The August Topic: Magic and Sorcery

In the runup to the August 11 meeting, I will look at this topic in some depth. Many fantasy books, and even one or two science fiction ones, have brought in magic as a force, but comparatively few authors, or indeed characters, have actually made a good, long study of what magic is, and what it represents.

What Is Magic?

Magic is the active use of various forces operating in the universe in a manner deemed "supernatural" (above the natural), "paranormal" (beside the normal) or "metaphysical" (beyond, upon or after the physical) to accomplish a given goal.

At a surface level in fiction, magic is simply a pursuit of the knowledge of certain established metaphysical processes to perform specific tasks which would be highly improbable if performed in the real world; these routines are called "spells," and they are the bread and butter of the CGI departments of TV and film studios, who get to use creative editing to make the narrative descriptions of such incantations seem to come to life amid swirls of smoke, light and noise.

The word "magic" comes from the Magians, ancient Zoroastrian astrologer priests; the Greek name magos  μάγος (plural magoi μάγοι) and the adjective magikos μαγικός ("magical") became magus, magi and magicus respectively in Latin. The Magians may simply have been the smartest men of their day, well versed in the arts, knowledgeable in science and medicine - as much as anyone at that time knew - but those who were not privy to their secrets ascribed supernatural attributes to these priests, and the term magic has been associated with the supernatural and illusion ever since.

First Philosophy

 "The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά (metá) ("beyond", "upon" or "after") and φυσικά (physiká) ("physics").^[7] It was first used as the title for several of Aristotle's works, because they were usually anthologized after the works on physics in complete editions. The prefix meta- ("beyond") indicates that these works come "after" the chapters on physics. However, Aristotle himself did not call the subject of these books "Metaphysics": he referred to it as "first philosophy." The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to have placed the books on first philosophy right after another work, Physics, and called them τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ βιβλία (ta meta ta physika biblia) or "the books that come after the [books on] physics". This was misread by Latin scholiasts, who thought it meant "the science of what is beyond the physical.""
-- Wikipedia

Fantasy Magic

As long as there have been fairy stories and fantasy, as long as people have told tales around campfires, stories of the supernatural have been told. Magic appears in the oldest written stories ever told, from The Epic of Gilgamesh and Beowulf right up to the present day. The presence of magic in fiction is night ubiquitous; and even Arthur C Clarke refers to it in his famous Third Law (from "Profiles of The Future," his non-fiction essay on Futurism). So there is no real shortage of books, short stories and other resources to choose from. Some books are well-written, presenting magic as a mysterious Unknown; others are not so well-written, going for the flash rather than the substance, making magic a mere footnote which one can parse out as a note tacked to the book reading "To the movie studio Special FX guys, the special magic swirls go here. The good guy's magical swirls are blue; the bad guy's magical swirls are lurid green like rotting meat. Make it look mean. If I don't get an Oscar, it's your fault."

Care to come with me on a little ride through the worlds of the occult, as seen by everybody? Or am I just talking to Prospero's thin air again?