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Doris Lessing: Civilized Westerners are the Civilized Barbarians
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Doris
Lessing: Civilized Westerners are the Civilized Barbarians
--- Frank Nov. 19 2013 in Canada
Doris Lessingn, the one of the
great writers with great soul of our age.
Previously, I did not know the name of Doris Lessing, it was that the
reports about she was the winner of the 2007 Nobel prize in literature and who
has left this world at her age 94 to have caught my attention. I
searched with key words Doris Lessing and was supprised by what I found.
It maybe
was that unforgettable suffering of childhood trained her eyes sharp insight
into human society. When most Westerners were in the pursuit of wealth with
respecting the capitalism, she saw the ugly of them, those who thought
themselves as the most civilized were just the civilized barbarians.
Following is a story about her viewing on Western Civilization.
May
2, 15 1993, when Doris Lessing visiting in China. Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences has invited some noted writers of China to meet with her. She said:
"Through the exchanges, everyone will be able to learn each other's
strengths. China is developing with studying from those developed countries,
but I would like to remind you all, currently, in West, it appeared a whole
generation of civilized barbarians. These people have a high Academic Degree
with modern scientific knowledge, but, they use knowledge endless pursuit of
material desires. Those people have mastered civilization, but, to have created
brutal results. China must go on own road by exploring new way! "
Above
is translated base on a report in mandarin:
http://ent.ynet.com/3.1/1311/19/8456903.html
It
was that what Doris Lessing said in Shanghai China gave me a strong impression：Civilized Westerners are the
civilized barbarians
Nov 17,
2013, in the article <Doris Lessing,
Nobel-Winning Writer on Race, Gender, Dies> the writer Laurence
Arnold said with that:
"Doris Lessing, the British author
awarded a Nobel Prize in literature for a lifetime of
writing about gender and race, drawing on her own upbringing in Africa, has
died. She was 94. "
"Born to English parents in present-day
Iran, and raised in what is nowZimbabwe, Lessing witnessed the demise of the
British Empire, race-based governments in Africa and the communist movement she
briefly joined after World War II. Her novels and short stories challenged the
notion of fixed truths and permanent institutions."
"The Swedish Academy, in
awarding Lessing the Nobel Prize, called her “'that epicist of the
female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected
a divided civilization to scrutiny.'”
"The Swedish Academy, in awarding Lessing the Nobel
Prize, called her 'that epicist of the female experience, who with
skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to
scrutiny.'”
"Per Wastberg, chairman of the
Nobel Committee for Literature, said Lessing 'has displayed an almost limitless empathy with odd lives
and a freedom from prejudice regarding every form of human behavior.'”
Doris Lessing - a great soul of
our times.
--- Frank Nov. 19
2013 in Canada
Doris Lessing, Nobel-Winning Writer
on Race, Gender, Dies
By Laurence Arnold - larnold4@bloomberg.net Nov
17, 2013 7:00 PM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-17/doris-lessing-nobel-winning-writer-on-race-gender-dies.html
Shaun Curry/AFP via Getty Images
British author Doris Lessing
smiles outside her home in London during October 2007. Lessing, awarded a Nobel
Prize in literature, has died at the age of 94.
To contact the reporter on this
story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible
for this story: Charles W. Stevens at cstevens@bloomberg.net
Doris Lessing in her own words – obituary
podcast
Nobel prize-winning novelist
Doris Lessing has died. Listen to some revealing interviews she gave to the
Guardian
Presented by Claire Armitstead and produced by Tim
Maby
· theguardian.com, Monday
18 November 2013 10.06 GMT
Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize-winning author, dies
aged 94
17 November 2013 Last
updated at 16:40 ET
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24979129
Nick Higham looks back at the life of novelist Doris Lessing
"Doris Lessing was a one of the great writers of our age," said Charlie Redmayne, CEO of Harper Collins UK.
She was
only the 11th woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature
"She
was a compelling storyteller with a fierce intellect and a warm heart who was
not afraid to fight for what she believed in."
The author
Fay Weldon praised Lessing for "her concern for humanity, her sense of the
sweep of history and her ability to place human beings in it".
"She was just the most remarkable writer and we won't see her like
again," she added.
Lessing
is survived by her daughter Jean and granddaughters Anna and Susannah.
comments
Here is a selection of comments
sent in by BBC News website readers:
Annie Waterhouse, Howick, South
Africa: Doris Lessing's Children Of
Violence series still remain on my bookshelf after many moves. She saved my
sanity by recording and reflecting what it was like to grow up white in racist
and conservative Southern Africa. RIP Ms Lessing.
Arielle Emmett, Hong Kong: Lessing didn't seem to care about the ostensible rise of mechanistic or
digital and patriarchal civilization, on material acquisition or even about
physical beauty; she seemed absorbed in the conflicts and potential of women
outside the ordinary realms men defined for them. Her work was brilliant and an
eye opener, even though I couldn't absorb her messages completely until much
later in life. She was truly one of the greats.
Dr Murray Steel, Ormskirk: In the late 1960s I contacted Doris Lessing in connection with an
article I was writing on the Southern Rhodesia Labour Party of which she was a
leading member in the Second World War. She replied at length, setting her work
(as described in 'A Ripple From the Storm') in the wider perspective of
politics in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe with the evolution of black nationalism there in
the post-war period.
David Austin, Norfolk: She had an honesty and clarity of mind which went to the heart of a
matter - a bit like a child's awkward question but with the advantage of a throbbing
intellect. She wasn't afraid to change her mind either, and in public - she was
always exploring. But above all she was kind.
Weiyun Yang, Taiwan: Doris Lessing influenced my thoughts and my way of thinking immensely
when I was working on my Ph.D. thesis. Her fiction is difficult to read but
stimulates the reader with her truthful storytelling of humanity in their naked
faces. Many readers will feel the sorrow of loss, including me. My sincere
gratitude to a great writer who changes the mind of human beings, a mission
perfectly completed with her life as a writer.
Sara Montagnese, Padova, Italy: I once saw this tiny lady in the cafe of the London hospital I used to
work at. I looked at her and she looked back with a smile which was half-amused
and half-bored, and probably meant: "Yes, it's me - stop staring."
Margaret Baker, London: I admired her courage. She was very inspiring, The children of Violence,
series were books I identified with. I wrote to her twice and she acknowledged
my letters. She used her pen to highlight injustice. I still have a postcard
from her with a Rembrandt picture.
