John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
John Robert Fowles war ein britischer Romanautor.
John Fowles studierte Sprachen an der Universität Oxford und arbeitete als Lehrer, bevor er sich seit 1964 ausschließlich dem Schreiben von Romanen widmete. Seine erfolgreichsten Bücher – „Die Geliebte des französischen Leutnants“ und „Daniel Martin“ – kommen auf den ersten Blick als historische Erzählungen daher, bergen aber eine Vielzahl von historischen und gesellschaftskritischen Einsichten und lassen sich auch als Beschreibungen der condition humaine im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert lesen. Gleiches gilt für die oberflächlich als Kriminalgeschichten angelegten Romane „Die Grille“ und „Der Sammler“, in denen die Anomie-Problematik und die prinzipielle Abgründigkeit menschlichen Handelns thematisiert werden. In „Mantissa“ stellt Fowles in dem Dialog mit einer der Musen der griechischen Mythologie seine Poetik dar.
„Der Magus“ – lange als sein Hauptwerk betrachtet – stellt die Themen Freiheit und Willensfreiheit in den Mittelpunkt und fragt nach der Möglichkeit von Erkenntnis an sich. Alle Romane von Fowles sind gekennzeichnet durch den Zweifel an der wahrgenommenen Realität, wie er auch im philosophischen Konstruktivismus gepflegt wird.
John Fowles lebte in Lyme Regis in Dorset. Er starb an Krebs.
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“I'm not really sorry. But I'm not absolutely unsorry.”
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.”
John Fowles buch The French Lieutenant's Woman
Quelle: The French Lieutenant's Woman
“When you draw something it lives and when you photograph it it dies”
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist.”
John Fowles buch The French Lieutenant's Woman
Quelle: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), Ch. 13, p. 99
“I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.”
John Fowles buch The Magus
Daniel Martin (1977)
Quelle: The Magus
Kontext: I saw that I was from now on, for ever, contemptible. I had been and remained, intensely depressed, but I had also been, and always would be, intensely false; in existentialist terms, inauthentic. I knew I would never kill myself, I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.
John Fowles buch The French Lieutenant's Woman
Quelle: The French Lieutenant's Woman
“But forgetting's not something you do, it happens to you. Only it didn't happen to me”
John Fowles buch The Collector
Variante: Forgetting’s not something you do, it happens to you. Only it didn’t happen to me.
Quelle: The Collector
John Fowles buch The Aristos
The Aristos (1964)
Kontext: The artefacts of a genius are distinguished by rich human content, for which he forges new images and new techniques, creates new styles. He sees himself as a unique eruption in the desert of the banal. He feels himself mysteriously inspired or possessed. The craftsman, on the other hand, is content to use the traditional materials and techniques. The more self-possessed he is, the better craftsman he will be. What pleases him is skill of execution. He is very concerned with his contemporary success, his market value. If a certain kind of political commitment is fashionable, he may be committed; but out of fashion, not conviction. The genius, of course, is largely indifferent to contemporary success; and his commitment to his ideals, both artistic and political, is profoundly, Byronically, indifferent to their contemporary popularity. <!-- no. 61
“I know what I am to him. A butterfly he has always wanted to catch.”
John Fowles buch The Collector
The Collector (1963)
Kontext: I know what I am to him. A butterfly he has always wanted to catch. I remember (the very first time I met him) G. P. saying that collectors were the worst animals of all. He meant art collectors, of course. I didn’t really understand, I thought he was just trying to shock Caroline — and me. But of course, he is right. They’re anti-life, anti-art, anti-everything.
John Fowles buch The Aristos
The Aristos (1964)
Kontext: The artefacts of a genius are distinguished by rich human content, for which he forges new images and new techniques, creates new styles. He sees himself as a unique eruption in the desert of the banal. He feels himself mysteriously inspired or possessed. The craftsman, on the other hand, is content to use the traditional materials and techniques. The more self-possessed he is, the better craftsman he will be. What pleases him is skill of execution. He is very concerned with his contemporary success, his market value. If a certain kind of political commitment is fashionable, he may be committed; but out of fashion, not conviction. The genius, of course, is largely indifferent to contemporary success; and his commitment to his ideals, both artistic and political, is profoundly, Byronically, indifferent to their contemporary popularity. <!-- no. 61
John Fowles buch The Collector
The Collector (1963)
Kontext: I don’t think the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has much chance of actually affecting the government. It’s one of the first things you have to face up to. But we do it to keep our self-respect to show to ourselves, each one to himself or herself, that we care. And to let other people, all the lazy, sulky, hopeless ones like you, know that someone cares. We’re trying to shame you into thinking about it, about acting.
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“We all want things we can't have. Being a decent human being is accepting that.”
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“I am infinitely strange to myself.”
John Fowles buch The French Lieutenant's Woman
Quelle: Charles to Sarah in Ch. 47, p. 340 note: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969)
“The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.”
John Fowles buch The Magus
Quelle: The Magus
John Fowles buch The Collector
Quelle: The Collector
“It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live.”
John Fowles buch The French Lieutenant's Woman
Quelle: The French Lieutenant's Woman