/lit/ - Literature

Hoo boy, here we go.

First I'd like to thank Caracalla for posting a well-written and considered OP. You haven't just gone out and insulted the writer and his readers, you've discussed what you dislike about the reading and why. The board could use about four more threads a day like this one. Bravo!

I don't think there's any reason to disagree with what you're saying about Fowles being an egocentric. I'd go ahead and say his work isn't for you based on this alone. Not a judgment on character or ability mind you. Additionally I'm not going to frame my response as an argument to change your mind but rather to present an alternative reading of the man / his work to the board.

Forgive me if I seem off here, I'm trying as an apologist and the book is several years behind me at this point. In The Magus I see the Freudian imagery as more puppetry, drapery, images, props in what is really just a mixed thriller cum bildungsroman. I see a lot of deeply inventive, true, but paradoxically fantastic scenes where a selfish man is rising to the lesson of his life. With singular authors like Woolf, Mann, Fowles: I believe if they have fringes that overlap, if their work is occupied by similar flora and fauna, they remain distinctive entities; worlds unto themselves. Maybe Fowles is a smaller country in this sense. Maybe some people will enjoy the landscape more in his work. It's up to the diverse reader to look into it briefly on their own terms than take my word for it.