Fictional Magic
Fictional magic may be inspired by non-fictional beliefs and practices, but may also be an invention of the writer. Furthermore, even when the writer uses non-fictional beliefs and practices, the effect, strength, and rules of the magic will normally be what the writer requires for the plot. Fictional magic may or may not include a detailed system, but when the author does not bother to systematize the magic or create rules, it is more likely that magic will be used simply at the author's convenience, rather than as a believable plot element.
It is by no means impossible, moreover, for fictional magic to leap from the pages of fantasy to actual magical belief. The Necronomicon was invented as fiction by H. P. Lovecraft; other authors such as August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith also cited it in their works, with Lovecraft's approval, as he believed such common allusions built up "a background of evil verisimilitude." Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it, pranksters listing it in rare book catalogs, and one smuggling a card for it into the Yale University Library. There have been several attempts by modern authors to produce it as a grimoire, such as the Simon Necronomicon, which used Babylonian mythology and a series of sigils from medieval ceremonial magic used to control or ward off demons.
Read more about this topic: Magic In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words fictional and/or magic:
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself—for it is from the soil, both from its depth and from its surface, that a river has its beginning.”
—Laura Gilpin (1891–1979)