Identity in Doris Lessing’s Space Fiction By David Waterman

The “normal” people are in fact ill, having adapted to a dysfunctional society, and they are not able to understand their degenerative illness; as a result have lost the ability to conceive of themselves in a universal sense. Canopus’s envoys, with their utopian message, are not understood by the population, and further, the residents of Shikasta cannot accept the idea that other conceptual frameworks are possible, even though all the evidence shows their current path leads only to mutual destruction.

The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five also questions the basis of an identity which is defined in spatial and geographic terms, in other words by group formation; the forced mixing of diverse cultures is commanded by the Providers as a means of healing the current social fractures. The organization of space is a very important tool in subject formation, since we find our place in relation to others on a geographic map which has, apparently, all the characteristics of a natural space in the real world. Each zone seems independent, and as long as each subject stays in his / her assigned place, everything seems fine. Those who approach too closely one of the borders of a zone become uneasy, even physically ill which discourages curiosity regarding the residents of other Zones. The boundaries between the Zones are, in fact, much more permeable than the residents would have believed. As the novel progresses, Lessing exposes the lie of impenetrable borders, an idea constructed in service of the dominant power as a way of achieving its political objectives. Borders are thus fictions, but with very real effects which define “us” in relation to “them” and at the same time give a sense of protection and security which comes at the price of isolation. Movement is limited, not only in a geographic sense but also in the sense of social evolution, since for Lessing social problems like war and imperialism are only symptoms of a deeper and more troubling illness, that of division into competitive and predatory groups. The principal characters, Al Ith and Ben-Ata, are involved in a mandatory social experiment; the two are disoriented by their movement, both geographic and ideological which leaves them with a feeling of alienation regarding not only the Zone that they move to, but their original Zone that they move from as well.