The Aristos

superbly intelligent ruminations on the nature of man and his purpose and place in the world

Not what I was expecting, a very interesting philosophy on the structure of society. The format was good which made it easier to read.

The Aristos (1964;revised1980) is a ‘self-portrait in ideas’ setting forth the personal version of existentialism which underlies the novels. Fowles published this after his 1st novel The Collector. Fowles set out his ideas on life in The Aristos. The chief inspiration was the 5th century BC philosopher Heraclitus. In the world he posited of constant and chaotic flux the supreme good was the Aristos, ‘of a person or thing, the best or most excellent of its kind.’ He used the ‘success’ of his previous novel to issue this ‘failure.’ He wanted to free himself from all the modern cages we erect around ourselves,novelist, plumber, philosopher, and set forth his views without fear or being a specialist. As with existentialists he expresses his agnosticism, but acknowledges ‘God’, the ‘Godgame’ , religion and Christianity; he prefers to speak of ‘mystery’. He uses terms like ‘cosmos, the universe ’, ‘the whole, ‘the law’ chaos, ’humanism’. Socialism, art, poetry, science, doing the good, sexuality and freedom are all heavily discussed. Beneath each chapter heading Fowles makes inspired, numbered jottings: thoughts stating baldly what he believes, in order to elicit the readers beliefs, by forcing him/her to state what he/she believes. You can imagine him making these notes while an undergraduate, then working them up into essay form like Montaigne.Fowles was taking a risk by doing this un-English thing, by giving away a lot of the ideas he was using or about to use in his novels. Heraclitus saw a conflict between the ‘ Many’( the hoi polloi) and the’Few’( the intellectual/moral elite); but Fowles makes it clear these categories can exist in one individual as well as between people. By cutting away all the high fencing between subjects and specialist jargon Fowles makes a valid claim on our attention. Like a true writer of literature he asks us to ‘cherish the poet’; his two favourites being Catullus and Emily Dickinson.

The Aristos is a nonfiction exposition and statement of position on reality, the problems and challenges of humanity and what it means to be human by John Fowles, one of the greatest novelists of the second half of the twentieth century. One may agree with or differ from these pronouncements, for that is what they are, but one must acknowledge the author's precision and clarity of presentation, cutting insights and serious philosophical approach. It is very much worth the effort of reading.

ever asked yourself what it's all about (Alfie?) the answer's in here.

Read this years ago. Glad to see it's available from amazon again. Thought provoking philosophy. Easy to read and easy to dip into. The subject of many debates among friends and family!