Technology Is Magic, Use it Like a Jedi Not a Sith

My Talk from HCU's "Council of Elrond Academic Symposium"

I gave a paper today at the HCU Apologetics Day pre-conference. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it out in person so I gave a remote-viewing style virtual paper reading. I think it went well, but it’s hard to tell when you’re not in person. The paper is a further exploration of a piece I wrote on here a while back on the relationship between C.S. Lewis’s conception of magia magic and goetea, the philosophy of the Sith and the Jedi, and Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of technology. I took that old piece I wrote and worked it into a full-blown 25 minute talk with lots more references. You may enjoy it, but you also may completely hate it—no promises when Heidegger is involved.

The magic of fiction isn’t just for stories, and stories aren’t just for kids. A thoughtful study of ‘fictional magic’ themes in science fiction and fantasy can help us take a step back from our own lives and our own use of modern magic, long enough to think well about our lives and how best to live them. In this paper I’m going to briefly lay out C.S. Lewis’s conception of magian magic and goeteian magic as he put forth in his euchatastrophic dystopian science fantasy novel, That Hideous Strength. This distinction between two approaches to magic is deeply profound and has real-world analogs and implications, but in order to flesh those out more fully, I will first put the magian/goeteian magic distinction in touch with the magic inherent in the Star Wars Universe, The Force, and the magic wielders of that universe, the light and dark space wizards known as the Jedi and the Sith. With the Lewisian distinction in place, and with the Star Wars example explicated, I’ll then finish by showing how magian and goeteian magic tracks perfectly with Martin Heidegger’s ancient and modern philosophies of technology. From there, I’ll hint at some prescriptions for how we can practice dominion through magian technology like a Jedi instead of practicing domination through goeteian technology like a Sith.

Lewisian Magia/Goeteia

So, let’s start with a Lewisian conception of magic. Now, one of the eminent Inkling scholars of our time, Tom Shippey, put me onto Lewis’s distinction between magia magic and goeteia magic in his essay “New Learning and New Ignorance: Magia, Goeteia, and the Inklings”[1]. Shippey starts his analysis of Lewisian magic by citing Lewis’s massive tome—which is perhaps Lewis’s magnum opus—English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama, also called the OHEL book since it was in the Oxford History of English Literature series. Shippey begins by first noting a major irony in Lewis studies, saying:

It is one of the ironies of academic life that the work to which C.S. Lewis probably devoted the most time and the most effort is now among his least-read… [The OHEL Book]… is not without its admirers. Very recently a reviewer of a similar modern reference work contrasted it with Lewis’s, and commented on the latter’s “idiosyncratic brilliance” and “maverick excellence” (Rawson 2006:3). Nevertheless it has certainly not found a mass market. The reasons are obvious. The title itself is a dull one; and the period being surveyed is arguably the dullest of any period of English literature of which we have extensive knowledge.[2]

Now, this quote from Shippey naturally invites the question from you, the audience, “Parker, have you read the OHEL book?” To which I answer by way of a quote from Michael Scott of the Office, “read it? I own it! But no, I have not read it.” And I actually own three different copies, so triple shame on me for not reading it yet. But I have read Lewis’s first chapter, wherein he gives an account of the magia/goeteia distinction, and includes a third category of magic, medieval magic, which comes from faeire. I’ve also read Shippey’s analysis of it in his essay. Fortunately for me,