Law and Magic Blog

Teller On Teaching and Performing Magic @jesslahey @MrTeller @TheAtlantic

Jessica Lahey has published a very interesting interview with the famed magician Teller on the similarities between teaching and performing magic. According to Teller, they include the necessity to make the audience (the student) "fall in love" with the subject matter of the performance (the subject), and then to engage the deeper engagement of the audience in the subject, even if it is uncomfortable or contradicts what they believe. Both education and magic performance require participation by all parties. As to the current trend to protect students from discomfort or engagement with difficult or unhappy content, Teller says, 

When I go outside at night and look up at the stars, the feeling that I get is not comfort. The feeling that I get is a kind of delicious discomfort at knowing that there is so much out there that I do not understand and the joy in recognizing that there is enormous mystery, which is not a comfortable thing. This, I think, is the principal gift of education.

 

Read the entire extremely provocative article here.

Law and Magic In the Courtroom

Ruth Anne Robbins, Rutgers School of Law, Camden, has published Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: Telling the Client's Story Using the Characters and Paradigm of the Archetypal Hero's Journey, at 29 Seattle University Law Review 767 (Fall 2006).  

This article focuses on the relationship of mythology and folklore heroes to everyday lawyering decisions regarding case theory when the audience is a judge or panel of judges rather than a jury. It proposes the thesis that because people respond - instinctively and intuitively - to certain recurring story patterns and character archetypes, lawyers should systematically and deliberately integrate into their storytelling the larger picture of their clients' goals by subtly portraying their individual clients as heroes on a particular life path. This strategy is not merely a device to make the story more interesting but provides a scaffold to influence the judge at the unconscious level by providing a metaphor for universal themes of struggle and growth.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

In her article Professor Robbins discusses the use of metaphor of the popular hero (today's popular hero often being a magical being such as Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, or Luke Skywalker) to engage the factfinder. Says Professor Robbins, 

This strategy is not merely a device to make the story more interesting but provides a scaffold to influence the judge at the unconscious level by providing a metaphor for universal themes of struggle and growth. Folklore and mythology are already part of the doctrine in other disciplines that rely on persuasive techniques, such as screenplays, political campaigning, and advertising. These disciplines have absorbed the lessons of heroic archetypes because we respond viscerally to certain story patterns unconsciously. We respond regardless of age; for example, toddlers react to the classic animated Disney movies. Adults respond similarly to the narratives of their religious texts. Thus, the use of the metaphoric hero's journey provides one potential and powerful option in the arsenal of lawyers' persuasive techniques.

 

I find this use of magical beings to achieve "magical" results really interesting. That is, what a lawyer might do is create an imaginary story about an imaginary being who has imaginary powers to induce a listener to have a particular reaction--to identify with the lawyer's client (who is nothing like the imaginary being), and then to rule in the client's favor. Granted, the lawyer should have some law and some evidence to support the narrative. And I'm not suggesting that there's anything unethical about this approach--it is after all argument and not evidence. But from a law and magic perspective it's so intriguing!

Animal Law Meets (Meats?) Animal Rights

P. Michael Conn notes (registration required, free) in the current issue of The Scientist that 73 percent of U.S. law schools now offer either an animals rights course or sponsor a student animal rights group, and suggests that this engagement with animal rights means a clash with medical research may be on on the horizon.

Over half of US law schools now have animal law courses, including many in universities with medical and research programs that utilize animals protected by federal welfare laws. Courses that promote standards for humane animal care and welfare are unlikely to provoke conflict, but programs championing animal rights or “liberation” set up adversarial potential on campuses and pose a serious risk to the future of animal research. The use of the law instead of violence and threats, however, should be acknowledged as a forward step....Under current US law, things are either property or persons. Legal rights for animals require the establishment of personhood; property cannot have rights. US welfare laws view animals as property, but emphasize our responsibility to care for them humanely. The effort to ascribe “personhood” to animals is a central focus of animal rights supporters, since changing public perception of animals is one way to stop their use in food, clothing, entertainment, and research. In some jurisdictions, “pet owner” has been replaced by “animal guardian,” ascribing a different status for the animal. References to animal researchers as “vivisectors” who “exploit” “sentient beings” and practice “torture” and “cruelty” (applied generally to research), also impact the public.

What does the increasing recognition of animal rights mean for magicians? Possibly, "stop pulling on those rabbit ears" and "quit ruffling those dove feathers." Humane treatment of animals in magic acts is not the same thing as not using animals at all. Teller might have to cease and desist (yes, double-barrelled--"cease" from Middle English via the old French and "desist" from the Latin) turning those coins into real goldfish. Abandoning the trick would be too bad. It's an elegant illusion. Maybe he could substitute fake goldfish, battery-powered. Solar might be even more fun.

If you're interested in the animals in magic topic, Law and Magic: A Collection of Essays, due out in January 2010, includes two essays on animal law and stage magic, one by Rebekah Hanley of the University of Oregon and one by Lisa Johnson of the University of Puget Sound. (I know, shameless plug...).

A Las Vegas Sun Interview With Penn & Teller

Via the Ellusionist blog, a link to the Las Vegas Sun's Tax Day interviews with Penn & Teller. Pretty interesting, especially the part about Teller's leave of absence after gaining tenure (ah, the joy of tenure). My only quibble: does the reporter mean Othmar Schoeck, and not Ottmar Scheckt? ("On forming the Ottmar Scheckt Society for the Preservation of Weird and Disgusting Music with Teller and musician Wier Chrisemer in 1974 and performing on the streets of New York").