Magic in Romantic Fantasy
"Attitudes toward magic in Romantic Fantasy are usually very different from that expressed in most high fantasy or sword and sorcery. Rather than representing an alien and corrupting force that destroys its practitioners, or a complex, secretive body of folklore that isolates magicians from normal society via long study and seclusion, magic typically takes the form of innate abilities that are natural and simple to use, sometimes described as psychic talents like empathy or precognition, sometimes oriented towards affinity for or control of a particular natural element (such as the four classical Greek elements, fire, air, earth and water). Magic is thus presented in the narrative as an innate and positive part of someone's nature, and by extension a "natural" part of the world; fear of these abilities is often depicted as a reaction born of ignorance, poor guidance, or evil."
Read more about this topic: Romantic Fantasy
Famous quotes containing the words magic in, magic, romantic and/or fantasy:
“We’re not blind and we’re not fools. We’re just plain, sensible people who refuse to be fooled by a lot of supernatural nonsense.... There’s no magic in dried lizards and dead chickens.”
—Eric Taylor. Robert Siodmak. Frank Stanley (Robert Paige)
“There is no magic decoding ring that will help us read our young adolescent’s feelings. Rather, what we need to do is hold out our antennae in the hope that we’ll pick up the right signals.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, III, ch.4 (1985)
“He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Fantasy is a product of thought, Imagination of sensibility. If the thinking, discursive mind turns to speculation, the result is Fantasy; if, however, the sensitive, intuitive mind turns to speculation, the result is Imagination. Fantasy may be visionary, but it is cold and logical. Imagination is sensuous and instinctive. Both have form, but the form of Fantasy is analogous to Exposition, that of Imagination to Narrative.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)