Magical Thinking

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Fiction, Arts, Society & Culture, Science Fiction

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2016

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hocus Pocus. Abracadabra. Those words imply that magic is silly because it can solve problems far too easily. Fantasy novelists strive to avoid those types of situations when they design magic systems from scratch. Patrick Rothfuss (author of The Kingkiller Chronicle) explains how most magic systems can be divided into two camps: poetic magic and scientific magic. Tor critic Martin Cahill appreciates Rothfuss's work because he weaves both types of magic into his stories. And psychology professor Carol Nemeroff reveals why our brains are hardwired to believe in magical thinking. **This is part 3 in a 6 part series on magic and fantasy.**Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Year listing to imaginary worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our
0:07.7	disbelief.
0:08.7	I'm Eric Mollinsky.
0:11.0	Last year I did an episode about Dungeons and Dragons which I'd never played before.
0:15.5	I'm very deeply into it still, in fact my character is a sorcerer who is trying to control
0:20.0	his magic.
0:22.0	Before playing D&D I was more of a sci-fi guy, but D&D has become like my gateway drug
0:27.0	into the fantasy genre.
0:29.2	As I keep reading more and more fantasy books, I keep thinking about something that
0:32.8	lived Grossman, the novelist, said in that episode.
0:36.6	When Gandalf wanted to do a spell, he had his staff and whatever, he waited, waved,
0:41.4	ran and yelled something and then something exciting happened.
0:44.6	But you never had a sense that there was an orderly system.
0:47.1	Well, Dungeons and Dragons rationalized all that and it's really radical way.
0:52.2	Suddenly all these questions had answers.
0:54.8	Well, if you want to cast a spell, what kinds of materials do you have to have on hand?
1:00.3	Are you talking?
1:01.3	Are you waving your arms?
1:03.6	It became very specific and very much in the way that novelists describe things, especially
1:09.0	the way novelists describe things now.
1:12.3	Patrick Rothfuss is also a fantasy novelist.
1:14.9	He's best known for the King Killer Chronicles.
	...

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