Doctor Who - Is the Doctor a Trickster?
I just watched a hilarious "TED Talks" video where part of the talk was about the attributes of a Trickster.
And I realized that they could be talking about the Doctor. Now, I always knew the Doctor was a trickster figure, like Coyote in Native American mythology, or the Greek hero who stole fire from the gods.
But by actually listing out the attributes of a Trickster, it made me realize that it is when the Doctor is being a trickster that I love him so much, and when he deviates from those qualities of a Trickster that I don't like it as much.
The video is called - "Emily Levine: A theory of Everything" and the part about the trickster attributes starts at 13:28 (she got it from a book called "Trickster Makes This World" by Lewis Hyde").
So here are the Attributes of a Trickster:
Trickster is an agent of change.
1. Boundary crossing. (Trickster likes to talk about things he knows nothing about because he brings a fresh perspective. Able to see the contradiction or new viewpoint that you may not be able to see.)
2. Non-oppositional strategies. Instead of contradiction, which denies the other's reality, he has paradox which allows more than one reality to co-exist. He doesn't need to rely on opposition, but instead creates a new possibility.
3. Smart Luck. That accidents happen. That the Trickster has a mind that is prepared for the unprepared. That the Trickster has the ability to hold his ideas lightly. So that he can let room in for new ideas. To see the contradictions or hidden problems.
4. Balance. The Trickster has to walk this fine line, he has to have poise. Be both prepared and unprepared at the same time, not tipping over too much in the direction of unprepared, but being too prepared doesn't leave room for the happy accidents to happen.
5. He doesn't have a home, he's always on the road.
Sometimes Trickster can tip over into beauty, but to do that, you have to lose all the other qualities, because once you are into beauty you're into a finished thing. It's something that occupies space and inhabits time, it's a finished thing. It is always extraordinary to see a thing of beauty but if you don't do that, if you allow for the accident to keep on happening, you have the possibly of getting on a wavelength, get into a wavelength with your audience. When you get into beauty, the probability wave collapses, into one possibility, but staying on the wavelength allows you to explore all the possibilities.
This last paragraph made me realize this is why I dislike the emphasis on the Doctor's reputation, or legend. When he becomes "a thing of beauty" it diminishes him for me as a Trickster. Suddenly it feels like there are fewer possiblities in how he will be perceived or how he will handle a situation, because it is dictated by the "set" parameters of his reputation/legend, a bit of set history.
He becomes the "thing of beauty" the legend, the icon, rather than the unpredictable agent of change. Instead of being the thing that influences the universe to change, he becomes just another "thing" in the universe.
Anyway, I found it a very eye opening experience to hear her describing a Trickster in that talk and realizing, this was exactly the Doctor, this was exactly why I always found the Doctor so fascinating as a character.
And it is exactly why, when he violates those attributes of a trickster, I find I don't like him so much, he becomes less interesting to me. But when he does embody them, he remains fascinating, unpredictable, fresh and new. (Like all tricksters, it's practically another attribute of being a trickster, that sense of being eternally new, rather than based on old history.)
I like the Doctor's "non-oppositional strategies" when he just "goes around" the problem from a new direction. I realized that's why I don't like it as much when the Doctor just does an "I'm more awesome than you" type of confrontation. It becomes both oppositional, as well as a "thing of beauty" thing, and it loses the "trickster" aspect for me. Makes him (despite maybe being a great monologue) less interesting as a character.
It was the aspect of him "confronting" the Silence that I didn't like. It was "oppositional" of him. It was the "in your face"ness of it that felt somehow out of character for him to me. Yet I loved that he found a "new perspective" in using" Neal Armstrong's Foot" as his method of defeating the Silence. That felt properly "tricksterish" to me. (Didn't like the killing aspect of it, but did like the cleverness and unexpectedness of it.)
Likewise, its the Doctor's balance, as a man of the cosmos, not merely of humanity or of one culture, or even one way of looking at things that I liked. Like 9 saying, "it's a different morality, get used to it or go home." He understood both humanity's outlook and attitude toward the dead, but also the alien's needs for the dead. (He may have been wrong in it's outcome.) But he had that balance of being able to see more than one viewpoint. Of not being locked into the same viewpoint or worldview as the rest of the characters. That's tricksterish. Having him simply react the way any other human would (as I felt 10 did a bit too often for me) was not tricksterish. And is probably why I didn't like those aspects.
Smart Luck. The Doctor's always been lucky. But moreso, I've always loved that he's flexible enough to take advantage of his luck, of being able to roll with the punches, take advantage of circumstance or coincidence when it happens. Not merely to let it do things for him, but to take advantage of shifting occurrences as they happen. I've always loved that his first plan may fail, but he'll still find a way to make things work. That's tricksterish. (Much moreso, to me, than simply things being pat and easy for him, or working to plan the first time.)
And, he doens't have a home, is always on the move.
What could be more the Doctor than that?
What are your thoughts? Do you think that the Doctor has these attributes of a Trickster? How do you feel about them? And how do you feel when he moves away from those attributes?
See The Stats
And I realized that they could be talking about the Doctor. Now, I always knew the Doctor was a trickster figure, like Coyote in Native American mythology, or the Greek hero who stole fire from the gods.
But by actually listing out the attributes of a Trickster, it made me realize that it is when the Doctor is being a trickster that I love him so much, and when he deviates from those qualities of a Trickster that I don't like it as much.
The video is called - "Emily Levine: A theory of Everything" and the part about the trickster attributes starts at 13:28 (she got it from a book called "Trickster Makes This World" by Lewis Hyde").
So here are the Attributes of a Trickster:
Trickster is an agent of change.
1. Boundary crossing. (Trickster likes to talk about things he knows nothing about because he brings a fresh perspective. Able to see the contradiction or new viewpoint that you may not be able to see.)
2. Non-oppositional strategies. Instead of contradiction, which denies the other's reality, he has paradox which allows more than one reality to co-exist. He doesn't need to rely on opposition, but instead creates a new possibility.
3. Smart Luck. That accidents happen. That the Trickster has a mind that is prepared for the unprepared. That the Trickster has the ability to hold his ideas lightly. So that he can let room in for new ideas. To see the contradictions or hidden problems.
4. Balance. The Trickster has to walk this fine line, he has to have poise. Be both prepared and unprepared at the same time, not tipping over too much in the direction of unprepared, but being too prepared doesn't leave room for the happy accidents to happen.
5. He doesn't have a home, he's always on the road.
Sometimes Trickster can tip over into beauty, but to do that, you have to lose all the other qualities, because once you are into beauty you're into a finished thing. It's something that occupies space and inhabits time, it's a finished thing. It is always extraordinary to see a thing of beauty but if you don't do that, if you allow for the accident to keep on happening, you have the possibly of getting on a wavelength, get into a wavelength with your audience. When you get into beauty, the probability wave collapses, into one possibility, but staying on the wavelength allows you to explore all the possibilities.
This last paragraph made me realize this is why I dislike the emphasis on the Doctor's reputation, or legend. When he becomes "a thing of beauty" it diminishes him for me as a Trickster. Suddenly it feels like there are fewer possiblities in how he will be perceived or how he will handle a situation, because it is dictated by the "set" parameters of his reputation/legend, a bit of set history.
He becomes the "thing of beauty" the legend, the icon, rather than the unpredictable agent of change. Instead of being the thing that influences the universe to change, he becomes just another "thing" in the universe.
Anyway, I found it a very eye opening experience to hear her describing a Trickster in that talk and realizing, this was exactly the Doctor, this was exactly why I always found the Doctor so fascinating as a character.
And it is exactly why, when he violates those attributes of a trickster, I find I don't like him so much, he becomes less interesting to me. But when he does embody them, he remains fascinating, unpredictable, fresh and new. (Like all tricksters, it's practically another attribute of being a trickster, that sense of being eternally new, rather than based on old history.)
I like the Doctor's "non-oppositional strategies" when he just "goes around" the problem from a new direction. I realized that's why I don't like it as much when the Doctor just does an "I'm more awesome than you" type of confrontation. It becomes both oppositional, as well as a "thing of beauty" thing, and it loses the "trickster" aspect for me. Makes him (despite maybe being a great monologue) less interesting as a character.
It was the aspect of him "confronting" the Silence that I didn't like. It was "oppositional" of him. It was the "in your face"ness of it that felt somehow out of character for him to me. Yet I loved that he found a "new perspective" in using" Neal Armstrong's Foot" as his method of defeating the Silence. That felt properly "tricksterish" to me. (Didn't like the killing aspect of it, but did like the cleverness and unexpectedness of it.)
Likewise, its the Doctor's balance, as a man of the cosmos, not merely of humanity or of one culture, or even one way of looking at things that I liked. Like 9 saying, "it's a different morality, get used to it or go home." He understood both humanity's outlook and attitude toward the dead, but also the alien's needs for the dead. (He may have been wrong in it's outcome.) But he had that balance of being able to see more than one viewpoint. Of not being locked into the same viewpoint or worldview as the rest of the characters. That's tricksterish. Having him simply react the way any other human would (as I felt 10 did a bit too often for me) was not tricksterish. And is probably why I didn't like those aspects.
Smart Luck. The Doctor's always been lucky. But moreso, I've always loved that he's flexible enough to take advantage of his luck, of being able to roll with the punches, take advantage of circumstance or coincidence when it happens. Not merely to let it do things for him, but to take advantage of shifting occurrences as they happen. I've always loved that his first plan may fail, but he'll still find a way to make things work. That's tricksterish. (Much moreso, to me, than simply things being pat and easy for him, or working to plan the first time.)
And, he doens't have a home, is always on the move.
What could be more the Doctor than that?
What are your thoughts? Do you think that the Doctor has these attributes of a Trickster? How do you feel about them? And how do you feel when he moves away from those attributes?
See The Stats