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Nov. 11th, 2008 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zwolIn a lot of fantasy, magic is an aristocratic thing. There are special individuals, or special families, that can do it; otherwise not. Often, you also have a decline-and-fall narrative in there, with magic having been easier and/or safer in the past. Sometimes technology is held up against magic as safer, more reliable, anyone can do it; later Discworld comes to mind.
I'm thinking that this is an overused trope and it would be nice to see more reversals. "Magic school" stories are an obvious place to look for it but I can't think of a case where there isn't some degree of specialness required to get in in the first place; in the Harry Potter novels one is either born with the talent or not, for instance. The Rick Cook "Wizard's Bane" series has magic that works in the standard high-fantasy way and then the protagonist (who is from Earth) comes in and applies Science, turning it into a technology; later novels deal with the consequences of just about everyone being able to do magic. Unfortunately, apart from this clever concept, they don't have a lot to recommend them. Also, if you just treat magic as a technology, that loses a lot of what makes it interesting.
I'm thinking that this is an overused trope and it would be nice to see more reversals. "Magic school" stories are an obvious place to look for it but I can't think of a case where there isn't some degree of specialness required to get in in the first place; in the Harry Potter novels one is either born with the talent or not, for instance. The Rick Cook "Wizard's Bane" series has magic that works in the standard high-fantasy way and then the protagonist (who is from Earth) comes in and applies Science, turning it into a technology; later novels deal with the consequences of just about everyone being able to do magic. Unfortunately, apart from this clever concept, they don't have a lot to recommend them. Also, if you just treat magic as a technology, that loses a lot of what makes it interesting.
