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MAGIC

                          July 7, 1992

Once upon a time, I was methodically reading
through the Science Fiction and Fantasy books
in my grade school library, because I
reasoned that I wouldn't have access to them
forever and I should get through them before
I read the stuff my brother's had at home.

This was a really dumb idea, because the kind
of fiction they tended to stock in the school
library was intended to encourage Good
Attitudes.

For example, I remember a tedious story about
a young boy who was selected to be one of the
first astronauts (because weight
considerations precluded sending an adult).
The entire book focuses on his training, and
in the end they change their minds and he
*doesn't* get to go.  One scene I remember:
the boy is briefly separated from his
bodyguards in a crowd at a fair.  A gang of
kids hassles him, and he meekly gets on his
knees and licks their boots as ordered.  The
moral being that he swallowed his rage and
avoided doing anything that might get him
hurt and put the mission in jeopardy.  So,
remember boys and girls, passivity is the
better part of valor.  (In reality, guess
what happens after you lick their boots?)
                                 
(I could've been reading Heinlein, or Asimov,
or something when I was ten, but *no* I had
to read dreck like this instead.)

Here's a "fantasy" book I read around the
same time: A boy gets this one bottle of a
magic potion that lets him sprout wings and
fly.  He spends one summer sneaking out at
night and flying around doing neat things,
always coming home and speaking the magic
words (or whatever) that transform him back.
Finally, the potion is running out, and he
uses the last dose to produce his last set of
wings.  He decides to spy on his mother and
her new suitor who are sitting on the front
porch.  He flies over there and lands on the
roof, eavesdropping for a while; but then he makes
a noise: they're going to look on the roof.
So what does he do?  He could fly away, but
they'd _see_ him with his wings, and maybe
that would even scare away his mom's
new boyfriend-- so he says the transformation
spell, and all they discover is an
embarrassed kid caught playing around on the
roof, wearing a funny outfit.

So, just because it's dressed up like SF & F
doesn't mean it's not really mundane.  This
stuff is all about the importance of fitting
in, of being normal and grown-up and
responsible.  "Home, sweet closet."

Me, I say, all this business about "magic" is
symbolic of other things.... imagination,
independence, intelligence, power...

And if life hands you a wild card, you should
play it just as high as you can, even if it
means being different and strange.

And whatever you do, don't let anyone tell
you to throw away your last set of wings.
                                                       

                           All of this is one of the reasons
                           I like things like "Peter Pan" or 
                           "Bell, Book and Candle".  They 
                           _look_ like they're going to end up being
                           a celebration of being normal and        
                           boring, but instead some people slip 
                           through the net.  

                                There remains more 
                                than one way to go.                  



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