The Magus

The motif of parallels and mirror-images is central to the text, making it difficult for Nick to tell truth from illusion, thus illustrating Narrative Instability as Metaphor for Reality. Lily is the most obvious example of a double, since she has a twin, Rose. Nick himself has a double in the form of the younger Conchis, as well as Leverrier and Mitford, his predecessors at the Lord Byron school, once subjected to similar experiments as him. Like names and people, objects also have mirror-images. Conchis’s villa is the mirror of De Deukans’s chateau, both containing risqué artworks: Conchis’s Priapus is paralleled by De Deukans’ sexualized robot, Mirabelle.

Statues and sculptures too are doubles of each other, sometimes even distorted mirror images, such as Priapus and Poseidon. While Priapus with his monstrous phallus and scary face represents uncontrolled male sexuality, the nude of Poseidon represents balance and calmness. The Poseidon statue erected by Conchis is itself a “a copy of the famous Poseidon fished out of the sea near Euboea at the beginning of the century” (210).

The doubles, mirror-images, and foils also raise a question about the cyclical nature of existence. Since reality is repetitive, the impression conveyed to Nick is that people’s free will may be limited. Everyone is playing a part in a pre-determined script, written either by God or some other presiding force. It is now up to Nick to see beyond this impression and understand that, regardless of whatever godgame may be played with him, it is his eleutheria which defines him.

Conchis is the titular magus of the title, the term referring to a magician or a conjurer. The magus is also the name of a card in the tarot deck, often represented as a male figure with a wand in his upraised hand. In the novel, the motif of the magus illustrates narrative instability as metaphor for reality and The Quest for the Authentic Self Amid Illusion. Conchis, the magus, organizes tricks and illusions to force Nick into a crucible, heralding the birth of Nick’s new self. In the sense that the magus attends to Nick’s symbolic new birth, he is also associated with the three magi (priests or wise men) who journeyed to see the infant Jesus.

The magus is linked with narrative instability because he creates masques and fictions that confuse Nick’s perception of reality. In this way, he is also the symbol of a writer, much as Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Just as the writer creates an immersive fictional world that speaks to truth, the magus’s grand tricks invent a new universe as well. Further, if Conchis is the magus-like writer, Bourani is the text he creates for Nick and the reader. Thus, the motif of the magus also amplifies the novel’s metafictional and self-reflexive aspects.