The followers of Icarus. Sorcerer's Apprentices in every aspect of life, past and present.

By Luigi Balestriere

In the news on various media it often happens to hear of characters assimilated to "sorcerer's apprentices", as they are responsible for consequences that are almost always detrimental and of which they unintentionally lose control.

Characters like these have always existed: the essay tries to identify some in the most varied areas, to tell the circumstances in which these apprentices handle their "magic formula", whether it really is a chemical formula, or a theory, of a book, a weapon, a drug, a material, the crowd or even sexuality, sometimes making unexpected discoveries.

In the end, the author tries to outline the recurrent features of sorcerer's apprentices, perhaps to be able to recognize them, if they wander among us, learn to stay away from them or try to prevent them from harming themselves and especially others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9788831649322

Book preview

633/1941.

PREFACE

I must admit that until recently I almost always flipped past the preface in books, considering them, quite wrongly, to be tedious or a waste of time. But then I learned to value the preface if the author addressed the reader directly, in a more confidential, intimate style than the rest of the book.

Since then, if there’s a preface I always start with that; it can present a positive first impression. I shall therefore follow the well-trodden path of many of my eminent predecessors by including this brief prelude, and hope you won’t flip past it.

My intention with this essay is to explore a typical character from 19th century literature in more depth than is usually reserved for it; a character, however, that has always existed and is still alive and kicking.

More than simply a character, the sorcerer’s apprentice is practically a universal prototype, very much overlooked yet crucial to our destiny, and I find it strange no one has ever studied it in more depth. It was therefore all the more appropriate, and intriguing, to seek out both well-known and less well-known individuals who have put flesh on the bones of the character and followed in his footsteps, though almost always unconsciously.

In truth, the idea has been developing for quite some time. For several years I’ve noticed disastrous events of varying magnitude that occur in the most diverse of sectors attributed to self-proclaimed experts in their respective disciplines or fields of interest, who would eventually lose control of the circumstances, suffering or causing others to suffer the often fatal consequences of their tinkering with machines, be they physical inventions or theories.

I've often read an article or watched a TV programme or heard a discussion of some kind in which the object in question is referred to as a sorcerer's apprentice. This mysterious character came up time and time again in the most varied settings, increasing my curiosity in the character and the fascination it inspires, and leaving me with a feeling of suspense so that I had to get to the bottom of it sooner or later.

The thing that finally compelled me to do it was perhaps the worldwide economic crisis of 2007, much of the responsibility for which was attributed to the reckless behaviour of sorcerer’s apprentices at a number of unscrupulous and undeniably irresponsible financial institutions of dubious professional ethics - a crisis that has spread further and lasted longer than the Great Depression of 1929, has brought entire nations to ruin and has even driven people to suicide.

Since then, wherever I turn my attention I see sorcerers' apprentices popping up all over the place, exposed by sources of varying authority.

Of course, the risk with this sort of investigation is that you end up seeing sorcerer’s apprentices everywhere, even where there are none or where it’s some other character who is anything but inept, fully aware that they are stepping over the threshold of legality into the realm of crime.

I know I’m taking a risk but it’s a small risk, and since these sorcerers have proved they're capable of doing enormous damage, not only in the spaces they occupy but also across time for generations to come, I thought it was essential to bring them into the spotlight, learn how to recognise them, carefully avoid them and ensure as many people as possible recognise them too.

This may be considered delusional or ambitious, but it's done with good intentions.

Paradoxically, even this essay could end up becoming a machine I could lose control of: the eventuality is remote but cannot be excluded.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

J. W. Goethe

That old sorcerer has vanished

And for once has gone away!

Spirits called by him, now banished,

My commands shall soon obey.

Every step and saying

That he used, I know,

And with sprites obeying

My arts I will show.

Flow! flow onward

Stretches many

Spare not any

Water rushing,

Ever streaming fully downward

Toward the pool in current gushing.

Come, old broomstick, you are needed,

Take these rags and wrap them round you!

Long my orders you have heeded,

By my wishes now I've bound you.

Have two legs and stand,

And a head for you.

Run, and in your hand

Hold a bucket too.

Flow! flow onward

Stretches many

Spare not any

Water rushing,

Ever streaming fully downward

Toward the pool in current gushing.

See him, toward the shore he's racing

There, he's at the stream already,

Back like lightning he is chasing,

Pouring water fast and steady.

Once again he hastens!

How the water spills,

How the water basins

Brimming full he fills!

Stop now, hear me!

Ample measure

Of your treasure

We have gotten! -

Ah, I see it, dear me, dear me.

Master's word I have forgotten!

Ah, the word with which the master

Makes the broom a broom once more!

Ah, he runs and fetches faster!

Be a broomstick as before!

Ever new the torrents

That by him are fed,

Ah, a hundred currents

Pour upon my head!

No, no longer

Can I please him,

I will seize him

That is spiteful!

My misgivings grow the stronger.

What a mien, his eyes how frightful!

Brood of hell, you're not a mortal!

Shall the entire house go under?

Over threshold over portal

Streams of water rush and thunder.

Broom accurst and mean,

Who will have his will,

Stick that you have been,

Once again stand still!

Can I never, Broom, appease you?

I will seize you,

Hold and whack you,

And your ancient wood

I'll sever,

With a whetted axe I'll crack you.

He returns, more water dragging!

Now I'll throw myself upon you!

Soon, 0 goblin, you'll be sagging.

Crash! The sharp axe has undone you.

What a good blow, truly!

There, he's split, I see.

Hope now rises newly,

And my breathing's free.

Woe betide me!

Both halves scurry

In a hurry,

Rise like towers

There beside me.

Help me, help, eternal powers!

Off they run, till wet and wetter

Hall and steps immersed are lying.

What a flood that naught can fetter!

Lord and master, hear me crying! -

Ah, he comes excited.

Sir, my need is sore.

Spirits that I've cited

My commands ignore.

"To the lonely

corner, broom!

Hear your doom.

As a spirit

When he wills, your master only

Calls you, then 'tis time to hear it."

INTRODUCTION

The sorcerer's apprentice is a figure that became famous in the 19th century following Goethe's ballad of the same title, which tells of a master magician’s young apprentice who is left alone in the workshop. Tempted by this circumstance and convinced that he is now as clever as the magician, he brings a broom to life and orders it to fill a tub using a bucket.

The business soon gets out of hand though. When he sees the broom continuing to pour water in the tub until it overflows he takes an axe to it, but instead of stopping, the broom splits into two brooms which continue to obey his command to pour water in the tub. The spell is only broken when the master returns (1).

This story by Goethe is actually a reworking of an event recounted by Luciano di Samosàta, a Syrian writer from the 2nd century AD in his work Philopseudes, in which Eucrates, an aspiring philosopher, tells of his failed attempt to emulate the magician Pancrates (2).

Literature aside, Greek mythology is also full of sorcerer's apprentices. The most well-known of these is perhaps Icarus who overestimated both the strength of the wings that his father Daedalus made for him and his own ability to control them, and plunged to his death when he tried to fly.

Looking at the incidence of the character throughout western culture, the sorcerer’s apprentice could be described as a presumptuous, arrogant, resentful type with delusions of omnipotence, excessively high self-esteem and a hunger for power, but also possessed of a certain naivety, superficiality and insignificance, who devises an operation, a technique, an invention or a theory of which he can neither predict the outcome nor control the circumstances, and which sooner or later turns against him and not infrequently has repercussions for other people and the environment.

The outcome is not always catastrophic however, and there are also cases where a feeling of resentment has actually led to a positive outcome; the incident involving the astronomer Maestlin, for example, who through his disciple Kepler paved the way for a turning point in our view of the cosmos.

Returning to the vagaries of the sorcerer’s apprentice, the most notable characteristic has to be his fatal tendency to lose control of the magic formula, the miracle device, the thing he’s invented, discovered or simply put forward; a tendency accompanied by the inability to observe the caution and farsightedness that any master of the art or expert would recommend.

So, the master is an important figure in explaining the character; a scholar with a profound understanding of his materials who is therefore cautious of taking even calculated risks; qualities than enable him to maintain control over natural phenomena.

In some fields you come across self-taught apprentices who have no master and are proceeding through totally unexplored territory. Although the character of the true expert is absent in the physical sense, his presence can be discerned in the guise of 'Knowledge' - the ideas he has accumulated over time and the legacy of one of the professions to which the apprentice belongs, and 'Prudence' - the shrewd teacher and inspiring virtue of every scholar, researcher, inventor and human being in general.

If the subject of this essay is the type who approaches in a reckless manner the thing he erroneously believes himself to have mastered, who better than those who study the various branches of knowledge - we'll call them scientists - would be eligible for inclusion in this type?

For some sociologists, Science - in its broader meaning of knowledge - is likened to a Golem, ‘a creature from Jewish folklore that is neither good nor evil, extremely powerful but potentially dangerous; a gentle giant that could go insane and spread panic at any moment'.

The risk of losing control is real, not so much for those who study the basics of science, which is delightfully theoretical, as for those who deal in ‘applied’ science - varying degrees of applying the theory, i.e. technicians.

English philosopher and jurist Francis Bacon recognised the ambiguity of technology early on, in his Daedalus, sive Mechanicus: ‘He who conceived the meanderings of the labyrinth has demonstrated the need for the thread. The mechanical arts are of ambiguous use and can both produce evil and at the same time offer a remedy for this evil’(4).

Thus theoretical and applied science both produce figures that are similar but different in substance: the pure scientist concerned with understanding how phenomena occur, and the technologist who wonders how this understanding can be applied to everyday life.

Kary Mullis, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, in an address to a worldwide conference on the freedom of scientific research, asserted that Science is like Art and Mathematics: in itself, it does not cause any damage and the attempt to control it, on the pretext of not sharing the use made of it [...] is a vain effort. I believe that Science and Technology should be thought of as distinct entities. We must pay attention to technology, and