FLW (post #1)
This is Taylor’s passage; her text analysis follows below:
“…The novelist is still a god, since he creates (and not even the most aleatory avant-garde modern novel has managed to extirpate its author completely); what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of Victorian image, omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image, with freedom our first principle, not authority. I have disgracefully broken the illusion? No. My characters still exist, and in a reality no less, or no more, real than the one I have just broken. Fiction is woven into all, as a Greek observed some two and a half thousand years ago. I find this new reality (or unreality) more valid; and I would have you share my own sense that I do not fully control these creatures of my mind, any more than you can control — however hard you try, however much of a latter-day Mrs Poulteney you may be — your children, colleagues, friends, or even yourself.”
Fowles starts off with powerful language in this passage. He says, ” The novelist is still a god,” which is an extremely strong statement. He uses a lot of parentheses to further explain his arguments and statements, and he also uses the word “we” in this passage a lot, to group himself in a category with the reader- which makes the reader feel closer to Fowles, adding some pathos in the mix. He makes good use of rhetorical questions, and even goes a step farther to answer them and elaborate. He uses figurative language and metaphors, especially when he says, “Fiction is woven into all.” It makes the reader picture fiction as a thread of string that runs through all material. It is, once again, a very powerful statement. You can note the power in Fowles’ statements because he uses blunt, short sentences. He ends the passage by switching from “we” to “you” which I thought was very interesting, because the point of view shifts and it seems that Fowles is now more directly reaching to the reader.
