Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-5-2023 6:30 PM
End Date
8-5-2023 7:20 PM
Description
Other typical hadean tropes notwithstanding (e.g. the fiery slopes of Mt. Doom, or the demonic cannibal feast over which Screwtape gives a toast, the rank pits of Angband), the image that most commonly attends the hellish landscapes in the work of both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien is one of managerial governance. From the policies of the bilious Governor Gumpas to the Dark Lord’s economic network of “long wagon-trains of goods and booty and fresh slaves,” Hell for both authors is a place where all of life succumbs to what Baptiste Rappin has called “the foundation of Management.” Hells such as these, amidst their various differences, are all animated by the same infernal logic—driven by probabilistic governance, inspired by naked appeals to power and efficiency, and wrangled by a kind of panoptic surveillance. In them coercive fiat is maintained under a constant stream of reports and forms —the purpose of which is the reduction of human and non-human life to the point of justified annihilation. This paper limns the managerial aspects of Lewis’ and Tolkien’s hells, comparing and contrasting their depictions, in order to consider the way in which these images of hell-as-management speak to contemporary issues of organization and social order.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Managing Hell: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on the Infernality of Managerialism
Other typical hadean tropes notwithstanding (e.g. the fiery slopes of Mt. Doom, or the demonic cannibal feast over which Screwtape gives a toast, the rank pits of Angband), the image that most commonly attends the hellish landscapes in the work of both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien is one of managerial governance. From the policies of the bilious Governor Gumpas to the Dark Lord’s economic network of “long wagon-trains of goods and booty and fresh slaves,” Hell for both authors is a place where all of life succumbs to what Baptiste Rappin has called “the foundation of Management.” Hells such as these, amidst their various differences, are all animated by the same infernal logic—driven by probabilistic governance, inspired by naked appeals to power and efficiency, and wrangled by a kind of panoptic surveillance. In them coercive fiat is maintained under a constant stream of reports and forms —the purpose of which is the reduction of human and non-human life to the point of justified annihilation. This paper limns the managerial aspects of Lewis’ and Tolkien’s hells, comparing and contrasting their depictions, in order to consider the way in which these images of hell-as-management speak to contemporary issues of organization and social order.
Comments
SESSION VII
6:30 PM—7:20 Eastern
5:30 PM—6:20 Central
4:30 PM—5:20 Mountain
3:30 PM—4:20 Pacific
10:30 PM—11:20 GMT