Heraclitus against the barbarians: John Fowles's 'The Magus.' - John Fowles Issue

Twentieth Century Literature, Spring, 1996 by Paul H. Lorenz

Nicholas is guided into this new world by Maurice Conchis, the emcee of the godgame, a kind of psychological and worshipful venture into virtual reality. In the ancient world, games, sports, and dancing developed out of religious worship associated with the goddess religions (Olivovna 18). These games, much like Conchis's godgame, were intended as celebrations of human life and physical potential and thus were "playful" acts of worship in which there were no real losers. That is why Nick is frequently reminded that the game is better if he pretends to believe and why Conchis is concerned when Nick receives a physical injury in the portion of the game where he is arrested by "German" soldiers. The playful, non-hierarchic, non-competitive nature of a sacred game like the godgame, is, in itself, a telling negation of the stern power and assumed importance of any form of totalitarianism, including the totalitarianism of omnipotent celestial gods, or men who act as if they were. Competitive games and sports, on the other hand, reinforce the cultural values of the Aryan invaders who displaced the goddess religions of Europe (Olivovna 192). Nicholas, in his Aryan mind-set, wants to win the godgame. In his barbarian mind, he thinks the game is an ego-satisfying competition for power, rather than a civilized celebration of life in the ancient Greek tradition.

Fowles plays many games with names in The Magus, besides the obvious one with the identities of Lily/Julie and Rose/June. Nicholas's family name is Urfe, which Fowles explains in the foreword to the revised edition is his own childhood pronunciation of "Earth" (9). Nicholas claims to be related to Honore d'Urfe, the author of a seventeenth-century pastoral called L'Astree, or "The Star," which Nick does not read until after he leaves Phraxos. Nick's roots, as his name suggests, are clearly in the earth, but his pretensions are with the gods in the sky. When he finally reads L'Astree, he discovers that the pastoral is a story of earthly rather than celestial values. It is his own story: the story of a man who has been dishonest in love, who must struggle to win back the trust of his lover (94, 592). Even this game with names suggests that Nicholas has within himself, in his heritage, all that is necessary to achieve a metamorphosis of perception which will allow him to live in harmony with present realities.

This game of names continues with Maurice Conchis. An issue is made of the pronunciation of the "ch" in his last name. The islanders pronounce "Conchis" with a hard "ch," so that it is homophonic with the plural of "conch," the spiraled gastropod which is often used to symbolize feminine mystery and appears in mythology as the shell trumpet of the Tritons. Conchis himself prefers his name pronounced with a soft "ch" as in the word "conscious," or childishly mispronounced, "conscience" (75, 83). Thus, Conchis's role extends beyond that of the theatrical emcee suggested by his initials. He becomes an instrument for the reawakening of Nick's conscience, especially that feminine moral consciousness which lies buried deep in the subconscious prehistory of the Urfe family.