From my MLA 2012 Fantasy presentation
Magic
·
The
Fantasy threshold. If a book does not
have magic, it’s not Fantasy Literature.
·
In
its broadest sense, magic is a way of talking about non-rational happenings and
beings.
·
Manifestations
of magic:
o Overt - Explicit, traditional – magick
–wizards and sorcerers.
o Inherent – Beings that don’t
necessarily do magic but are magic. Vampires, fairies, gods.
o Implied - fantasy that has a lot of
non-rational happenings that aren’t talked about as magic at all. In Jasper Fforde’s “The Eyre Affair”
characters jump in and out of books all the time, and yet magic is never
mentioned in that series. In fact the series is written as if it’s rational –
very 20th century British. Yet it’s obviously full of
something science can’t explain; it’s not rational. And therefore it’s fantasy,
regardless of the tone.
·
One
of Fantasy’s defining characteristics is that sense that you’re somewhere
you’ll never be able to visit.
For fantasy worlds to be true, the impossible would have to be true -
there would have to be Fairies in downtown Minneapolis
·
Magic
works differently in every world. There
are some accepted general “systems,” mainly, as far as I know, passed on by
osmosis. But it’s up to the author to
come up with a system that works for them and for their story. However, if the author intends the reader to
take it seriously (and sometimes that’s not the intention at all) it must be
well-thought out, internally consistent, and make sense within the confines of
the world the author is building.
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