“Which was the goddess? He couldn't say.”
~ p. 172 The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Calasso
Nicholas Urfe. The strange character “chosen” to undergo a rather cruel experiment in the book The Magus, and for what? To hopefully change him in some way, set up by his current (or perhaps ex-) girlfriend who in the end has nothing really to say to him, acts as a rather unintelligent broad, and just stands there crying, trapped in the curse of her own game? There are four women throughout the book, but who holds the key to the plot? Julie (Lily), June (Rose), Alison, or Lily de Seitas? Who decides the ending? Certainly it is not Nick, for he is the pawn in the whole book, or as others have put it, the lab rat in which can choose its own path, and by doing so determines the outcome of the maze, but not necessarily the ending. It could not possibly be Lily de Seistas as she had no direct link to Nick’s bizarre happenings. As for Lily and Rose? They truly were mere puppets throughout the whole “act”. This leaves only Alison; the one Nick had least expected to be part of it at all. But why play this awful trick on someone you supposedly loved? I feel there are better ways to make someone change, and yet, even after he had changed (which, in my opinion she never really took the time to find out), she still didn’t want him. Or did she?
Nicholas was the unsuspecting man who has tricks played on his heart. (And what makes me angry, is the next young fellow to take his spot at the Greek school will probably take his place in Mr. Conchis’s evil fun as well. Which by the way, I hope does not happen, or at least the young gentleman is smart enough not to get hooked, since he seems like a nice guy and has a fiancé.) And yet he can’t let it go once he has left the island. But is it he can’t let it go because he wants to continue living in this land of illusion, or is it because of the mystery behind the whole thing and he wants to know the actual truth of it all? His mind games have no longer become a mystery that must be won by wits, but one that must be won by tedious tasks of searching – almost like a scavenger hunt. Always searching for every clue, hoping that the last one will lead to the end, which you hope to reach before your opponents, only to be disappointed with the ending results.
“It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing.”
~ p. 7 The Screwtape Letters by: C. S. Lewis
His torture which indulged his boring life on the island soon turned into a chore and in a way, disappointment.
But what was the point behind it all? I still don’t understand. Sexson keeps insisting it relates to the separation, initiation, transformation cycle. Perhaps. It would seem logical since, like Sexson had mentioned, Nick separates himself from England, undergoes all these mind games with Mr. Conchis (which include an “initiation trial”), returns to England where he begins as a different man. Now he feels no longer like a mere common Englishman, but in a way, an outcast. This outcast feeling explains the transformation stage. But what did he gain from this? One can only conclude the hopes that he will be more respectful towards the women he dates (if he dates again, thanks to Alison and Lily he doesn’t appear as if he ever wants to) in the future. Seems a little silly to go through all that trouble, money, and time to get that change when it could have been done in a quicker manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment