Magic in fiction and real life
Wed, 6 Dec 2023
Fiction, Opinion
==============================

Magic is a large part of very form of fiction, and -- for me at
least -- also a large part of getting enjoyment out of everyday
life.  `Magic'  in this case refers to a way of explaining
certain phenomena in the world. Bad explanations go along the
lines of: ``its magic, now be quiet''. The other end contains
overly detailed explanations.  Bordering on the edge of science,
even if the science is fictional.  When magic is well done in a
work of fiction, it always fills me with the giddy sense of
excitement. The explanations given dance just at the border of
what I can understand, and this sets my imagination going like
nothing else.

So then, let us look at some examples of magical systems in
popular fiction, explain why must of them are terrible at
intriguing me, and follow all of this up with some real world
magic.

Harry Potter
------------

On of the most popular fictional works containing so-called magic
is probably Harry Potter. Love it or hate it, the Harry Potter
franchise has been extremely influential to fiction as a whole,
and I can think of few people who have not read at least one of
the books, or seen a single movie.

That being said, the magic system in Harry Potter is terrible,
truly amongst the worst, here is why: How does magic work in the
Harry Potter universe? You say a spell, you flick a sick around,
though sometimes you do not speak, and sometime you do not flick,
oh and you need to be born a wizard, which is a largely random
process. This system explains practically nothing, as most
spell-based magical systems do. Harry Potter goes the extra mile
in lack-of-explanation by not even explaining where the energy
used to perform magics comes from.

Let me first address spellcasting more generally. Spellcasting,
in its most basic form is the utterance of a phrase. The main
question that arises when you implement a system like this is:
Why that phrase? What is it about that combination of sounds that
causes the big magic to happen? Is someone or something
listening? If not, why must the sounds be vocalized at all?
Spellcasting can be implemented properly however, and the systems
that do are often among the most satisfying, but Harry Potter is
not one of them.

Then there are wands and their movements. Magic, in Harry Potter,
is seemingly an inherent trait you are born with, that much is
explained to us. We know that wizards and witches can perform
magic without a wand, though possession of a proper wand allows
for the focussing of energy like a lens. This much I can accept,
and I actually like about HP's system. I would still like to know
where the energy comes from, but this is certainly a start.

Thus wizards have or use energy through their wands, and making
the right sounds either kills a guy, or makes him grow a bear. By
not explaining the spells at all, there is very little room for
the imagination to play. We know that mispronouncing the
levitation spell can cause you to spontaneously combust, but
there is not explanation as to why. Let us say we are speaking in
a language where float and explode sound very similar, then we
might have some room to fantasize. What if I used the hand
motions of float, but instead I said boat, would that summon an
aeroplane? That sort of thing.

Avatar the last airbender
-------------------------

Let's look at a slightly better system: Avatar (the one with the
tattooed monk, not the blue aliens). In Avatar, it is presupposed
that every person has some sort of life force or energy flowing
through them. Some people, called benders know how to shape this
life force in order to manipulate the elements: water air, fire,
and earth. This manipulation functions by moving one's body and
the energy within it, and we can see this in action both in the
comics and the television show. If a fire-bender moves their
weight forward and thrusts an open palm forwards, they might
generate a large cloud of fire, whereas the same movement with
two outstretched fingers generates a finely concentrated stream
of fire, or even lightning.

This system works so well at its core because it uses fairly
commonsensical concepts and combines them in a way you can grasp,
even though it is still fictional. We know a thing or two about
energy, we feel it when we become excited or angry, we feel its
absence when we are tired. We also know a thing or two about
manipulating the word through moving our limbs around. The fact
that Avatar borrows from Chinese folklore and martial arts only
aids in our understanding and the air of mystery surrounding it.

You can start to fantasise about certain motions combined with
certain elements.  The story even encourages this as certain
characters use the motions of water bending with the energy of
fire bending. You can envision your own moves and variations, you
can think of synergies and strategies, either borrowing from
martial arts, or simply letting your imagination run loose.

When it comes to explaining why only certain people can bend
certain elements however, the magic falls apart for me. In
essence, it has something to do with reincarnation and giant lion
turtles who granted certain people the ability to bend at some
time in their past lives.  But if the system is all about
learning to manipulate energy and moving your body, then why do
we need to be imbued with this gift? To me, some of the magic is
lost in this explanation, as it makes the whole bending idea much
more otherworldly then it otherwise was.

Unsong
------

Now, let us turn to one of my favourite implementations of magic
in all of fiction: Unsong. In the world of Unsong, there are two
forms of magic: names of God, and placebomancy. In order to
explain both of these, some background is needed. The world of
Unsong adheres to the biblical story of creation for the most
part. However, after a war between the hosts of heaven and the
hosts of hell, one angel: Uriel, decided to reprogram the world
into the probabilistic system of atoms and forces we know today.
Before this time, everything in existence was a direct expression
of God's numerous faculties. After the restructuring of reality,
history progresses as we know it, up until the space race. During
one of the Apollo missions, humans attempt to orbit the moon and
end up crashing into the crystal sphere that surrounds the earth.
This sphere kept out the divine light and kept the world
functioning probabilistically and all that.

With the sphere cracked, a tiny amount to divine light is let
back in. This means that everything in existence is now a little
more an expression of God than it was before. Words previously
just expressed things in existence, but now they also express
God. The things in existence these words used to refer to also
express God, and so there is not a connection between the thing
and its expression, between the map and the territory. These two
influence each other in both directions. Founding a town will
cause it to be put on a map, but putting a town on a map may just
as well cause people to settle there.

In the world of Unsong, that certain phrases express God's
faculties more clearly than others. These are the names of God,
and they have various effects, such as making you bulletproof,
walk on water, or become invisible. They do so by clearly
expressing God's indestructible nature, His weightless, His
obscurity, etcetera. A name of God is an expression of ultimate
reality, and an expression of reality is no different from
reality itself.  However, this is -- by far -- the less
interesting system of the two form of magic in Unsong.

The second system is called placebomancy and it neatly
encapsulates all forms of magic. Spells? got those, potions? got
those, Avatar-esque bending? yes sir.  A placebomancer attempts
to convince reality that a certain thing ought to happen.
Placebomancers use the entire narrative for their acts, carrying
a mystique, having mysterious backstories, and ensuring esoteric
places to perform their rituals. The reason this works is that,
since the sky cracked, reality is not as stable as it used to be,
and if you can convince it somehow that what you are doing ought
to make fire shoot from your fingers, then that is what will
happen.  The stories we tell each other are a part of reality,
therefore: wearing a robe and waving a wand helps to convince
reality that you are doing magic.

What is great about this system is that it simply uses a facet of
the fundamental functioning of Unsong's world: the way we express
things is just as real as those things themselves. Furthermore,
it is inherently limited, which explains nicely why everyone is
not just placebomancing their way into paradise on earth. Sure
you MIGHT be able to convince reality that the devil never
existed, but the devil very strongly believes that he does, and
so do many others. Then again, if you can find a convincing
narrative, the world lies at your feet.

Both of these systems are things you can grasp, but not quite
fully comprehend, thus leaving space for your imagination to fill
in the blanks. This is the real magic at play here. No words on a
page can make magic to the same extent your own imagination can.
Thus, let us finally move on to real magic.

Magic in the real world
-----------------------

With real-word magic, I do not mean spells of ice and fire, nor
ritual magic or elemental bending. I simply refer to those things
which have a magical air about them. Things which we can
understand just well enough for them to instill a childlike
wonder in us and set our imaginations working. These things
excite and intrigue us.  Too-simple and they are not magical at
all, too complicated, and it is science.

Let's start with a personal example: audio cassettes. Audio
cassettes work by putting air vibrations onto magnetic tape and
retrieving them in the reverse manner. Now: I understand air
vibrations, when listening to music (especially loud music) I can
feel the speaker and the ground shake, I understand that this is
the essence of sound. I also understand magnets. That is not to
say that I necessarily grasp magnetic fields and such, but I know
how magnets work, I have seen and felt them work. Expressing the
vibrations of air linearly as thousands of little magnets on a
tape, and spinning that tape to get the vibrations back is the
essence of an audio cassette. The fact that we can do this is
absolutely incredible to me, and, though I fully understand the
parts, I still find it amazing that we can bend reality in this
manner. In short, it is magical to me.

Staying on the topic of audio: I do not find digital music
players magical in the slightest. I simply do not grasp
flash-storage, digital-to-analogue converters, and transistors
well enough. These are all elements squarely in the realm of
science. You would not try to explain them to a child, and with
an adult you would use complex theories, and a lot a math. This
is neither exciting nor intriguing.  Sure it is impressive, but
impressive and magical are two entirely different things.

There are also systems which are too-simple to be magical. I find
nothing magical about a classic gas-stove. Propane moves from the
tank to the stove, it it seeps out slowly and constantly ignites
itself. It is too-simple. Induction stoves on the other hand are
too complicated. This also shows how subjective this magical
feeling can be. To you, maybe a propane torch is magical, or
maybe you grew up with so much magnetic field theory that
induction stoves occupy the same space for you as cassette tapes
do for me.

I honestly believe that keeping some of this magic in your life
is a large part of being happy and curious about the world. These
`magical' things are the first places where you can learn more.
You can turn your basic grasp into full understanding, at which
point new magics open up to you. If you had to start your journey
into electronic by understanding  modern chip architecture, I am
almost certain your search would never lead anywhere, it would
simply be too-overwhelming. For me, magic can be found in audio
cassettes, chemical photography, fermentation, pregnancies, seed
germination, and so much more. For you the list might be
different, but I think the effect is the same.  Fiction is one
way of keeping magic in your life at least. And if it is done
well, it can instill a sense of wonder for the world as a whole,
not just for the fictional universe where the magic originated.

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I will close with one recommendation for a work of fiction, that
being ``The name of the Wind'' by Patrick Rothfuss. It is the
first book of a as-of-yet unfinished trilogy. And I enjoyed
reading it very much. It has a great an innovative system of
magic, which spiked my curiosity many time throughout the book,
and the general storyline is very engaging. Above all though, it
has been a while since a book managed to arouse my emotions so
well. There were times I got so upset and angry at the
main-character's actions that I had to put the book down for a
few days to read a different novel. There were many many times
where I had to stifle a fit of giggling in the library or on
public transport.  And I even smiled on occasion, which is not
particularly something I am known to do.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an
email at <[email protected]>, I am especially interested in
your thoughts about real-world-magic, as well as any book
recommendations you might have, especially is they are works
containing ~good~ magical systems.