The Magus - John Fowles [244]
in princesses, he did not believe in islands, he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young prince believed his father._ _But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore._ _"Are those real islands?" asked the young prince._ _"Of course they are real islands," said the man in evening dress._ _"And those strange and troubling creatures?"_ _"They are all genuine and authentic princesses."_ _"Then God also must exist!" cried the prince._ _"I am God," replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow._ _The young prince returned home as quickly as he could._ _"So you are back," said his father, the king._ _"I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God," said the prince reproachfully._ _The king was unmoved._ _"Neither real islands, nor neat princesses, nor a real God, exist."_ _"I saw them!"_ _"Tell me how God was dressed."_ _"God was in full evening dress."_ _"Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?"_ _The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled._ _"That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived."_ _At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress._ _"My father the king has told me who you are," said the young prince indignantly. "You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician."_ _The man on the shore smiled._ _"It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them."_ _The prince returned pensively home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes._ _"Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?"_ _The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves._ _"Yes, my son, I am only a magician."_ _"Then the man on the shore was God."_ _"The man on the shore was another magician."_ _"I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic."_ _"There is no truth beyond magic," said the king._ _The prince was full of sadness._ _He said, "I will kill myself."_ _The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses._ _"Very well," he said. "I can bear it."_ _"You see, my son," said the king, "you too now begin to be a magician."_ The "orders" looked as if they had all been typed out at the same time, just as the poems were all scribbled in the same pencil with the same pressure, as if they had been written _ad hoc_ in one sitting. Nor did I believe such "orders" could ever have been sent; what else was the telephone for? I puzzled over Hirondelle... _still tender_; must not be mentioned to me; some surprise, some episode I was never shown. The poems and the little epistemological fable were easier to understand; had clear applications. Obviously they could not have been sure that I would break into the Earth. Perhaps there were such clues littered all over the place, it being accepted on their side that I would find only a very small proportion of them. But what I did find would come to me in a different way from the blatantly planted clue--with more conviction; and yet might be as misleading as all the other clues I had been given. I was wasting my time at Bourani; all I might appear to find there would confuse confusion. That was the meaning of the fable. By searching so fanatically I was making a detective story out of the summer's events, and to view life as a detective story, as something that could be deduced, hunted and arrested, was no more realistic