Crusading With a Pen

DORIS LESSING IS A WRITER UNDER THE SPELL OF COLONIAL SUPEREGO AND ENTERTAINS NO NEW WORLD NOR ITS REALITY: NO RALPH, NOR FANON, NOR GARVEY'S WISH BUT HER 'PEOPLE'S COLONIAL WISH. BY MERE FACT THAT SHE WAS GIVEN A NOBEL PRIZE, FOR WRITING HER APOLOGETIC STAFF SPEAKS VOLUME OF WHAT SHE REPRESENTS: THE 'DEMOCRATIC' DISPOSSESSION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. IN NUTSHELL THAT IS THE LESSINGIAN'S PATHETIC DREAM.

A clammy blackbird.

A circle of life
is the natural field
of a country, in
a luminous care
now forgetting an
answer; and this
is my dreamland,
the sound of a
blackbird and an
ancient desire.

Francesco Sinibaldi

I wonder if Lessing isn't a bit pessimistic about the future of the novel. I teach high school and my kids are always reading YA literature and some read novels as well. I don't think the electronic Kindle will catch on as sales have been sagging for Amazon, because people like better the feel of paper under their fingers. I don't know. The American novel has been around since 1789, and likely wll be here long after I'm gone.