Technology as Sorcery: Heidegger and Tolkien on the Saving Power of Sub-Creation
Escaping the Spell of the Machine
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We have another post today by Eugene Terekhin, the man and the mind behind the publication Philosophy of Language.
Eugene is a regular contributing writer to The BoldBrush Letter.
This post originally appeared on Philosophy of Language here
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Technology as Sorcery
“Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly pay homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology.”
— Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology
What is the essence of technology according to Heidegger?
In its modern form, it is not a tool—it’s a way of revealing. But revealing what? A particular way of perceiving the world, which Heidegger calls enframing.
Enframing reduces everything to a “standing-reserve.” Modern technology is a lens through which everything in the world is reduced to a standing-reserve, something from which we can endlessly extract energy or resources.
Modern technology, therefore, is no longer neutral or merely instrumental. It imposes upon us a mindset that treats everything—even nature and human beings—as resources to be efficiently harnessed, optimized, and exploited for immediate ends.
J.R.R. Tolkien likens modern technology to black magic.
“The Machine is our more obvious modern form though more closely related to Magic than is usually recognised.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 131
According to Tolkien, the lure of the Machine is that it arises from an apparently good root—a desire to benefit the world and others:
“…this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others—speedily and according to the benefactor’s own plans.”
This is the very definition of black magic—using some external means to quickly impose my will upon the world. The motto of the Machine is “my will be done.” The lure of the Machine is that it allows me to quickly achieve my desire. The Machine is not about renouncing one’s will—it’s about establishing and enforcing it.
There’s only one counterpower that can pull the sting out of the Machine. Heidegger writes:
“Because the essence of technology is nothing technological… the decisive confrontation with it must happen in a realm that is, on the one hand, akin to the essence of technology and, on the other, fundamentally different from it. Such a realm is art.”
Modern technology teaches us to “establish our own will.” Because our hearts are not neutral either, we are easily tempted to use the Machine under the guise of “benefiting the world and others.” We seldom recognize this impulse as black magic, yet that’s precisely what it is. How do we resist this lure?
Through renouncing our will. Sub-creation stands in direct opposition to the Machine because the one engaged in sub-creation must renounce their will. Sub-creation occurs only when we are captivated by beauty of such magnitude that we forget ourselves entirely and respond to The Call. The moment our own will asserts itself, the experience of beauty is ruined.
A sub-creator is not concerned with imposing his will upon the world; he is totally captivated by the Call. He hears the Music from above and knows that the only way to reflect that Music on earth is to die to self and follow the Tune to the end. A true work of art is an embodiment of that heavenly Music.
“But where danger is, grows the saving power also.” — Heidegger
The saving power comes from the “magic of the Elves,” which Tolkien calls Art.
The saving power comes from the “magic of the Elves,”
which Tolkien calls Art.
Every Elvish blade, cloak, rope, boat, bow, arrow, bread, drink, phial, etc. has its distinct magic because it is infused with the Light of Lothlórien. When asked by Pippin about the magic of the elven cloaks, the leader of the Elves answered:
“They have the hue and beauty of all these things under the twilight of Lórien that we love; for we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”
The Elves infused everything they crafted with their love of Lórien. That’s why the works of their hands were truly magical—revealing the Music of Ilúvatar. The purpose of the Machine is the domination of beings; the meaning of Art is the revelation of Being.
The Machine empowers the will; Art teaches us to renounce our will because the will stands in the way of Beauty. A sub-creator’s art reveals Being and infuses it into the work of his hands. This is a different kind of magic—one that unites heaven and earth.
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