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November 9, 2005

PoMoMou (John Fowles, RIP)

Drape low the black crepe. (And in a completely uncharacteristically unironic way, this time.)

Postmodern literary icon John Fowles has died "after battling a long illness."

We are now officially in PostModernMourning (PoMoMou, for those of you into such things).

John Fowles is the author of such PoMoLit classics as The Magus (which was a major part of my dissertation), The French Lieutenant's Woman (which book was, unsurprisingly, better than the movie), A Maggot (which is on my short-list of books to read when I get a spare moment because it is universally acclaimed), and many others.

Fowles was an author who always played with the big ideas about life, the universe and everything, and whose play always made absolutely fascinating narratives.

Unlike certain PoMo authors (*cough* John Barth, especially his recent stuff like The Book of Ten Nights and a Night*cough*), John Fowles never let his literary works devolve into mere exercises in onanism. For Fowles, each was important. Each novel was relevant. And that relevance and importance was palpable as you read.

My stack of John-Fowles-Novels-To-Be-Read will grow no more.

So get to mourning, already!

Posted by reparent at November 9, 2005 9:06 AM