The Sirian Experiments
Encyclopedia
The Sirian Experiments is a 1980
science fiction
novel by Nobel Prize in Literature
-winner Doris Lessing
. It is the third book in her five-book Canopus in Argos
series and continues the story of Earth
's evolution
, which has been manipulated from the beginning by advanced extraterrestrial civilization
s. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981.
This book relates directly to the first book in this series, Shikasta
which is the history of the planet Shikasta (an allegorical Earth) under the influence of three galactic empires, Canopus
, Sirius
and their mutual enemy, Puttiora. Shikasta is told from the Canopean viewpoint. The Sirian Experiments (subtitled The Report by Ambien II, of the Five) tells the story of Shikasta from Sirius's point of view and describes their activities on the planet and their strained relations with Canopus.
Lessing stated in an afterword
in the next book
in this series that The Sirian Experiments and The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
were inspired by her 50-year fascination with the ill-fated 1910-13 Antarctic expedition
of Robert Falcon Scott
.
but soft science fiction
, or "space fiction" as Lessing calls her Canopus in Argos series. Robert Alter of The New York Times
suggested that this kind of writing belongs to a genre literary critic Northrop Frye
called the "anatomy", which is "a combination of fantasy and morality" and that "presents us with a vision of the world in terms of a single intellectual pattern." Lessing has stated that she has used this series as a vehicle to "put questions, both to myself and to others" and to "explore ideas and sociological possibilities."
While Lessing's switch to "science fiction" in the late 1970s was not well received by all, the series in general has drawn positive criticism. Two reviews of The Sirian Experiments in The New York Times said that Lessing achieves "… a largeness of vision beyond the horizon of the conventional novel." and that it has "… some playful moments and some splendid ones. It is interesting, however, primarily because Doris Lessing wrote it." Time
on the other hand, which had spoken highly of the first two books in this series, felt that this one "may be a small misstep on a long journey."
star system, has advanced technology that made their citizens effectively immortal (barring accidents) and sophisticated machines that did almost everything for them. But this technology came at a price: many Sirians became afflicted with "the existentials", a debilitating malady that left them feeling worthless and with no reason to exist. To overcome this problem and give its people "something to do", Sirius embarked on a conquest of space and colonised
many planets. But they also encroached on territory of the superior Canopean Empire that led to a costly war, which Canopus
won. As a gesture of reconciliation, Canopus returned all the captured Sirian territory and invited Sirius to jointly colonise a new and promising planet called Rohanda (an allegorical Earth
). Canopus took the northern continents and gave Sirius the southern continents.
Ambien II, one of the Five who run the Sirian Colonial Service and also govern the Sirian Empire, represents Sirius on Rohanda. She sets in motion a series of bio
-sociological
and genetic
experiments where large numbers of primitive indigenous people
from Sirian colonised planets are space-lifted to Rohanda and adapted there for work elsewhere in the Empire. In the north, Canopus nurtures Rohanda's bourgeoning humanoid
s and accelerates their evolution
. They also put a Lock on the planet that links it to the harmony and strength of the Canopean Empire. Canopus keeps Ambien II updated with reports of all their work, but she is suspicious of Sirius's former enemy, seeing them as a competitor rather than a partner, and is unable to correctly interpret them.
Then an unforeseen "cosmic re-alignment" breaks the Lock and Shammat of the malicious Puttiora Empire begins exploiting the situation by corrupting Rohanda's Natives. Canopus, seeing Rohanda decline, renames the planet Shikasta
(the stricken). Sirius, unconcerned about Canopus's troubles in the north, continue to refer to the planet as Rohanda.
In an attempt to foster better relations with Sirius, Klorathy, a senior Canopean Colonial administrator, invites Ambien II to observe events in their territory. Ambien II, eager to learn more about Canopus, agrees. As Rohanda evolves and civilisations come and go, Ambien II and Klorathy meet several times to watch Rohanda's degeneration. Canopus does what it can to help communities, but with Shammat's evil and a broken Lock, they make little progress. From time to time Klorathy requests Ambien II's help and while working on the planet, she meets Nasar, another Canopean official. She also encounters Tafta, the Shammat commander on Rohanda, and at one point nearly succumbs to his corruption.
Ambien II eventually abandons the Sirian Experiments in the south when they are overrun by Shammat. The Five want her to abandon Rohanda altogether, but she has become too attached to the planet and is warming to Canopus and seeing the error of her (and Sirius's) ways. The Five question her ties to their former enemy, but when she tries to explain herself, they do not hear what she is saying, just as she initially could not hear what Canopus was saying. The Five then send her to Planet 13 on "corrective exile" to write a report on what has happened (this book). When she later releases the report, the Five issues a statement denying the authenticity of Ambien II's work.
Canopus
Shammat
1980 in literature
The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
-winner Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
. It is the third book in her five-book Canopus in Argos
Canopus in Argos
Canopus in Argos: Archives is a sequence of five science fiction novels by Nobel Prize in Literature-winning author Doris Lessing which portray a number of societies at different stages of development, over a great period of time...
series and continues the story of Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
's evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, which has been manipulated from the beginning by advanced extraterrestrial civilization
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
s. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981.
This book relates directly to the first book in this series, Shikasta
Shikasta
Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta is a 1979 science fiction novel by British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing, and is the first book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series. It was first published in the United States in October 1979 by Alfred A. Knopf, and in the United Kingdom in...
which is the history of the planet Shikasta (an allegorical Earth) under the influence of three galactic empires, Canopus
Canopus
Canopus |Alpha]] Carinae) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and Argo Navis, and the second brightest star in the night-time sky, after Sirius. Canopus's visual magnitude is −0.72, and it has an absolute magnitude of −5.53.Canopus is a supergiant of spectral...
, Sirius
Sirius
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...
and their mutual enemy, Puttiora. Shikasta is told from the Canopean viewpoint. The Sirian Experiments (subtitled The Report by Ambien II, of the Five) tells the story of Shikasta from Sirius's point of view and describes their activities on the planet and their strained relations with Canopus.
Lessing stated in an afterword
Afterword
An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed....
in the next book
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 is a 1982 science fiction novel by Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing. It is the fourth book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series and relates the fate of a planet, under the care of the benevolent galactic empire Canopus, that is plunged...
in this series that The Sirian Experiments and The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 is a 1982 science fiction novel by Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing. It is the fourth book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series and relates the fate of a planet, under the care of the benevolent galactic empire Canopus, that is plunged...
were inspired by her 50-year fascination with the ill-fated 1910-13 Antarctic expedition
Terra Nova Expedition
The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...
of Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
.
Genre and reception
Because of its focus on characterization and social/cultural issues, and the de-emphasis of technological details, The Sirian Experiments is not strictly science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
but soft science fiction
Soft science fiction
Soft science fiction, or soft SF, like its complementary opposite hard science fiction, is a descriptive term that points to the role and nature of the science content in a science fiction story...
, or "space fiction" as Lessing calls her Canopus in Argos series. Robert Alter of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
suggested that this kind of writing belongs to a genre literary critic Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
called the "anatomy", which is "a combination of fantasy and morality" and that "presents us with a vision of the world in terms of a single intellectual pattern." Lessing has stated that she has used this series as a vehicle to "put questions, both to myself and to others" and to "explore ideas and sociological possibilities."
While Lessing's switch to "science fiction" in the late 1970s was not well received by all, the series in general has drawn positive criticism. Two reviews of The Sirian Experiments in The New York Times said that Lessing achieves "… a largeness of vision beyond the horizon of the conventional novel." and that it has "… some playful moments and some splendid ones. It is interesting, however, primarily because Doris Lessing wrote it." Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
on the other hand, which had spoken highly of the first two books in this series, felt that this one "may be a small misstep on a long journey."
Plot
The Sirian Empire, centred in the SiriusSirius
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...
star system, has advanced technology that made their citizens effectively immortal (barring accidents) and sophisticated machines that did almost everything for them. But this technology came at a price: many Sirians became afflicted with "the existentials", a debilitating malady that left them feeling worthless and with no reason to exist. To overcome this problem and give its people "something to do", Sirius embarked on a conquest of space and colonised
Colonisation
Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...
many planets. But they also encroached on territory of the superior Canopean Empire that led to a costly war, which Canopus
Canopus
Canopus |Alpha]] Carinae) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and Argo Navis, and the second brightest star in the night-time sky, after Sirius. Canopus's visual magnitude is −0.72, and it has an absolute magnitude of −5.53.Canopus is a supergiant of spectral...
won. As a gesture of reconciliation, Canopus returned all the captured Sirian territory and invited Sirius to jointly colonise a new and promising planet called Rohanda (an allegorical Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
). Canopus took the northern continents and gave Sirius the southern continents.
Ambien II, one of the Five who run the Sirian Colonial Service and also govern the Sirian Empire, represents Sirius on Rohanda. She sets in motion a series of bio
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
-sociological
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
experiments where large numbers of primitive indigenous people
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
from Sirian colonised planets are space-lifted to Rohanda and adapted there for work elsewhere in the Empire. In the north, Canopus nurtures Rohanda's bourgeoning humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
s and accelerates their evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
. They also put a Lock on the planet that links it to the harmony and strength of the Canopean Empire. Canopus keeps Ambien II updated with reports of all their work, but she is suspicious of Sirius's former enemy, seeing them as a competitor rather than a partner, and is unable to correctly interpret them.
Then an unforeseen "cosmic re-alignment" breaks the Lock and Shammat of the malicious Puttiora Empire begins exploiting the situation by corrupting Rohanda's Natives. Canopus, seeing Rohanda decline, renames the planet Shikasta
Shikasta
Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta is a 1979 science fiction novel by British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing, and is the first book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series. It was first published in the United States in October 1979 by Alfred A. Knopf, and in the United Kingdom in...
(the stricken). Sirius, unconcerned about Canopus's troubles in the north, continue to refer to the planet as Rohanda.
In an attempt to foster better relations with Sirius, Klorathy, a senior Canopean Colonial administrator, invites Ambien II to observe events in their territory. Ambien II, eager to learn more about Canopus, agrees. As Rohanda evolves and civilisations come and go, Ambien II and Klorathy meet several times to watch Rohanda's degeneration. Canopus does what it can to help communities, but with Shammat's evil and a broken Lock, they make little progress. From time to time Klorathy requests Ambien II's help and while working on the planet, she meets Nasar, another Canopean official. She also encounters Tafta, the Shammat commander on Rohanda, and at one point nearly succumbs to his corruption.
Ambien II eventually abandons the Sirian Experiments in the south when they are overrun by Shammat. The Five want her to abandon Rohanda altogether, but she has become too attached to the planet and is warming to Canopus and seeing the error of her (and Sirius's) ways. The Five question her ties to their former enemy, but when she tries to explain herself, they do not hear what she is saying, just as she initially could not hear what Canopus was saying. The Five then send her to Planet 13 on "corrective exile" to write a report on what has happened (this book). When she later releases the report, the Five issues a statement denying the authenticity of Ambien II's work.
Characters
Sirius- The Five – peer group of five senior administrators of the Sirian Colonial Service
- Ambien II – one of the Five, Sirian representative to Rohanda
Canopus
- Klorathy – senior Canopean Colonial administrator
- Nasar – permanent official on Rohanda
Shammat
- Tafta – Shammat representative to Rohanda
External links
- The Sirian Experiments at dorislessing.org.
- "More Lessing". TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
review. - "Doris Lessing in the Visionary Mode". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
book review. - "Books of the Times". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
book review.