Essay: Foucault and the Circle of Magi (Dragon Age: Origins)

[miryai]

This essay will look at the Circle of Magi alongside Foucault’s* theories about the asylum.  My argument is that the Circle functions in a similar way to how Foucault saw the asylum working - that is, it is designed to create docile mages that accept the justification for their imprisonment, and end up policing themselves

Comments

[mongoose_bite]

Alas, I never studied any Foucault when I was at uni, but that was a fascinating essay, and if you write more I'd be very happy to read them :) I think your argument was quite convincing.

[miryai]

Thanks! :) I appreciate the feedback :)

[miryai]

Thank you! :) I have played DA2, and I've been thinking about what I could write in relation to it. It's a little harder in DA2 because you don't see inside the Circle yourself like you do in DAO. You can only make guesses from Bethany, Anders, Karl, and the other mages that you run into during your journeys...

Obviously the mage/templar conflict is one of the big themes in DA2, and I'd love to explore that a bit... but it might call for a different theory than Foucault, I'll have a think about it. :)

[almightychrissy]

I FLAILED when I saw your essay title. Foucault! And Dragon Age! How fantastic is that?!

This lays the groundwork for the existence of the Circle by basing our entire understanding of mages in one immoral act that allegedly occurred in the past. From the start, we are judging mages with a moral eye. And this same theology is taught to the mages within the Tower - during the mage origins, you meet young apprentices being taught the Chant of Light in the library.

I think this really gets at the power/knowledge dynamic here. The rule of the templars is justified due to the knowledge that mages are dangerous and opened the world to demons, but that knowledge is only accepted as true because the Chantry is the dominant thought in most of Thedas.

A Foucaultian analysis of the Qun would be fascinating.

[miryai]

I've found the Qun particularly fascinating myself - although I tend to think of it in terms of another writer, Castoriadis, who wrote about the difference between autonomous societies (where societies make their own law, and recognise that they do) and heteronomous societies (where societies base their laws in an external and immutable power).... I may end up writing something on this basis, after I do a bit more research... :)

Thank you very much for your feedback! :) :)

[stillskies]

This is fascinating. I've only studied Focault briefly in a philosophy class (my professor was sadly enamored of Kant and focused most of the class on him), so I haven't read his writings on the asylum.

Have you played Legacy? Just to play devil's advocate here for a minute, what the Chantry accuses the mages of appears to be true. Corypheus says:

"The light. We sought the golden light. You offered... the power of the gods themselves. But it was... black... corrupt. Darkness... ever since. How long?"

This then begs the question of whether or not the immoral act is great enough to transcend generations and punish all.

Your argument is very convincing and well written. It is also well supported.

Thanks for a fantastic read! ♥

[miryai]

Hmmmmm.... thank you for bringing up Legacy. I have played it, but I'll admit that I hadn't considered it when writing this essay. One fan theory that's out there, however, is that the city was already blackened before the mages made it there... and that it wasn't entering the city that corrupted it, but some prior event... and we have no proof either way, I think. I'd need to find the actual fan source to remember how it was argued.

But yes... even if it is true, it is somewhat reminiscent of 'original sin', yes? hmmm... a whole 'nother train of thought there :)

Thanks very much for the feedback :)

[stillskies]

I haven't seen that theory floated about, but I can certainly see how it can go about that way. Which begs the question of whether the Maker abandoned them to their own devices, of if it was another group that attempted to enter the Golden City. ♥

No problem! The essay was enjoyable, so I figured I'd put in my two cents.