Stephen Winter has another insightful essay, this time about the palantir, which he thinks about next to smartphones (as we all must, now). He uses the generic term “device” instead of “smartphone”, as is common.
The word “device” is fascinating in this context. It appears 20 times in LotR, 12 referring to insignia and 8 referring to some sort of art or craft.1 The word is evenly split between the good guys and the bad guys, depending on how you count Fëanor.
When Gandalf talks about the palantir he could be foretelling the smartphone: “Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.” (LR 3.11.099) To Stephen’s question whether our palantiri are more mysterious than we think, the answer is an emphatic “yes”. The constant stories of surveillance both by their makers, for purely pecuniary reasons, and by others who can be much more nefarious, make it undeniable that these things are perilous.
But then there’s Eomer’s observation that “Our enemy’s devices oft serve us in his despite.” (LR 5.04.026) In this context I can’t help thinking of the Arab Spring, or the flash protests against the attempt to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Both were organized over cell-phone networks. Perhaps it is a stretch to think of oppressive governments and the lords of Silicon Valley as a single Enemy, but their roads often seem to lie together for many hundreds of miles.
Stephen Winter
Hi Jo, thank you so much for the fascinating reflection on my last blog post. It really got me thinking. I confess here that in my use of the word, device, I was trying to solve a completely different problem than the one to which you allude, but in your reference within the text to Tolkien’s use of the word, and in particular your wonderful Gandalf quotation, you take me into places that I never anticipated. I was simply looking for a word that was neither mobile phone or cell phone. Of course I could have chosen smart phone that seems to be used on both sides of the Atlantic but device just ‘felt’ better.
I completely missed what Gandalf said about devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves and I agree entirely that even if it does not specifically anticipate the modern smartphone it is incredibly pertinent to any reflection on the unquestioning way in which we adopt any technology that seems to solve the problem of mere convenience. We are doing this with AI right now. My hope is that AI forces us to ask the question, what is truly human? And are there other forms of intelligence than that which is artificial that enable us to address questions that AI simply cannot do?
In my short essay I tried to use the idea of ‘mystery’ to get us to think of technology in terms other than the merely utilitarian. In that regard I agree with you that all technology is mysterious in the way that readers of Tolkien understand it.
So thank you so much for writing this and please continue the conversation.