Me Thinking Unoriginal Thoughts on Magic
Jun. 9th, 2005 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalak"And to defeat the Darklord™ you need this sword that never gets dull made a thousand years ago. "
"Okay hey wait a minute why were more of these never made? You know the secret is discovered and soon everyone is making magic swords that don't rust, don’t need sharpening, and can't be broken. So why aren't these things as common enough that everyone has one by now? I mean if just one a year is made by just one master smith there should be like a thousand of the unbreakable things wandering about somewhere."
"Just shut up and take the bloody magic sword."
There is totally a place for magic things that happen and are never explained or are not used by everyone to change the world. It's just when the group of noble adventurers is outfitted to a man with magic swords, magic mail, and magic is used everywhere in place of torches a person might get to wondering why these things aren't used more like real people would use them. I think Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a great place to start to figure out how magic would really be used as opposed to how it is often used in the standard EFP (Extruded Fantasy Product or more kindly Epic Fantasy Pastiche) Fantasyland.
The classic hierarchy:
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
Forget for a moment trying to figure out things from the beginnings in Paleolithic times. Let's just start with the classic Anglo-Saxon type medieval setting. Sure knocking down a city's walls would be grand, but what about keeping the rats out of the granaries to prevent starvation? Or instead of calling up a storm to hide your position what about regular rain to keep the crops growing?
My personal rule of thumb is to use no magic in ways that were used later technologically (like lighting up streets) unless all the magic is roughly at that level. Or you've got a good explanation as to why it is so much easier to light up streets that they're doing that in the equivalent of "Olde Londontown" and then think up all the other ways in which people would use lighting if it is that relatively easy. "Grow special crops indoors! Light up every room of the castle! Build giant arrangements of lights on mountainsides to glorify our god! Flashlights and lanterns for everyone! Glowing jewelry!"
Though a writer has got to be careful of the search and replace tech with magic mistake. I mean why keep things cold in a magic box to keep them from going off when you could just use magic to keep things from going off? No need to keep them cold. Or magic horseless carriages when floating the whole set up would be magically just as easy or if teleporting is possible forget ever traveling between here and there.
Though of course in Discworld, for example, the whole point is to be funny by doing the find and replace in silly ways.
So what do people want from magic? Well first they want their food not to go bad and to be ever easier to get. Secondly they want magic to either keep out the rain or keep the house up to keep out the rain, stop burglars, and warn with the dangerous raiders from the next country over come. When those bad people do show up we want arms to defeat them en mass or ways to track down the lone murderer. And if we're not being murdered by our neighbors or those foreign bastards we'd like not to die of plague, typhoid, or anything else we can magic away. After that people want more attractive bodies and bigger or smaller sex organs and secondary characteristics depending upon what is socially desirable. Or before health if you're young and dying of something isn't something you worry about more than impressing the sir or lady fair. While we're at it how about some magic to make everyone feel very connected to god and passive about killing people with more magic and stuff. And comfortable yet stylish shoes.
To sum up: If magic swords are a dime a dozen then every housewife should have a set of unbreakable knives as well.
Next time: More detail on what people would really use magic for.
"Okay hey wait a minute why were more of these never made? You know the secret is discovered and soon everyone is making magic swords that don't rust, don’t need sharpening, and can't be broken. So why aren't these things as common enough that everyone has one by now? I mean if just one a year is made by just one master smith there should be like a thousand of the unbreakable things wandering about somewhere."
"Just shut up and take the bloody magic sword."
There is totally a place for magic things that happen and are never explained or are not used by everyone to change the world. It's just when the group of noble adventurers is outfitted to a man with magic swords, magic mail, and magic is used everywhere in place of torches a person might get to wondering why these things aren't used more like real people would use them. I think Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a great place to start to figure out how magic would really be used as opposed to how it is often used in the standard EFP (Extruded Fantasy Product or more kindly Epic Fantasy Pastiche) Fantasyland.
The classic hierarchy:
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
Forget for a moment trying to figure out things from the beginnings in Paleolithic times. Let's just start with the classic Anglo-Saxon type medieval setting. Sure knocking down a city's walls would be grand, but what about keeping the rats out of the granaries to prevent starvation? Or instead of calling up a storm to hide your position what about regular rain to keep the crops growing?
My personal rule of thumb is to use no magic in ways that were used later technologically (like lighting up streets) unless all the magic is roughly at that level. Or you've got a good explanation as to why it is so much easier to light up streets that they're doing that in the equivalent of "Olde Londontown" and then think up all the other ways in which people would use lighting if it is that relatively easy. "Grow special crops indoors! Light up every room of the castle! Build giant arrangements of lights on mountainsides to glorify our god! Flashlights and lanterns for everyone! Glowing jewelry!"
Though a writer has got to be careful of the search and replace tech with magic mistake. I mean why keep things cold in a magic box to keep them from going off when you could just use magic to keep things from going off? No need to keep them cold. Or magic horseless carriages when floating the whole set up would be magically just as easy or if teleporting is possible forget ever traveling between here and there.
Though of course in Discworld, for example, the whole point is to be funny by doing the find and replace in silly ways.
So what do people want from magic? Well first they want their food not to go bad and to be ever easier to get. Secondly they want magic to either keep out the rain or keep the house up to keep out the rain, stop burglars, and warn with the dangerous raiders from the next country over come. When those bad people do show up we want arms to defeat them en mass or ways to track down the lone murderer. And if we're not being murdered by our neighbors or those foreign bastards we'd like not to die of plague, typhoid, or anything else we can magic away. After that people want more attractive bodies and bigger or smaller sex organs and secondary characteristics depending upon what is socially desirable. Or before health if you're young and dying of something isn't something you worry about more than impressing the sir or lady fair. While we're at it how about some magic to make everyone feel very connected to god and passive about killing people with more magic and stuff. And comfortable yet stylish shoes.
To sum up: If magic swords are a dime a dozen then every housewife should have a set of unbreakable knives as well.
Next time: More detail on what people would really use magic for.
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Date: 2005-06-10 04:57 am (UTC)these folks have a lovely book - A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe
it discusses similar things. worth the pdf cost.