Doris Lessing does too have a sense of humour... ~

so I just re-read her space fiction masterwork, Canopus in Argos Archives—

felt as before, that of the five novels, Shikasta is the most brilliant and Marriages the most magical,

but I found something fun in the Sentimental Agents, that I had not noticed before—and that was this:

in the large scheme of things over the series of novels, two long-lived galactic empires interact, Canopus and Sirius.

many diverse planets in each empire, but as we all know,

Sirius is the dog-star.

the Sirian planet that invades the unhappy and out-of-luck Volyen Empire is called Motz.

this was the name of Thomas Mann’s dog.