There are binaries—and yet there is a third. Life is an interplay of opposites, but there is always something that confounds the scheme of categories, disrupting its neatness, keeping it from settling down into a periodic table of oppositions. The Trickster is the third. In mythology, there are divine and demonic beings, but everywhere also, East and West, ancient and modern, there are Tricksters who are ambiguous, neither exactly gods nor exactly demons but somehow both, and yet neither, inherently paradoxical. This notion of a both/and, neither/nor paradox sounds sophisticated and intellectual, but modern versions of Trickster-thinking, such as the deconstructionism of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, are conceptualized versions of something that appeared in myths and folktales before philosophy existed at all. Tricksters are among the most fascinating figures in mythology, and among the most important, even though at first they may appear to be mere comic relief. Though they are that too—I would not want to underestimate the value of comic relief in this world.
December 8, 2023
December 8, 2023
December 8, 2023
There are binaries—and yet there is a third. Life is an interplay of opposites, but there is always something that confounds the scheme of categories, disrupting its neatness, keeping it from settling down into a periodic table of oppositions. The Trickster is the third. In mythology, there are divine and demonic beings, but everywhere also, East and West, ancient and modern, there are Tricksters who are ambiguous, neither exactly gods nor exactly demons but somehow both, and yet neither, inherently paradoxical. This notion of a both/and, neither/nor paradox sounds sophisticated and intellectual, but modern versions of Trickster-thinking, such as the deconstructionism of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, are conceptualized versions of something that appeared in myths and folktales before philosophy existed at all. Tricksters are among the most fascinating figures in mythology, and among the most important, even though at first they may appear to be mere comic relief. Though they are that too—I would not want to underestimate the value of comic relief in this world.