 8: An opera in three acts
            Philip Glass
            Manufacturer: s.n
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Unknown Binding

            VoiceVoice | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
            ASIN: B0006EQN2E
            The MAKING Of the REPRESENTATIVE For PLANET 8.
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              The MAKING Of the REPRESENTATIVE For PLANET 8.
              Doris. Lessing
              Manufacturer: Knopf,
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Hardcover
              ASIN: B000NY9S6A
              The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
                Doris LESSING
                Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback
                ASIN: B000OOMPIW
                MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR PLANET 8
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR PLANET 8
                  DORIS LESSING
                  Manufacturer: Flamingo
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback
                  ASIN: B000O8QIQI

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                  6. The Final Country
                  7. Form Line of Battle!
                  8. The Interpreter
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