Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy: An Eccentric History of the Composing Imagination

by William A. Covino

This book presents a selective, introductory reading of key texts in the history of magic from antiquity forward, in order to construct a suggestive conceptual framework for disrupting our conventional notions about rhetoric and literacy. Offering an overarching, pointed synthesis of the interpenetration of magic, rhetoric, and literacy, William A. Covino draws from theorists ranging from Plato and Cornelius Agrippa to Paulo Freire and Mary Daly, and analyzes the different magics that operate in Renaissance occult philosophy and Romantic literature, as well as in popular indicators of mass literacy such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and The National Enquirer. Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy distinguishes two kinds of magic-rhetoric that continue to affect our psychological and cultural life today. Generative magic-rhetoric creates novel possibilities for action, within a broad sympathetic universe of signs and symbols. Arresting magic-rhetoric attempts to induce automatistic behavior, by inculcating rules and maxims that function like magic ritual JUST SAY NO. In this connection, the literate individual is one who can interrogate arresting language, and generate "counter-spells."

Hardcover

First published September 30, 2009

Reviews

[Michael Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Magic is the imposition by the powerful few of binding constraints upon the unquestioning many: a program of spells for arresting discourse." (page 8, 1994 edition).

In a certain sense any time someone speaks he or she is "casting a spell." The sense here is that if the person had not spoken at all, our attention would be somewhere else. If we engage in another's discourse we are then in a sense "captivated" by the one generating the discourse. There are people in this world whose entire program is to cast a spell over those who don't think critically; these people assume power in medicine, law, and government. They decide what is to be spoken/attended to. The rise of the modern bureaucratic state is a form of opposition to other forms of social and political organization. It also places constraints on what is considered possible, feasible, and worthwhile.

William Covino will advance this thesis in this text. He calls out the "sorcery" of autocratic teachers and governments; he cites the mass media as a collective enterprise binding people to certain impulses, agendas, and priorities. Whatever is going on, be assured that discourse is bound and what composition and rhetoric have always offered are alternatives. Your choices, dear reader, are not between Biden or Trump. If there were a false dichotomy that is certainly one of them. Yet those greedy to keep power and influence would have you believe nothing else is possible.

Let me comment on the larger purpose of this fine work: the author "explicates" the interrelationships between rhetoric, magic, and literacy in key texts. Each of these texts have something worth attending to for the reader who seeks a broader repertoire of generative discourse, as opposed to saying "the same old thing over and over again for the umpteenth time." Coleridge, De Quincey, K. Burke, H. Marcuse, T. Adorno, and P. Freire all play a part is this bestiary of alternatives.

[Steve Chisnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Covino's scholarly works (perhaps a bit more than his work as a college administrator), so I was delighted to find this, more excited to unpack with him what at first might seem a stretch of a connection between historical conceptions of magic and the power of words. Even so, setting aside the obvious efforts of "abracadabra" and the like, Covino steps more thoroughly into Pico, De Quincey, Agrippa, and others (how much I miss the dedicated study of rhetoric!) to reveal more important (and socially relevant) questions.

One of several that compelled me was the difference between "arresting" and "generative" magic or rhetoric. What language, cultural customs, political ideologies, and educational methods work to reduce the individual's capacity to power vs create spaces for new energy? And while I was resistant to some of his quick summary judgments of thinkers (Freire and Lapham, for instance), his overall framing of the discussion is worth reflection.

A short book, I was most appreciative of the historical and philosophical debates (some I was unfamiliar with) and less appreciative of the extensive and now dated examinations of astrology, tabloids, and Oprah. And his selective examination of the feminist magical arguments of Starhawk and Mary Daly seemed particularly limited.

For those interested in an opening volley into these reflections on the overlapping roles of magic and rhetoric, however, this is an excellent start.

[Lilia Elizondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really quick and easy read. I am not too picky when it comes to any book on rhetoric, so take that as you will. It is a very expansive and educational read, but I feel like it could have gone into a bit more depth over everything it goes over. It's a good starting point for the connection between rhetoric and magic, so it definitely will not go over everything with specific detail. However, like I said, it's a great starting point, similar to an annotated bibliography, on writings and readings about rhetoric and magic.

[Kristen Suagee-beauduy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I hate parts of this book. Other parts made it worth reading and studying. Excerpts:
"Paulo Freire distinguishes social integration from social adaptation, associating the latter with 'magic consciousness': 'Integration with one's context, as distinguished from adaptation, is a distinctively human activity. Integration results from the capacity to adapt oneself to reality plus the critical capacity to make choices and to transform that reality. To the extent that man loses his ability to make choices and is subjected to the choices of others, to the extent that his decisions are no longer his own because they result from external prescriptions, he is no longer integrated. Rather, he has adapted. He has 'adjusted'. Unpliant men, with a revolutionary spirit, are often termed 'maladjusted' (Education 4) (128)." Last words: "This is dangerous work, both because it affronts institutions and ideas that have actual power over life and death, and because the absolute commitment to disruption can itself become tyrannical. The first of these dangers is unavoidable, and in the magician's view, indispensable. The second requires that the desire for the unknown be tied to the desire for justice (Pace Lyotard 67), that the oracular voice speak against all mesmerizing discourses, that magic-rhetoric teach an intellectual liberty and a wicked literacy founded on the intolerance for commonplaces that do harm (152)."