[HPforGrownups] Re: How can LV win the war in three weeks

[bufo_viridis at interia.pl]

No: HPFGUIDX 93234


> Neri:
> I attempted to take care of the power problem in #92920 [...]
> The theme of magic as manifestation of psych is a very common cliché 
> in fantasy books. I like JKR writing specifically because her brand 
> of magic is a bit more mechanistic than that. It is not enough to be 
> strong willed in order to be a powerful wizard, you also need to be 
> intelligent, and magic is often applied in clever and unexpected 
> ways

I've read the post :) I just stressed the combination of several factors, power of will, being IMHO, the most important - specifically in case of Imperius. I was not saying the strentgh of will is the only source of wizard's power.

> > Viridis:
> <Snip>
> > Well, yes, as much as I like JKR's work, she is not a world-
> creator. She basically substituted "technology and science" 
> with "magic". So the similarites are not surprising. She did it with 
> great grace, to be sure.
> 
> Neri:
> I agree only in part. Very few made-up universes are really original. 

I should have been more specific. You're absolutely right about "lack of the originality" of many works. Eco called it "borrowed or stolen worlds" - namely authors "borrowing" basic assumptions from our world, leaving most of the things undescribed. If they leave something "out" it simply means "the same as in our world".
As for JKR - every author has his/her strenghts and weakneses. JKR Is a briliant storyteller and I think she creates really interesting characters. Her world however is very much "borrowed", is not the best part of her writing. E.g. she seems to be really bad at maths :) so the assumptions about wizard economics or population derived from the scanty data presented lead to very inconsistent results (which guess has been already discussed on this list many times over).

My example of good "world cretaor" is Ursula K. LeGuin - in her "Earthsea" (which accidentally was often listed in the "most hated books" forum of FA, which proves her narrative is not so easy to accept), magic is based on the power of name (not an original idea in itself). But in effect we got quite different (in several important aspects) society than our own, whereas WW is very much like ours, down to many details.
These details are sometimes the funniest things in HPWorld, all these small tricks here and there.

Cheers, Viridis
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