firecat

”Let’s Talk About Magic Dick Theory in ‘Dune’” by Brian Phillips

Brian Philips is a writer for The Ringer. His article describes an exciting idea that he unearthed by hanging around university libraries, and now wants to share with the unsuspecting world: “Magic Dick Theory holds that chosen-one narratives [in science fiction & fantasy] are actually about adolescent boys’ relationships with their, um, sexuality. […] essentially, the acquisition of magical powers in these stories is a metaphor for entering sexual maturity, and that one of the functions of these stories is to give readers a spectacularly dramatic framework for processing masturbation.”

He proceeds to give examples: Harry Potter and his wand, Paul Atreides and his worms, while uttering apologies for being the person to bring you this take on SF&F that you “will never be able to un-encounter.”

He goes on to explain that Dune partially subverts the “chosen one” narrative and is critical of it. Then he shares another theory of his: there is a “strange genre of modern stories that I think of as cake narratives…A cake narrative is a story that critiques a thing while also offering you all the pleasures of that thing.”

I’m glad someone informed me that Homer is a modern writer.

…

OK, I t’s not like I think everyone who writes about SF&F should already know about fanfic (or Homer), but there’s something adjacent to male answer syndrome in the way this writer takes personal credit for these theories (the closest he comes to citing other people’s work is to say “spend enough time bumming around university libraries and you’ll eventually come across the argument that…” as if the dust in said libraries agglomerates to the point that it develops sentience and generates theories all by itself, which languish in dark corners until uncovered by intrepid pop-culture journalists.

It makes me want to write an article about how I’ve discovered this amazing secret about sportsball. Who knew?! — sportsball is an elaborate metaphor for male sexuality. (They pat each other’s bums! They jump on top of each other! And have you SEEN the shape of a baseball bat?)