Be it in the light fantastic of his early work, or the classic tragedy of La Condition humaine, or the sensuous poetry of the Antimemoires, Andre Malraux uses "farfelu" and related discourses to represent, not the simple "misogyny" of his critics, but a complex image of the symbolism of the sexes and of their interrelations - notably as regards the erotic, maternal, artistic and other aspects of the feminine.

As Domnica Radulescu shows, in phenomenological (Bachelardian) terms, "farfelu" discourse is part of Malraux's creation through art of a true "anti-destiny," a cosmic eroticism which recursively forms the primary material of the poetic imagination.