Ask me in ten years.
Funny thing about time, I won’t be able to see myself in ten years for ten years.
It’s a river I’ve never run before. How could I possibly know where it goes?
PROMPT: 10 Years
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Category Archives: Magic
PROMPT: A Break
Yes. The manipulation. Attention merchants selling space in our heads to AI-powered rage bait creators for a magical misdirect on a scale never before seen. While people are pointing fingers of outrage, the last thin dime is being pried out of their pockets to fuel wildly depraved existences, and the robbed are left to wonder how the people they were pointing at — who they had their eyes on the entire time — managed to pull off a pickpocket.
#bamboozledbybillionaires
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PROMPT: Magic Genie
For any wish number one, wish number two always has to be that one suffer no adverse consequences of the law of unintended consequences (i.e. like Midas who turns his food and even his daughter into solid gold.) Wish number three should be that the receipt of wish number one does not rob one of any experience that makes one a better version of oneself in the long-run (e.g. like the lottery winner who had been chugging along through life just fine and then ends up broke and suicidal because of both the additional pressures and the lack of need to be frugal and satisfied with simple things.)
Personally, I don’t know that it’s worth it. The bill always comes due.
But, if forced:
1.) To be contented with what is.
2.) Healthfulness all around.
3.) To die a good death (in due time.)
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BOOK: “Tell My Horse” by Zora Neale Hurston
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale HurstonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author’s Book Site — Zora Neale Hurston Trust
This is a beautifully written and fascinating look at Jamaica, Haiti, Voodoo, Zombies, and the sinews that run between them. The first half of the book reads largely like a travelogue of, and introduction to, Jamaica and Haiti, respectively. In this half, Voodoo is only mentioned here and there as an aside. There is much more discussion of culture, race, and politics, notably the disheartening politics of Haiti. (I should point out for those unfamiliar with Harlem Renaissance figures, this book dates to the 1930’s — so current affairs are not addressed, but — unfortunately — Haiti has a long history of troubles.) The second half of the book delves much more intensely into Voodoo and the supernormal happenings broadly connected to it. Hurston’s exploration is neither as a tried-and-true believer, nor as a hardcore sceptic; rather she takes a more journalistic objectivity.
The language of this book is splendid, and Hurston produces many a quotable line. It is true that the subject matter, Voodoo, is extremely compelling, but this book is more than just a collection of tales of magic, superstition, and the weird. It also offers depth of insight into the cultures of these countries and their peoples. Hurston frequently mentions the differences between classes on the matter of Voodoo, the upper-class rejecting it as mere superstition and the lower classes often engaging with it as a way of life.
I’d highly recommend this book, not only for those interested in learning more about Caribbean Voodoo practices, but also for travelers with an intense curiosity about culture.
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PROMPT: Guaranteed
What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
Cast a magic spell? Everything I know of in this world comes with no such guarantee — at least anything worth one’s time. It’d be better to spend one’s time learning to thrive under uncertainty.
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BOOKS: “Magic: A Very Short Introduction” by Owen Davies
Magic: A Very Short Introduction by Owen DaviesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – OUP
The first thing that a potential reader should be aware of is that this book isn’t about stage magic or sleight of hand, and that form of magic — in which all parties are aware that techniques are being used to exploit perceptual limitations so as to create the illusion of a supernatural occurrence — doesn’t even really come up as an aside. This book is about magic that (at least some) people believe is a demonstration of actual supernatural happenings in the world.
The book looks at the topic largely from a historical viewpoint; though special emphasis is given to the relationship between religion and magic, in both its congruous and adversarial aspects. That said, for the most part, it’s not arranged historically but rather topically. It does have one chapter on historical perspectives (ch. 3) and one that addresses the ways and degrees to which magical thinking still exists in the modern world (ch. 6.) But it also has chapters on the anthropology of magic (ch.1,) the shifting landscape of thinking about what magic actually is (given that it’s clearly something to many people but isn’t likely the actual exploitation of loopholes in the laws governing the physical world that believers feel it to be — ch. 3,) the role of language in magic (ch. 4,) and the practices of magic (ch. 5.)
The book does focus heavily on the Abrahamic world (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) and its Janus-faced relation to magic over time, but not exclusively so. It brings in African, Chinese, Caribbean, and Native American traditions here and there as well.
I found this book interesting and thought-provoking and would highly recommend it for anyone looking to gain a better insight into how humanity has thought about magic over time and how those beliefs have aligned – or conflicted with – religious beliefs and practices.
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A Spell [Free Verse]
Write me a spell:
A tiny bit of magic --
Nothing massive
Or mind-blowing --
Just a simple piece
Of Magic.
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Introduction to Spellcasting [Lyric Poem]
We cast our spells by way of words --
Each sound, sacred. Its magic blurred
By mundane ways and untrained ears --
Failure to feel one's way to tears.
So, we're lost upon silent seas
Even when one could hear with ease:
Because boundless is speech's spread,
And boundless, still, within one's head.
Some seek their way to the magic
By means that are truly tragic,
When all they really need to do
Is listen as it passes through.
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A Feather in Flow [Free Verse]
How do I roll like a
feather in flow?
The one that can't be
pulled from the pool.
It slips around the
lifted hand,
Retreating back into
the water that it never
really left.
It's like sleight of hand
one plays upon oneself:
at once magician & mark.
The faster one snatches at it,
the greater the miss.
The slower one moves,
the more frustratingly
one sees one's failure.
How to roll like a feather in flow?
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BOOK REVIEW: Here Is Real Magic by Nate Staniforth
Here Is Real Magic: A Magician’s Search for Wonder in the Modern World by Nate Staniforth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When stage magician, Nate Staniforth, becomes disillusioned with traveling around America performing magic tricks on college campuses — and the distinct lack of wonder that it entails, he packs his bags and flies to India to explore the centuries old magic traditions of the subcontinent. Part memoir and part travelogue, the first part explores how Staniforth got into magic and his struggle to achieve everything he always wanted, i.e. the ability to make a living performing magic – a desire far more would-be magicians have than the market will support. However, he finds a disjoint between the feeling of wonder and surprise that made him love magic and what he witnesses in the audience night after night – which include a heaping mix of indifference, skepticism, hostility, and even the occasional pious fear that he is dabbling in dark arts.
In India, he finds a mix of some of the same but also some very different perspectives on magic. One the one hand, he learns that magic tricks aren’t just a good way to break the ice with strangers, but also a means to bridge cultural divides. Sleight of hand doesn’t require perfect communication to build bonds between people. As he travels from Kolkata to Varanasi to Rishikesh to Hardiwar to Delhi to Jodhpur, he shares magic tricks with young and old alike, as well as getting to witness some of India’s magic. The highlight of the trip is when he meets with a family of street magicians from Shadipur Depot slum in Delhi, and can at last exchange ideas and learn about their long lineage as illusionists.
However, Staniforth also finds many Indians who are hostile toward the practice of illusions and magic tricks. To understand this hostility, one must know that historically “godmen” who used illusion and sleight of hand to convince individuals of their divinity were more common than those who practiced it as entertainers. This resulted in a couple different types of hostile witness to magic in India. On the one hand, there is the scientifically-minded individual who is distraught by the image of India as a land of superstition and naively pious followers. (A war on superstition in India probably made it harder to research this book because doing street magic is largely prohibited because of the history of duping people for personal gain.) On the other hand, there are those who are ardent believers who dislike magicians who do magic tricks because it contributes to a general skepticism about their gurus — who such individuals believe can actually do magic. It should be said that variations of those two types of individual could be found almost anywhere, including his home nation of America. What is more uniquely Indian is the individual who fits into a third category of simultaneously believing both of the aforementioned criticisms. That is, said individual believes that any illusion someone like Staniforth performs can be scientifically explained and is merely a deceit against the gullible, but at the same time this person believes that there are spiritual masters who can do “real magic.”
The title, “Here Is Real Magic,” could be received in many ways. However, taking it literally, as though the author believes that there are those in India with supernatural powers, isn’t consistent with the book’s message. In one sense, the title is meant to be controversial, but Staniforth is also indicating that he rediscovered wonder in India — not through the supernatural, but through surrender to the experiences he had there.
As an American who has lived in India for many years now, I found this book to be fascinating in places. I believe that it’s useful both as a call to rediscover the wonder that we usually lose somewhere before adulthood, as well as a primer into the similarities and differences between the Indian and Western mindsets on magic in the modern world. I’d recommend this book, particularly for anyone who has interest in magic.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 