Should Magic Be More Like Sight or Math?

Jeremy and I were talking about magic the other day.
Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series are arguably the first "modern" fantasy stories. In them individuals are either magic users or they are not. It is almost more a racial trait than anything you can learn or develop.
In a lot of popular fantasy series today, like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Avatar: The Last Airbender, magic is still very much a gift that you have or you don't. It's like the ability to see, speak, or smell. You have it or you don't. Except that learning that magic tends to take a central stage in the plotline. Which is weird... because you don't really have to learn how to see or speak... and that isn't something you can really improve on per se. No matter how keen (or not) your eyes are no one goes about taking classes and learning how to see better (maybe observe more but not how to physically enhance their sight).
So then if magic is now treated more as something to be learned why is it still only some people that magically have the gift? The way magic has to be studied in most common series today it seems like magic should be more like a skill rather than a sense. Anyone can learn math, painting, programming, dance, soccer, writing.... some people are just naturally better at it then others. However, the diligence, desire and persistence someone puts into learning a certain skill often seems to outweigh the actual natural ability, at least in the long run. I think magic should be more of a skill. Anyone can learn it, even if for some people it comes more naturally than others...
So why is magic being dolled out like a sense so common? Perhaps it comes from history... from the idea that things like wealth, privilege, and opportunities for education were for a long time very much a "you have it or you don't" experience. So magic was envisioned the same way.
Then education became more prevalent and learning magic became a way to connect to readers.
But maybe our stories are still out of date and aren't "American Dream"/"Capitalist" enough... Could the next step be the magic can be learned by anyone? Down with the Muggle hierarchy!

I think it is interesting how fiction tends to mimic certain aspects of the real world but just so everyone is clear I actually have nothing against magic systems that are "you have it or you don't" I just think it might be interesting to explore it in the American Dream style.
And also it makes me curious about cultures of Eastern magic.... historical China with their intense government examinations being more important that money or heritage (granted sometimes it goes together) seems like it had at least a broader view of upward mobility than medieval Europe.... so does their stories of magic reflect that?

Is Knowledge Power?

The other night Jeremy and I were camping and we heard a loud yowling call every few minutes. It sounded like nothing either of us had ever heard but it also sounded cat-like. It was a bit disconcerting... aka creepy. We just wished we knew what it was.

The next day with the help of youtube we discovered it was probably a fox yowl. If we had known it was a fox in the middle of the night I think we would have both been a lot more comfortable.

It was interesting because earlier that day we had been talking about how knowing more about something can make something less scary. As well as how learning more about something can make you appreciate it more (I'm sure I've blogged about that before but I can't find it now).

On the flip side we also talked about how sometimes more knowledge brings more anxiety.... because you know better what you are getting into. In some situations the same information can make one person less scared and another person more so.

So when does knowledge make you powerful and when does it cripple you?

Manipulation, Cliff Hangers, and Resumes

Yesterday Jeremy and I were talking about cliff hangers. As a rule I hate cliff hangers. I like chapters because they provide a natural stopping place that makes it easier to stop reading and also makes it easier to find your spot when you pick up again. Cliff hangers, in general, are designed to make you keep reading. When I set a book down in the middle I almost always pick it up again. My putting the book down isn't an insult to the book's excitement or pacing it just means I have a life and things I need to do, other than read (which is sometimes a pity). I decided I hate cliff hangers so much because I feel like the author is manipulating me into challenging my own will power. And too often works. Perhaps if I wasn't so easily swayed by cliff hangers I would hate them less....
Anyway, the overall point to this is I feel like cliff hangers are manipulative (in general) where other writing tactics such as having well developed and engrossing characters or a compelling plot are more about influencing you to keep reading. Influencing isn't nearly so repugnant as manipulating! It's a good thing. I mean what would any form of art be, without the motive of influencing the viewer?
I realized that my hatred of talking myself up and resumes, etc along with being a form of defense might also go back to my hatred of manipulation. I feel like people talk about resumes as a form of manipulation. I don't like that.
But why do I hate manipulation so much anyway. I mean sure it isn't great but why does it offend me? Sometimes I wish I could think of a single childhood experience that would explain the way I am...

Children in Literature

I have read several books lately with prominent children characters and they have all felt a little unrealistic, which seems to be fairly common in literature. The children are either too oblivious and/or dumb (Boy in the Striped Pajamas) or to perfect (Little Men). It seems weird that writing accurate children is such a common problem considering all authors were children at some point. So here are a couple of suppositions admit why I think children might be difficult to write.
There seems to be something about the human mind that has a hard time remembering what it was like to not remember or understand certain things. It's one thing to remember when you learned something but quite another to remember what it felt like. I remember staying up late pondering and pondering how my parents could be named Mommy and Daddy as well as have other real names. Thank goodness for my brother's friend who had the same name as my father, that was my break through. Despite remembering this though I have no idea how I would portray this realization in a first point of view of a child and not make myself sound really dumb.
Plus children develop so quickly that unless you are frequently around them it is difficult to gauge whether a child character is acting age appropriately. Once I wrote about a 4 year old "tottering" around. I was quickly advised that 2 year olds totter, 4 year olds run.
It impresses me all the more when you come across an author who accurately portrays children, and even more impressed when the children grow up accurately.

A Field Journal of Danger and Destitution: Or Grocery Shopping During the Covid-19 Pandemic*

March 14
Disaster has struck. The shelves that once held bread, ketchup, cereal, mac&cheese, noodles, frozen food and cans of soup, vegetables, and tomato products can only be identified by a lonely dented box, or a forlorn can. The "bath tissue" aisle is a barren wasteland. Shower scrubbies hanging from empty shelves are the forgotten banners of an abandoned battlefield.
Glory be! The fresh vegetables are untouched, and a few bags of tortillas remain.

March 24
Possibly, but unlikely infected, are we in danger? or are we the danger?
Don't over shop! But where are the people?
Signs posted everywhere warn of rationing. Only two boxes of eggs, containers of hand soap, and packages of toilet paper are allowed per person. Too bad those items have already been hunted to extinction.
Other signs proclaim a curfew to protect us? or them? from the ravenous hoards.

March 31
Fourteen days, and the danger has been neutralized.
War paint dispensers stand at the doors. Workers wipe down each cart touched by a human finger.
Cereal, and noodles have returned to the shelves.

April 3
Fellow combatants shield their faces. Lines are drawn in the sand.... on the floor, with tape.
Over the loud speaker they announce "Stay two carts away from each other or the world will die!"
Do we fear the enemy? or each other?

April 11
The war paint and the wipes have disappeared. A thin layer of plastic in the form of a loose plastic glove is all that stands between me and infection. I'll take infection.
Aisles have returned to normal except for that of the toilet paper. It remains a scar on the otherwise restocked shelves.
Mounds of water bottles sit untouched and ignored. Unless of course, they are gone by tomorrow.






*Sometimes fake drama is entertaining :)

More Experience, Less Planning?

It has been a long time since I've done an actual sewing project and not just a small something with needle and thread. And I don't think I've ever done a sewing project without someone with significantly more experience handy to give me advice and help.
That's why I'm out of practice.
But I tried my hand at sewing again and I made these covers for some hassocks that I'm recyling/making. The first one I cut out on one day and then spent 2 or 3 other days sewing it haphazardly, with a lot of unpicking. As a child I had a fierce aversion to pins, and I refused to use them in my sewing projects.... when I finally succeeded in some satisfactory corners this time around it was only because I finally sunk to such depths as to actually use pins. They were very helpful, and I think I only stuck myself once!
I realized a lot of things I go into a little haphazardly. As in I'll just chuck some shapes together in inkscape and they play around with them a bit and I just expect them to work out and look good enough.
Or I sketch something halfway and then play around with paint on top of it until I think it looks decent. But I don't generally plan out my projects in detail before I just kind of go for it. That is probably why I will never become a truly skilled artist. I don't want to put in the work.
But I'm usually fairly satisfied with the outcome, so it works.
However, sewing doesn't seem to work quite as well with this approach. I'm assuming that has more to do with my lack of experience and expertise then with sewing, because I'm pretty sure that is how my sister sews...
My second hassock I cut out, and pinned and sewed all in the same day without any unpicking... crazy what a little experience, and a little bit of slowing down can accomplish!

Habits and Productivity

I hear people talk about hos hard it is for them to read their scriptures everyday, or have morning prayers or remember to do certain things. I have a hard time relating to that because I'm so habit driven. When I start a habit, it's pretty easy to continue... Then I married Jeremy.
He is not a habit person. He struggles to create habits, and once he's started them, it is easy for him to fall out of the habit again. This is like a real thing! I'm apparently just weird, that habits are so defined for me.
Kind of related: I have always been more productive in the morning. I find it a lot harder to be disciplined and motivated in the evenings. I have recently started to use this to my advantage and I've started going in to work later so that I can work on my writing in the morning. Jeremy is more productive in the evenings. He doesn't like to read his scriptures in the morning because he doesn't get as much out of it. It's a little mind boggling for me.
These differences have been really good for me to see, and I think it makes me more sympathetic to people who struggle with creating habits and are not very productive in the morning.
What??? People aren't all the same???