Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Do you believe in magic?



The question of the role of magic was one that was especially alluring to me. As we talked about in class, the first part of Wieland's "Philosopher's Stone" seems to be making fun of those who believe that alchemical magic exists; yet, the second half of the story is entirely magical. I make sense of this because I think that even Enlightenment guys like Wieland can believe in metaphorical transformations and believe that those who believe in this voodoo, abra cadabra magic are discrediting the very real "magic" that can occur inside someone. That type of remarkable change, seemingly magical, is discredited by those who believe they hold the powers for that change or that the ability to change is based off of psychic abilities.

The ability for a man like King Mark to change is seemingly miraculous - something that would not have come about if not for some magical influence. But I think this "magic," Wieland is trying to show, is spiritual, not a man-held gift. He believes in the ability for people to change and in figurative "donkey" stages (a rock bottom of sorts) that some men might have to go through to realize their satisfaction does not lie in gold, and while that is "magical," he does not want that spiritual, superhuman magic to get confused with the phoney "magic" of man.

I also want to make a comment about something that was brought up in class today and which I was thinking about earlier in the week because a book I'm reading outside of class mentions a lot of what we've talked about this semester. If you haven't read Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol, I'd highly recommend it. I started it Monday and I only have about 70 pages to go. It's all about the Freemasons and the Ancient Mysteries and Eqypt and the search for the Philosopher's Stone (that's what the lost symbol is). It's like Wieman's tale but reads more like JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." Just as good as The Davinci Code, for sure.

2 comments:

  1. I found your comment on contemporary literature very appealing. I hadn't previously thought about it but it is interesting to see how the fairy tale has evolved into contemporary narratives like Harry Potter, Twilight, Dan Brown books, etc. and become international phenomenon. Although we may not look at these contemporary stories exactly the same way we consider the Grimms, they are essentially related and offer the same type escape early fairy tales did.

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  2. I like your discussion about the different ways "magic" can be interpreted. When I think of magic, I think of all the spells and physical transformations first. But I agree, that the story seems to be referring to another type of "magic", and that is King Mark's inner transformation from a greedy, lonely king to a peasant who has little wealth but has the most important thing of all: love. Both forms of magic seem to be at work in this story because the king must transform into a donkey before he is able to truly realize and understand what is important in life.

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