Presenter Information

Mark Brians

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.

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

COinS
 
Aug 5th, 6:30 PM Aug 5th, 7:20 PM

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.

 

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