Philosophy Hour – The Art of Deceit and Mischief: A Celebration of the Trickster

Dr. David Bramwell delivered a thoroughly entertaining and informative talk about the trickster, the archetype/character found in countless traditional stories and real historical individuals. One such historical trickster was Lopsang Rampa, who wrote The Third Eye, a best seller about Tibetan Buddhism that describes Rampa’s travels to Tibet. At one point there is a compelling story of how a hole was drilled by Buddhists into the middle of his forehead with enlightening effect, although we find later Rampa was really Cyril Henry Hoskin, a plumber from Devon who wove the tale for the hell of it. This reveals the essential attribute of the trickster, one who deceives just for the sake of subversion and chaos. The trickster is amoral, apolitical, an outsider who prefers anonymity than the limelight (aka Banksey and Chris Morris). We were told the trickster is also intuitive, libidinal and gender-bending like Coyote of Native American mythology or Loki the Norse Trickster who transforms into a mare and has a nine-legged foal.

Bramwell tells us there is an important distinction between the fool archetype and the trickster: The fool will appear foolish to bring about an epiphany in others, rather like a stand up comedian, while the trickster is more like the heckler who tries to disrupt the stand-up comic, but provides opportunities for the comic to create some magic with an amazing putdown.

We were told there is always the risk the trickster will just be a disruptive force who everyone ends up hating. I had always had my doubts about Noel Edmunds as a trickster and this confirmed my suspicions that mere sniggering from the sidlines did not qualify one as a risk-taking trickster.

This fabulous talk was probably too focused on male tricksters for my taste, it left out characters like Nasreddin’s daughter who out-tricked her father. In a way this is not surprising, many female tricksters are difficult to deal with. For example Medea kills a wicked king by tricking his daughters into cutting him up, but unlike Loki the Norse god, (who does equally terrible or even worse things), she is not forgiven but banished forever. The female trickster seems more often to be the hated heckler than the one who the standup comic can ‘clock and floor’.

Still, Bramwell’s friendly, humorous, endearing oration left me inspired to know more. I’m going digging…

Thursday 15 May, Brighton Spiegeltent