Victorian novelist, politician, and occultist (1803–1873) whom Cameron finds quoted in the last footnote of Harold Innis' 1946 essay on nineteenth-century English literature, and whom Bob independently recognizes from decades of conspiracy reading. Two men converge on one figure from opposite directions: for Cameron he is the author of the "magic of Gutenberg" line — "the people on one side of the gulf are not the people on the other" — a statement of the Gutenberg Galaxy thesis written in 1833; for Bob he is the author of The Coming Race and its energy "Vril," the headwater of the Theosophical-occult-conspiracy stream. The page holds both: Bulwer as media theorist avant la lettre, and Bulwer as origin of the modern conspiracy imaginary. (Note the name tangle the speakers work through: "Edward Lytton Bulwer," "Bulwer-Lytton," and his brother Henry are repeatedly confused on-air.)
Across the dialogues
Enters the series as Innis' buried nineteenth-century witness — the occultist-politician whose "magic of Gutenberg" footnote turns out to pre-state McLuhan, and whose Vril fantasy seeds the whole conspiracy imaginary Bob has tracked for decades
Bob places Bulwer-Lytton as the Victorian novelist-politician behind The Coming Race — the entry point for the occult "Vril" material.
"appears in a book called The Coming Race by Victorian novelist and politician called Edward Bulwer-Lytton."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 1:23:30
Bulwer's 1833 line, buried in an Innis footnote, states the Gutenberg Galaxy thesis a century and a quarter before McLuhan named it.
"the magic of Gutenberg conjured a wide chasm between the past and future history of mankind" — "the people on one side of the gulf are not the people on the other."Harold Innis, read by Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 43:18
Bob reads Bulwer as an early media theorist — grasping that a communication technology transforms the humans it reaches.
"he's saying the medium changed people. He gets it."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 1:22:31
Bob, reading the journalist's article, ties Bulwer's occult elitism to an aristocratic reaction against mass democracy — the class fear behind the esoteric turn.
"his elitist occultism appealed to other upper class people who also felt disempowered and disgusted by the rise of mass democracy."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 1:26:03
Bulwer as the hinge into Theosophy — his elitist occultism appealing on to figures like Madame Blavatsky.
"He's the guy that leads into the theosophical occult stuff."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 1:26:33
Bob makes Bulwer the single headwater of the modern occult-conspiracy stream, running through Theosophy, Crowley, and Leary to today's "globalists" and "Illuminati."
"Bulwer-Lytton is the source of everything that gets into the Theosophists, then the Aleister Crowley, then Tim Leary."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 34 (19 Aug 2021), 1:32:20
Connections
Innis' essay 'An Economic Approach to English Literature in the Nineteenth Century' ends on a footnote quoting Bulwer's 1833 'magic of Gutenberg' line — the discovery that anchors the episode.
Bulwer's 1833 image of a Gutenberg-cleft mankind — "the people on one side of the gulf are not the people on the other" — states McLuhan's Gutenberg Galaxy thesis a century and a quarter early.
Bob makes Bulwer the headwater of the occult-conspiracy stream (Vril → Theosophy → Crowley → Leary → QAnon), one lineage of the modern cul-de-sac.