Magic in Fantasy Stories

[MindOverMatter2]

I am a Catholic writer contemplating writing a fantasy story, being an avid reader of fantasy stories myself. I especially love the very Catholic Lord of the Rings. I am not trying to start an argument about the efficacy of fantasy stories. I am simply looking for people’s opinions on this matter, from a Catholic standpoint. God bless, and happy Thanksgiving.

I am so glad to hear of catholics writing fantasy and science-fiction. I to want to write a book of that nature.

There is nothing wrong with making magic appear good in fictional narratives so long as the distinction of that which we call fiction retains the definition of being something that is different from what is actually true in the real world. The beauty of science fiction and fantasy is that the moral boundaries of the real world cease to be relevant to certain extent.

I know its already been done before, but i want to write a book that interweaves all of my philosophical understanding in to a story. In other-words, i want to write a scifi or a fantasy book that is also philosophically challenging at the same time. I want it to be better than “Sophie’s World” by jostein gaarder.

 

[MindOverMatter2]

Thank you for your answers and advice. God bless.

If I may ask, what is your personal opinion about the use of modern or more advanced technology in fantasy? Basically, can fantasy and science fiction be effectively mixed in one story without it becoming convoluted?

In movies it tends not to work. However, i think books are a good playground to experiment with a mixture of the two and not end up looking corny. Remember, magic is just a higher technology we don’t understand

 

[frank_ferko]

Terry Goodkind has accomplished this to a certain extent with his Shannara series. His world of Shannara is created by technology running amok (i.e. nuclear war, but it’s never clear what brings about the cataclysm that causes the world to be reborn into a realm of magic).

Sword of Shannara and the rest of the series are great books. Great characters, plots, quests, enemies, monsters, etc.

It really depends upon what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’re personally interested. It can be done rather seamlessly but if it isn’t done right, it tends to be very distracting and confusing for all involved.

It really depends upon the world you’re creating, too. Is it a typical “fantasy” world which is full of magic and magical beings? Or is it an alternate version of earth in which magic is possible (kind of along the lines of Harry Potter of Percy Jackson (modern day meets Greek mythology))?

Or is it a 3rd, all new combination? A world in which magic and technology work? There’s a series I started a bit ago by Modesti which was pretty interesting. Magic and technology worked, and it was plausible the way that it was set up. Very interesting.

Piers Anthony does this type of stuff, too, but I haven’t read him in years, so I can’t think of a ready example.

Again, it mainly comes down to what you, personally feel compelled to write. Maybe you want to write a fantasy book, then a sci-fi… Maybe start off writing a short story of each, or try blending the 2.

The biggest thing is to have characters, ideas, and a loose outline of what’s going to happen. If you’re interested in sending me any of your writing I could read it and make suggestions, whatever you’re comfortable with.

I have a pretty big fantasy story in my head (and probably about 80 or more pages handwritten, notes, etc), as well as an apocalyptic thriller (again, at least 80 or more pages written (on my mac) as well as pages of notes).

I find that I don’t have time (or the discipline to write- music has been taking up most of my spare time for the past 20 years), but I’m always thinking of ideas, and the ideas of the good ones keep piling up and adding to each other, almost writing themselves, lol.

My email is otisduo@yahoo.com

Peace

Frank

 

[chevalier]

If I may also ask two more questions in this topic:

1. Should magic in stories be used by normal humans?
2. Can/should magic be interchangeable with technology?

A propos #1, I’d say it depends on how magic is handled but I believe my post already answers that within the limits of my personal opinion, of course. As long as magic were something within the laws of physics, it would make sense for everybody to be able to study it, perhaps within the physical limits of one’s body or brain or whatever (similarly to how not everybody, not even some smart people, can make a good engineer or military commander or writer or lawyer etc., e.g. due to lack of certain necessary mental prerequisites). On the other hand, if magic were indeed something mysterious and well out of the ordinary, then I guess you could put it down some genetic modification (whether or not you’d refer to it as such), in which case perhaps only certain bloodlines could use it. On the other hand if you took a religious bent and magic were something like miracles of saints, then it would make sense to have such miracles occur as a matter of divine intervention, be performed by clerics, prophets or some saintly people but not necessarily only them, due to it being a divine gift in the first place.