The Affirmation

The Affirmation is a 1981 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest.

The Affirmation
First edition
AuthorChristopher Priest
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherFaber and Faber
Publication date
1981
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages213
ISBN0-571-11684-1
OCLC8031278

Synopsis

Peter Sinclair endures professional unemployment and the breakup of a long-term relationship, and tries to escape his self-perceived newfound social marginality through creating an intricate fantasy fiction. In this world, he depicts himself as the winner of a lottery in the (fictional) Dream Archipelago, where the jackpot prize is a complex medical and neural operation (“athanasia”) that will ensure immortality. His fictional/alternate self must travel from Jethra, Faiandland's capital, to claim the treatment prize. As he writes, working ever deeper into his psyche, Sinclair finds that his two identities are starting to merge, although it may also be the case that Peter is experiencing visual and auditory hallucination symptoms attributable to the onset of schizophrenia. The novel's climax leaves the fact ambiguous as to which world is real and which is fantasy, with the novel ending in the same unfinished sentence as Sinclair's manuscript.

There are subsequent references to the Dream Archipelago in Priest's later short story collections, The Dream Archipelago (1999) and The Islanders (2011). However, it is uncertain whether this means that Sinclair is validly experiencing an alternate reality, or schizophrenia through visual and auditory hallucinations of that "reality."

Reception

Dave Pringle reviewed The Affirmation for Imagine magazine, and stated that "it is slow-moving, painstaking, flatly-written ... and yet it builds up a charge - it moves the reader. This is an honest, baffled (and baffling) work of art, in which Priest has found his perfect subject matter."[1]

Awards

The Affirmation won the Ditmar Award in 1982 for Best International Long Fiction, and was nominated for the 1981 BSFA Award.[2]

References
  1. Pringle, Dave (June 1983). "Book Review". Imagine (review). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. (3): 36.
  2. "1981 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-28.


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