Marriage Between Zone Three, Four and Five is a 1980 science fiction novel by Doris Lessing. This is the second book in the five books of the Canopus in Argos series, the first being Shikasta (1979). It was first published in the United States in March 1980 by Alfred A. Knopf, and in England in May 1980 by Jonathan Cape.
This novel occurs in three of the six Metaphysical Zones that surround the Shikasta planet (allegorical Earth), and involves two ordained marriages that connect the patriarchal Four Zone with the Matriarchal Three Zone, and the Zone of Five Tribes. This story is told from the utopian viewpoint of the Matriarchal Three Zones, and about gender conflicts and the destruction of barriers between the two sexes. Lessing refers to the series of Canopus in Argos "space fiction," but The Marriages Between Zones of Three, Four and Five is commonly referred to as feminist science fiction.
This novel was influenced by the spiritual and mystical themes in Sufism, the Islamic belief system in which Lessing was interested in the mid-1960s. This zone is said to be in accordance with the different levels of consciousness of Sufism, and symbolizes the "Sufi ladder into enlightenment". Lessing is criticized for leaving his traditional fiction and turning to science fiction in the series Canopus in Argos. Despite these criticisms, The Marriages are generally well received by critics, with some reviewers calling it one of Lessing's best work on topics of gender conflict.
The Marriages Between Zones The Three, Four and Five was adapted as an opera by Philip Glass composer with Lessing's story-libretto, and aired in Germany in Heidelberg, Germany in May 1997. The US premiere in English was performed in Chicago in June 2001. This production was not well received by theater critics.
Video The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five
Zona
In a series of Canopus in Argos, Shikasta , Lessing introduces six metaphysical zones (similar to the cosmological fields) that surround the Shikasta planet (allegorical Earth). These zones, which are numbered One to Six, each represent different levels of spiritual beings. Shikasta only dealt with the Sixth Zone, the deepest and purest of the Zone, which one commentator described as "a kind of purification fire in which men wait for time between incarnations on earth". Nearby Zones in numerical order borders on each other, from Zone Six (lowest) to Zone One (highest and purest), each with a more mountainous terrain than ever before.
Three of the Zones in this spiritual landscape feature at The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, which Lessing describes as "independent" states, each with their own "community". Zone Two, the highest in spiritual hierarchy, is located high in the mountains on the edge of Zone Three, which in turn occupies the hills bordering the Fourth Zone of the Quadrangle, which is adjacent to the quintessential Valley Zone of Lima.
Maps The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five
Plot
The story opens when the Providers, the invisible and unknown rulers of all Zones, order AloIth, the peaceful queen of Zone Three, to marry Ben Ata, the militaristic and repressive Fourth Zoneist king. AloIth is driven back by the idea of ​​accompanying a barbarian, and Ben Ata does not want a pious queen to interfere with his military campaign. Nevertheless, AloIth descended to Zone Four and they were reluctantly married. Ben Ata is unfamiliar with the women's company he can not control, and AloIth has difficulties relating to this insolent man, but in time they grow accustomed to each other and gain new insights into their respective Zones. AloIth was surprised that all the wealth of the Four Zone entered his great army, leaving the rest of the population poor and backward; Ben Ata is surprised that Zone Three has no troops at all.
The marriage gave birth to a son, Arusi, the future heir to two Zones. Some women from the Zone Four, led by Dabeeb, came in to help AloIth. Depressed and oppressed, these women enjoy being in front of the queen of the Three Zone. But soon after Arusi's birth, the Providers ordered AloIth to return to the Three Zone without his son, and Ben Ata to marry Vahshi, the queen of the primitive Five Zone. AloIth and Ben Ata love each other, and are destroyed by this news.
Back in Zone Three, AloIth finds out that his people have forgotten him, and his sister Murtio has taken over as queen. Disrupted by the changes he saw in AloIth, Murtio alienated him to the border of Zone Two. AloIth, attracted by its appeal, tries to enter Zone Two, but finds a place that is not worldly and unfriendly and is told by the unseen people that this is not the time. At the Zone Lima border, Ben Ata reluctantly marries Vahshi, a tribal leader of a group of travelers who terrorize the zone's inhabitants. But the wedding of Ben Ata with AloIth has transformed him, and he dismissed most of his troops in the Fourth Zone, sending soldiers home to rebuild their towns and villages and raise their communities. He also slowly won Vahshi's trust and persuaded him to stop looting Zone Five.
When Arusi is old enough to travel, Dabeeb and his women's group decide to take him to Zone Three to see AloIth. This cross-border trip is not ordered by the Provider, and Ben Ata has an anxiety about their decision. In Zone Three, women are shocked to find the deposed AloIth working near the stable Zone Two. While AloIth is happy to see his son, he also has doubts about Dabeeb's actions. An ambitious women's journey through Zone Three evokes xenophobic feelings for the locals.
After five years of silence, the Provider orders Ben Ata to go and see AloIth in Zone Three. At the border, he was surprised to find a group of young men armed with emergency weapons blocking his path. Obviously they do not want any more attacks from Zone Four. Ben Ata returns with a large army and enters Zone Three without a challenge. He was not well received, but found AloIth with a small group of followers who had moved to the border of Zone Two to be close to him. Ben Ata and AloIth reunited; he told him about the reforms he introduced in Zone Four and his taming of the "wild" of Zone Five.
One day AloIth enters Zone Two and does not return. But the change driven by two marriages is now evident everywhere. The boundary between Zone Three, Four and Five opens, and people and knowledge flows between them. Previously stagnant, the three Zones are now filled with questions, inspiration, and updates.
​​â € <â €
When Lessing published Shikasta in 1979, the first book in the series Canopus in Argos , this represented a major focus change for the author. In the previous books, Lessing has established a name for himself as a realistic fiction writer; at Shikasta he introduced his readers to the spiritual and mystical theme in Sufism. In the mid-1960s Lessing became interested in Sufism, the Islamic belief system, after reading The Sufis by Idries Shah. He describes The Sufis as "the most surprising book [he] has read", claiming that it "changed his life". Lessing then meets Shah, who becomes "good friend [and] teacher". In the early 1970s Lessing began writing fictional space within, which included the novel Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) and Memoirs of a Survivor (1974), and in the end In the 1970s he turned to science fiction when he wrote Shikasta , where he used many sufi concepts.
Lessing says that the idea for The Marriages Between Zones Three and Four and Five has been with him for about ten years, but he "can not think of a way to do it." It was only when he was halfway through Shikasta that he realized he had "created an extraordinary format" that he could use for other books, and that is this format, Canopus in Argos , which makes The Marriages possible. Shikasta was originally meant to be a single book, but Lessing's fictional world was developed, and he eventually wrote a series of five.
Lessing assignments to science fiction are not well received by readers and critics. By the late 1970s, Lessing was considered "one of the most honest, intelligent, and involved writers at the time," and Western readers who did not know Sufism were disappointed that Lessing had left his "rational worldview." George Stade of The New York Times complained that "Our Lady of Lumpen realism has been religious to us". Reactions to the first two books in the series, Shikasta and The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five , encouraged Lessing to write in Introduction to a third book in series, The Sirian Experiments (1980):
I would love it if reviewers and readers can see this series, Canopus in Argos: Archive , as a framework that allows me to tell (I hope) a deceptive tale; to ask questions, both for yourself and for others; to explore sociological ideas and possibilities.
Further criticism of the Canopus series was followed, which included this commentary by New York Times critic John Leonard: "One of the many sins to be reckoned with in the 20th century is that it has broken Mrs Lessing's spirit... She is now propagating our meaninglessness in cosmic razzmatazz. "Lacking an answer by saying:" What they do not realize is that in science fiction are some of the best social fiction of our time, I also admire the classic type science fiction, such as Blood Music , by Greg Bear.He is a great writer. "Lessing said in 1983 that he wanted to write stories about red and white dwarfs, space rockets powered by anti gravity, and the quark is fascinated and colored, "[b] ut we can not all be physicists".
Less than considered Marriage one of the better books, and said, "this book fell into me deep enough... it will never happen again". In an interview published in 1996, Lessing spoke passionately about the novel:
Something happened when I wrote the book. I reached another level. And is it a legend or a myth or a fairy tale or fantasy? That's not a word for what I write, I think. You see, only I can write The Golden Notebook , but I think Anon wrote this other book.
Genres and themes
The Marriages Between Zones The Three, Four and Five are told largely from the standpoint of utopian utopia utopia, which places the novel in the category of feminist utopia or feminist science fiction. The series of Canopus in Argos is generally under the banner of soft science fiction, or "space fiction" as Lessing calls it, because of its focus on characterization and social and cultural issues, and the emphasis of science and technology. Professor of comparative literature, Robert Alter, argues that this type of writing includes a genre by which literary critic Northrop Frye is called "anatomy", which is "a combination of fantasy and morals". Author Gore Vidal puts Lessing's science fiction between John Milton and L. Ron Hubbard. "Screenwriter and American director Frank Pierson calls science fiction Lessing" fairy tale [s] "closer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings > and Herbert's Dune than the works of Clarke and Asimov.English writer Graham Sleight says The Marriages comes closest to Ursula Le Guin's work in a good way Lessing and Le Guin studied the Sleight society comparing The Marriages with the science fiction novel Le Guin The Dispossessed (1974), saying that each revolves around a conflict between different world views, the Zone at The Marriages , and Anarres and Urras at The Dispossessed .
The Marriage Between Zone Three, Four and Five is different from other books in the Canopus in Argos series which read like a fairy tale and set in metaphysics, or "psychic" space, in beyond the rest of the series' "normal" space/time universe. This story revolves around two ordained marriages linking the patriarchal and militaristic Four Zone with the Matriarchal and egalitarian Zone Three, and the Tribal Zones of five tribes and barbarians. It focuses on, what magazine's reviewers say, Time, Paul Gray, "the struggle between men and women and the dimensions of sex and love." Literary critic Diana Sheets says the book is about addressing gender differences and opening up new possibilities. He argues that the premise of the story is that "the cosmic order is ideally manifested when men and women cross the gender gap and try authentic communication - sexually, emotionally... thereby setting the preconditions for the attainment of an enlightened consciousness."
The marriage is ordained by the Provider because the zone is stagnating and the birth rate of humans and animals has fallen. Writer Thelma J. Shinn says that, as in Shikasta , Lessing's "pessimistic view of human ability still controls the power of virtue rather than in the hands of the individual". But after a push in the right direction, individual victories: AloIth and Ben Ata initiate change both in their own territory and in their neighboring areas.
Academic literature Jayne Ashleigh Glover says that while Zone Three on the surface appears to be a feminist utopia, Lessing suggests that it is far from beautiful. Narrator stories, Three Zone Explorers, questioned the behavior and attitude of their zones, and warned of the dangers of stagnation. AloIth, after returning to Zone Three, was shunned by its inhabitants for failing to meet their zone needs, and Zone Three's stasis manifested itself in xenophobia when AloIth brought back a new perspective, followed by visitors from Zone Four.
Glover sees AloIth, Ben Ata and Vahshi as allegories for their respective zones, and the marriage between them as inter-marriage marriages, as stated by the title of the book. MÃÆ'¼ge Galin's author says that AloIth works in accordance with the nature of Zone Three rather than as an individual. Galin also argues that the six zones correspond to different levels of Sufism awareness. Both AloIth and Ben Ata are able to experience another level of awareness when they travel to their respective zones, but AloIth can sense and experience the neighboring zone much deeper than Ben Ata because he comes from a higher level of consciousness. Galin says that on the "Sufi ladder to enlightenment", those on the higher stairs should draw those who are on the lower rungs. So AloIth can only move to Zone Two after he pulls Ben Ata into Zone Three.
Reception
The critic John Leonard, in a review in The New York Times, described The Marriages Between Zones Three and Four and Five as a "remarkable recovery" from Shikasta HuffPost Culture , Bristol University Academy Tom Sperlinger calls the book "legend" and lists it among the five Lessing books he wrote since The Golden Notebook (1962). Pierson finds the book "fun", despite the "dry dialog and vocabulary [ing]" that feels like a translation. He adds that readers familiar with Lessing's fortunes at The Golden Notebook may not appreciate allegories in The Marriages . While he is still "passionate, opinionated and angry" here, Pierson says Lessing has withdrawn from writing about the real world and chooses to "flood the unstable currents of dreams, dreams [and] mysticism".
Some reviewers are impressed by the way Lessing deals with sexual politics in this book. Paul Gray said in a review in Time magazine that, contrary to appearance, The Marriages is not a feminist parable, but adds that although Lessing often writes about gender conflict, he has never done it "with more sweetness, compassion and wisdom" than the one in this novel. Leonard praised Lessing for considering both sides of the gender gap and for being critical and forgiving Ben Ata and AloIth. Leonard says that Lessing never wrote "softer books", adding, however, that his 1973 novel, Summer Before the Dark, appeared for a second. A reviewer at Kirkus Reviews also complements Reduced handling of sexual conflicts. While the review was critical of Lessing's prose style, and called his description of the Four Zone war economy "ridiculous cartoon sketches," he said that "there is... generosity about this work not like he did."
Reviewing the novel in the Roswell Daily Record, American journalist Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called The Marriages one of Lessing's more accessible books because, in his opinion, his tendency to philosophize works better. in fantasy than in any other format. The author of Lucille deView is more critical of the book. Writing for the Christian Science Monitor , he complained that The Marriages was not as romantic as it should have been. He says that the fate of lovers who do not fit the book does not interest him and that their love comes as forced rather than excited. What can be an emotional romance becomes a "calculated intellectual game". DeView also criticized Lessing's character, saying that they "have a familiar childhood fairy tale with little Walt Disney cast".
Adaptations
The Three, Four and Five The Marriages Between Zones were adapted for opera in 1997 by composer Philip Glass with a story-libretto by Lessing. It was commissioned by the states of Baden-WÃÆ'¼rttemberg and HeidelbergCement in Germany. The two-act Opera for orchestra, choir and soloist had a world premiere in Heidelberg, Germany in May 1997 under the direction of Thomas Kalb (music) and Birgitta Trommler (stage), with libretto translated into German by Saskia M. Wesnigk. Lessing said that for the opera he expanded the allegory on gender relations: "There is room for two festivals: women's festivals and wedding festivals." There are many lyrics that are not in the novel. " The new opera production, directed by Harry Silverstein with music performed by Robert Kaminskas, was first aired in English in the United States in June 2001 at the Merle Reskin Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
The German premiere was not well received by the press, and Chicago's music critic John Von Rhein found an error in US production. He said that the novel "falls flat as a musical theater", there is "no interesting dramatic narrative", and the music "drifts together innocuously". Von Rhein also complained that "the score does not break new ground style, nor does it define the character dramatically".
In 1988, Glass had adapted another book from the Canopus in Argos series, Creation Representation for Planet 8 , into a three-act opera with Lessing's libretto story. It was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, the British National Opera, the Amsterdam Music Theater and the Kiel Opera House. The Opera premiered in Houston, Texas in July 1988, and received warm reviews by John Rockwell's New York Times music critic.
Publishing history
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments