Technology vs.

Magic in Postmodern Fantasy Literature

(on Terry Pratchett and Max Frei's Fiction Worlds)
Yevheniia Kanchura
Zhytomyr State Technological University
Abstract: Fantasy worlds are built on the ground of mythological thinking, so magic is one of the basic
features of the secondary reality there. Historically, fantasy worlds were created as a response to technology
growth which seemed to be dangerous for people. Mythological thinking and magic were posed in strict
opposition to any kind of technologies in the classic fantasy. Meanwhile, postmodern fantasy with its
tendency to deconstruct and eliminate binary oppositions demonstrates a new approach to technologies which
is clearly read in the works by Terry Pratchett and Max Frei. The paper investigates the interaction between
the concepts of magic and technologies and provides a study of a new opposition based on ecological and
global thinking, common to the fantasy literature of the 21st century.
Keywords: Postmodern fantasy, Terry Pratchett, Max Frei, fantasy world construction, technology in fantasy
literature.
In his letter (1933) to J. R. R. Tolkien's children, Father Christmas once
complained: "We did lose a lot of railway stuff – goblins always go for that" (Толкін
2017 : 85). 80 years later, in his 40th Discworld novel, Terry Pratchett demonstrates the
readers how skillful and creative with all this railway stuff the goblins are (Pratchett 2013).
The world has changed, and now humans and goblins – side by side – ride steam trains in
the fantasy world creating the reality of new Otherness and deconstructing binary
oppositions.
Fantasy metagenre started as a reaction to the dramatic rise of technology at the
edge of the 19th and 20th century. Green world of legends and trees was disappearing under
the dirty smoke of steam engines and factories, the ancestors' homeland was poisoned with
fuel oil, people had to leave their centuries-old dwellings and move to the cities to feed the
insatiable god of Industry. Technologies created by humans were killing humans' habitual
way of life. The world seemed to be coming to its end. The Good and Evil were not
reachable through the common ways of religion or science worldview. People were
looking for the third road that winds about the fernie brae (Tolkien, 1966:5) leading to the
inner self across the forests of mythologies and mythopoetics.
The consequence of the attempts to find the inner truth and to distance from the
dramatic technological progress was the sub-creation of Secondary reality, full of Faerie
Magic "but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar
devices of the laborious, scientific, magician," – states J. R. R. Tolkien in his essay,
fundamental for the developing of fantasy metagenre, written in the 1930s (Tolkien,
1966:10). Thus, he creates an opposition of Magic as a symbol of inner power of sub-
creation and a Machine as a symbol of technology which rules the real world, laying also
the foundation for division magic into two general kinds: the first which is similar to
technology and consequently is designed to reach some quick results and gain satisfaction
through the violence towards the nature of the world, and the second, faerie Art or
Enchantment, which is based on understanding of nature, "capable to survey the depths of
space and time and to hold communion with other living things" (Tolkien, 1966:12). In
1920s-30s, the idea of finding the truth inside an individual's soul was opposed to the
mechanized corrupted society and based on the assumption of the world's wholeness, with
a human as an inseparable part of it. Faerie magic provided the base for the wholeness of
human's Being.
The question is: why the opposite of technology is considered as magic? What is in
common between these two concepts? As Ukrainian scholar O. Filonenko (Філоненко,
2017: 13) states, following Sir James George Frazer's research and ideas, there is no
ultimate academic definition of magic and this issue is a constant subject for discussions.
Nevertheless, the scholar analyzes different sources, from etymological to philosophical
studies emphasizing the meaning of magic as a complex of practices and a thinking mode,
very close to the artistic one (Філоненко, 2017: 18), operating with specific archetypal
symbols in communication with the realm of the unconscious (Філоненко, 2017: 29). The
scholar also provides an observation that etymology of magic allows to relate it
semantically to the verb make and consequently to technology (Філоненко, 2017: 15). So
the comparison of the two concepts may be presented in the following chart:
magic technology
Practice ("making") aimed to facilitate actions directed to the satisfaction of some need
alien / exotic for uninitiated incomprehensible for common people
otherness, secretiveness
related both to fantasy and ratio related to ratio, but includes fantasy and
imagination
something ethically and semantically ambivalent
may cause fear in common people
power / authority changing the material world according to
the needs of the master
illusory / ephemeral material
operating with specific archetypal symbols operating with tools and calculations, basing
in communication with the unconscious on the results of science and engineering
The main difference is that technology deals with matter while magic – with the
unconscious, literally, with the psyche. So, speaking about magic as a fantasy-premise, we
can postulate the role of magic in fantasy worlds as some special natural power,
communicating directly with people's spirit or psyche. The emergence of fantasy literature
as the way to restore the wholeness of human's sole and of the worldview is based on the
way to the true inner self, the process of individuation, which is carried out through magic
fantasy-premise.
I am going to demonstrate how the binary opposition of magic and technology is
changing throughout the development of fantasy literature of 20th – 21st centuries. This
research focuses on the examples of Terry Pratchett and Max Frei fictional worlds. Both
authors are considered as postmodern. Terry Pratchett (Sir Terence D. J. Prattchett, 1948-
2015) created a fantasy world – Discworld – as a part of Multiverse, which he calls the
Library-space (L-space): “on Discworld all metaphors are potentially real, all figures of
speech have a way of becoming more than words” (Pratchett, 2000 : 160), where the
postmodern slogan "the world is a text" works as the basic fantasy-premise. Working with
a textualized world model, Pratchett shows the way to individual's real self, based on
freeing the conscious from the power of textual patterns and cliché. Max Frei (Svitlana
Martynchyk, b. 1965) created The World of the Core (Мир Стержня) as one of numerous
worlds, existing in the boundless continuum of Humgat (a pathway between the worlds).
The World of the Core is alive, with the heart, full of magic; here the dreams are an
inseparable part of the real life and the reality is fluent and flexible; the personality here is
free as a wind, and the winds have their personality. Both writers assume the multiplicity
of the worlds and value a person's individuation based on the right to choose their path and
destination. So the main feature for both of them may be spot: they lead their characters
and readers through the state of post-modern and come to the Subject's revitalization (after-
postmodern) and the coexistence of magic and technology in their worlds can be regarded
in terms of postmodern deconstruction of binary oppositions. The comparison is also
interesting due to the difference of these secondary worlds: Discworld series represent
immersive fantasy (Mendlesohn, 2008: 59), so technology is seen through the "magical"
perspective, while Max Frei's series may be referred to the portal fantasy (Mendlesohn,
2008: 4), and technology in the World of the Core is seen through the eyes of the
protagonist, who entered this world having escaped form the "real" one. The first approach
will be analyzed in details, the second on the basic general level.
In Discworld, magic "derives from the very nature of Discworld universe, and is in
certain similarity of some of the matters discussed in quantum physics" (Briggs, Pratchett,
2004: 270). The intrinsic magic is channeling through wizards and witches differently.
Wizards operate mainly with knowledge, magical science (Unseen University), symbols,
and words kept in the books (The Library), while witches operate with "headology", based
on stories, and the power of the land itself. The wizards tend to influence the world, while
the witches follow the world, talk to it and speak for it.
Terry Pratchett deconstructs technology as a narrative cliché through depicting it as
a part of a world where the primary force is magic. Many inventions from the real world
function in Discworld modified by its magical nature: Iconograph and Dis-Organiser
(camera and a personal digital assistant with a helpful imp inside), Gonne (a gun which
enslaves the will of its owner), Clacks (telegraph), Printing press (hungry for the news for
the paper), Railways (with the steam engines) etc. A clear example of technology
deconstruction can be provided with the image of Hex – "a machine to explore the
unknown and to advance in search for knowledge" (Briggs, Pratchett, 2004: 211) created in
the Unseen University at the Department of Inadvisably Applied Magic. Pratchett fills the
wizards' machine with the elements, based on references to substantivated metaphors taken
form the names of real computer parts and operating system (a ram's skulk (RAM), ants for
bugs etc.). Being created as a humorous reference to mundane computers Hex becomes
one of the Discworld characters, it thinks and desires, it believes in Hogfather. The motive
of animation and personalization of the tools and machines is a part of Pratchett's poetics.
Technology on the Disc is represented by three main branches and few bright
individuals. The blacksmiths should be marked first. As Mircea Eliade notes, a blacksmith
is the most ancient technology figure (together with a potter and a miner), appeared in the
Iron Age. The blacksmith is a "Master of fire", a sacred person, related both with the
heaven and the demonic forces, with the energy of Mother-Earth, taboos, and rituals
(Eliade 1978: 53-54). Such a figure is Jason Ogg, a son of a witch, able to shoe any living
thing and thus follows "the bargain you shod anything they brought to you" (Pratchett,
2004:13-14), even the Death's horse. A master of fire and iron touches the very core of the
world in his everyday job.
The other blacksmiths on the Disc are also bright figures, but they are mainly close
to inventors, who cannot resist their passionate interest of constructing some new
machines, like Leonard da Quirm (a reference to Leonardo da Vinci), the greatest
technological genius and a painter (Briggs, Pratchett, 2004: 251), aware of how dangerous
his inventions are for an unprepared society, creating and destroying different machines; or
Bloody Stupid Johnson, with his "blindness of the significance, and <…> the difference
between such things as feet and inches and ounces and pounds" (Briggs, Pratchett, 2004:
228).
Inventors and blacksmith are followed by engineers: "The men of the sliding rule",
for whom the numbers really count. Dick Simnel, the son of a smith-and-inventor who had
failed with his machine and was killed by the steam, works with his father's ideas on a new
background: "<In this> crucial book he found something called mathematics and the world
of numbers. <…> Dad didn’t know this stuff. He had the right ideas but he didn’t have the
… tech-nol-ogy right.’"(Pratchett 2013: 13) Engineers operate with numbers and
calculations, they are in search of the harmony of different forces and materials. They
never cheat, because cheating in calculations must be crucial. Engineers work to
understand the matter and to find the agreement of a human and a machine, rejecting any
kind of violence. An inventor who is blind of numbers dies, like a guy who tells: "I said, oi
reckon oi got more brains than a boiler! And if it gives oi any problem then I’ll hammer it
out into horseshoes" (Pratchett 2013: 196). Pratchett follows the logic of development
towards the understanding of the otherness which is common to his postmodern fantasy
(Канчура 2015) : the Other is not only other human, it may be any material or machine,
even the elements of nature. Contact is based on perception of the Other as a personality,
so in the fantasy world which is basically non-antropo-centric, animation of matter and
natural forces makes engineering connected not only with matter, but with spirit, and
calculations become one of the ways of understanding the Other.
The way from the first soulless harvesting machine made by Ned Simnel, the smith,
(Reaper Man, 1991) to Iron Girder, created by his son Dick (Raising Steam, 2013), is the
way how a postmodern fantasy world is developing. In the first novel the machine is a part
of tirade, combined with the metaphor of the Harvest (Death). Bill Door (The Death)
gathers corn, cutting "one blade of the grass in a time" (Pratchett 1991: 106) as he is the
Reaper, who listens to the harvest, cares about each blade of grass / soul individually. He
competes with a harvesting machine – "a mass killer" in his view, and fights against the
faceless "new Death", the crowned one, pretending to be the king of the world. The image
of the machine is used here to contrast the soullessness to the Reaper's love. Its description
– given through Bill Door's eyes – is a description of a Death figure with the epithets like a
crouched skeletal shape, terror, flapping and rattling <…> in the wind (Pratchett 1991,
239-241) etc.
In contrast, Iron Girder, the first steam engine on the Disc created by Dick Simnel
looks friendly, it is described through the epithets of adoration and attractiveness, like
lovely or beautiful. It is always referenced as she, has a whistling voice, steam breath,
female soul. Iron Girdle is often compared with a fair lady, whose actions seem to be
emotional responses, this lady has her own ideas, can be kind, furious or jealous. Her
image also correlates with magic creatures (dragon etc.). But at the same time magic is at
once replaced by the idea of technology: "What strange magic—? He corrected himself;
what strange mechanics could have achieved this? There was the beast and they were
loving it"( Pratchett 2013: 40). The idea of shifting from magic to technology is the idea of
a rising human being, able to communicate with the natural forces: "Then, as Iron Girder
plunged on, it broke through into Moist’s consciousness that this wasn’t magic, neither was
it brute strength, it was, in fact, ingenuity. Coal and metal and water and steam and smoke,
in one glorious harmony"(Pratchett 2013: 59).
Harmony in Terry Pratchett's world means movement and communication as the
contrast to getting stuck. All the kinds of technology are intended to provide the ways of
communication: clacks (shutter semaphore towers), a printing press (newspapers), railway
(which connects the very distant places). All of them allow exchanging the ideas,
information, and – at eventually – people and objects. Intercommunication and movement
become the main feature of the changing world. That is why grease (as a substance
ensuring the smooth and rapid movement) becomes the metaphor of progress and changes:
"I’m the grease that turns the wheels and changes minds and moves the world along. <…>
It’s a bit like the sliding rule; you just move things about at the right time and you get the
answer you need. <…> I make things happen, and that includes your railway". (Pratchett
2013: 322) The semantic field of this metaphor covers the images of goblins as the sign of
the new Otherness:"You found them <goblins> everywhere, adjusting screws, oiling,
greasing and, well, tinkering and tapping. <…> they greased everything that needed
greasing and tapped what needed tapping, and generally stopped things getting out of
kilter". (Pratchett 2013: 291)
 Being aware of the power of the words and creating a technological background for
the efficiency of communication Dick Simnel objects the tricky words of a journalist:
"Power is dangerous, all power, yours included, Mister ’ardwick, and the difference is that
the power of Iron Girder is controllable whereas you can write whatever you damn well
like". (Pratchett 2013: 122)
Communication and controlled power according to Pratchett changes the world
shifting the focus from magic to technology as a result of humans' conscious efforts, strict
calculations, and harmony of natural elements, achieved through these calculations. Basic
principles of perception of the Other with respect and understanding are spreading now
onto natural elements, literally, onto the very matter of the world, as the humans cooperate
with the natural forces through technologies.
In the World of the Core created by Max Frei, magic exists in three forms: the
obvious magic ("очевидная") which can be black ("магией называется наука о
манипуляциях с материальными предметами; свое название она получила в
соответствии с цветом земли" / "magic as a science of manipulations with material
objects; it is named by the colour of the ground") or white ("оперирует абстрактными
вещами, такими как настроение, мысли, память" / "operates with abstract things, such
as mood, thoughts, memory…") (Фрай 2006: 7), and the genuine ("истинная") magic ("it
is not only unable to destroy the World, but is the indispensable condition of its very
existence" / "не только не может разрушить Мир, но даже является непременным
условием его существования") (Фрай 2006: 8). Different examples of technology
presented in the World of the Core are all created with the help of obvious magic
(combining the black and the white ones). Vehicles ("amobilers" which remind the early
automobiles), ships and even air balloons are powered by magical crystals, responding
their drivers' internal desire of the speed. Obvious magic is used in food and medical
technology, in architecture and recording the information etc. But the obvious magic,
which is concentrated around the Heart of the World may be extremely dangerous for the
World itself. The overindulgence of the obvious magic destroys the balance of the reality
and exhausts the World's body. The obvious magic is basically violent; it is designed to
influence on the reality, to force it for some intended change, while the genuine magic is a
natural way of a dialogue with the World, response to its inner desire of changes.
Both the obvious and the genuine magic demand high concentration of the human's
mind, but the first one is based on strict calculations (carefully measured steps of black and
white magic and their combination) while the latter is all inspiration, boundless movement
of the spirit, described through the images of dreams, winds and poetry. It does not operate
the world, it communicates with it, providing the flow of energy and fresh air.
As the research demonstrates the basic binary opposition magic – technology is
deconstructed and transformed into the new one: violence – dialogue. The border between
magic and technology, built on the background of the opposition of spirit and matter, is
levelled. In post-modern fantasy these phenomena are connected both with matter and
spirit, conscious and unconscious. The machines have got their souls (Pratchett) or respond
their operator's inner desires (Max Frei), material objects are animated as well as the matter
of the fantasy worlds. The worlds are changing due to their inner desire and moving power
of energy flow. Dialogue with the world is based on the new approach to the Other as
respect to all living things. The idea of Tolkien's Enchantment (Art) spreads on both magic
and technology in the postmodern fantasy, correlating with the post-modern idea of
humanization of the technology aimed not only at the external tools, but at all human
culture and general mechanized worldview through the new Philosophy of Techniques
(Грицанов, Можейко (ред.) 2001 : 877)
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