Abstract

John Fowles’ The Collector and The Magus were written against the background of thesociety in which all things has lost its original value because of mass consumption. One of thefeatures of this era, called the mass consumption society, is that worth of things is symbolized.

Mass production took away the irreplaceableness from all things, and imitations have been

produced in large quantities. Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher, named such a phenomenon

simulacrum and sounded the alarm bell to the modern social system that people are justplaying with the symbol of things rather than original value of those. Characters in the twonovels written by Fowles are closely related with such society. While they manipulate thesymbols or are manipulated by it, they embody the essence of the society of the simulacrum.

The main theme of this study is that they manipulate symbols that exist in the reality as if

modern people play the electronic games (like video games and computer games) by using

symbols that exist in the virtual space.

The Collector is the maiden work of Fowles, and it is constructed by narrative of thekidnapper Clegg and the diary of the victim Miranda. If readers pay attention to the brutalityof the bizarre incident, they would think that this work put the theme in Clegg’s depth

psychology and his deviant desire. The way a story unfolds is similar to Thomas Harris'

Silence of the Lambs, but the focus of The Collector is not the brutality but the general desire

of ordinary people. This incident is abnormal, but the mentality behind it is not special. Thisstory is a simulation of one common person who is released from the social shackles of laborand just concentrates on using money. Clegg’s desire is to add Miranda to his collection ofbutterflies. He regards her as a symbol of butterflies, and he wants to collect her, brought up

her and manipulate her. This incident is a mirror which depicts the desire of the modern

society where ordinary people live. This study compares the desire hidden in his collection

and modern electronic games (especially Pocket Monsters) and clarifies true nature of hisdesire. On the contrary of Clegg’s case, Miranda is a person who is manipulated bysimulacrum. She does not have her own sense of value and is under the control of social

evaluation like social status and property. It is not difficult to understand his crime and disease,that is escapism of human beings who lack the social adaptive capacity, but Miranda’s disease

is concealed from simulacrum. She is one of the snobs who are completely buried in social

value, and the essence of snobbism is desire to put others into their own value system. She isaffected with the disease which is the same quality as Clegg’s one. This novel connotes

Miranda is a reflection of Clegg in the mirror called simulacrum. The Magus is also a story

about the person who manipulates simulacrum in a small island. That man, Conchis makes anuntrue drama about his past days and creates a virtual theater in the island. He shows it to anaudience, Nicholas. It is important for Conchis that Nicholas believes his drama is filled with

fiction and there is ‘real things’ outside of it. Conchis suggests the border between the reality

and the fiction. In other words, he hid elements of fiction in real by showing his drama.

Two works written by Fowles are both concerned with simulacrum. Characters innovels are playing through manipulating symbols. It is possible to read that Fowles saw

through to heart of the social system that turned into a huge simulator, and at the 1960s, he has

already foreseen the future form of human desire.