a critique of magic in fantasy worlds
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      introduction
      I'm bothered by a lot of video essayists
      who try to criticize art by just imposing
      their own viewpoints in a restrictive, angry
      manner, so in this essay I want to avoid
      coming off as that harsh. the intention
      of this essay is supposed to be more helpful
      than just angry yelling -- my goal is
      to provide a set of guidelines and
      reasoning for a more "healthy" or effective
      way to include magic in fantasy worlds.

      one more disclaimer: I know that a lot
      of fantasy worlds are ruthlessly expanded
      and twisted as a way of creating more
      "material" for consumers (Star Wars,
      anyone?); nevertheless, I want to avoid
      the context of the market in this critique
      because that is a whole new can of worms
      and complicates the idea of what "art" is --
      even if "art" is impossible to define in
      the first place.

      with all the preamble out of the way, here's
      the actual essay:

      essay
      a lot of popular "universes," especially
      ones popular online, are some form of fantasy
      world that involves magic. very obvious
      examples of this are the universes of Harry Potter
      and Star Wars. this essay will focus
      on those type of universes (actually, those
      two are pretty much the only of their kind that
      I mention); note that I'll mainly be talking
      about modern fantasy universes.

      the issue
      if you've ever read The Lord of the Rings
      or something else by Tolkien, you may have
      noticed that the way magic is used differs
      greatly from most modern forms of fantasy --
      specifically, magic just sort of "happens,"
      which can invite questions like the infamous
      Eagle Question since Gandalf or the elves or
      whoever uses magic doesn't have definite
      parameters for the scope of their power.
      in Harry Potter (ugh), magic doesn't have
      these issues as often since there are more
      parameters limiting ability, such as education
      level, wand quality, etc. however, if you've
      ever existed within this society, you know
      there's still lots of debate about the magic
      system in Harry Potter and the Force
      in Star Wars. clearly, there's something
      wrong with that magic, too.

      what is magic, anyway? there's something special
      separating, say, potion-making from chemistry.
      a sleep potion is different than "mundane"
      sleeping pills due to an air of mystery and
      "magicalness" that exists outside the logical
      confines of science. how does a sleeping potion
      work? by magic, of course; no further
      explanation is needed. magic is fundamentally
      chaotic and exists outside the realm of human
      understanding. trying to give "scientific"
      explanations for magic when worldbuilding misses
      the point. things like midichlorians or potions
      class push fantasy worlds towards an uncanny
      valley area that lies on the outskirts of
      science fiction, and an author who writes
      science fiction while thinking that they're
      writing fantasy will create logical
      inconsistencies and plot holes far more numerous
      and far worse than the Eagle Question. there is
      very little in Star Wars that's genuinely
      supernatural. every time a new force power is
      introduced or explained, the Star Wars
      universe becomes more like D&D with its
      extensive rules system, or like a version of
      the real world but with telekinetic powers.

      why does this matter at all?
      "but ~if, why is this an actual problem?" you
      may ask. "don't you have anything better to do?
      doesn't someone love you? maybe you could hang
      out somewhere with them, or just do anything to
      share the joy of your existence with them?"
      if you're asking these questions, you've
      forgotten the implications of the fact that I'm
      writing a long, disjointed opinion essay about
      something that nobody really cares about. on
      that note, why do I think it matters for
      magic to be "not genuine?"

      magic and the supernatural have probably existed
      within human stories for a ve~ery long time,
      partially because there's always elements of
      the Unknown in our lives and we need a way to
      portray and/or cope with things that are far
      beyond the realm of our control. creating worlds
      where "magic" is just another form of science
      breaks this purpose, distorting magic through
      a naive modernist lens. this isn't to say that
      such modern stories are always bad, just that
      they shouldn't be understood as fantasy, lest
      they obscure actual fantasy that deals
      with themes of the unknown in the typical way.
      one of the "good" fantasy stories I've read
      recently is called The Lathe of Heaven
      (written by Ursula K. Le Guin) and
      coincidentally deals with the idea of humans
      trying to use magic as if it were a science
      (spoiler: it doesn't go well).

      if the genre of "not-really-fantasy" were as bad
      as this essay might paint it to be, it wouldn't
      be so successful -- there might be something to
      be gleaned from those stories. unfortunately,
      those universes still have plot conflicts and
      other gaping issues (what are the implications
      of the wizarding/muggle divide in Harry Potter
      ultimately being portrayed in a good light?
      yikes) which could still be mitigated by making
      magic systems less scientific and more
      whimsical. the mystique of something like the
      Force shouldn't be dried out and over-described,
      because after 45 years or so it loses its
      appeal.