![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What I'm Reading
Jun. 4th, 2008 11:25 amSince I was looking for a book to read and I really like Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series - the next book of which is not coming out for some time - I picked up the first book in Butcher's better-known Dresden Files series two days ago. I'm almost done with it now.
There are a number of things I appreciate about this book. One is the narration, which is clear, witty and amusing. I tend to like my fiction best when it's written from a first-person view. It is, paradoxically, both more natural than third-person narration and more difficult to pull off effectively. (But I'm not getting into that whole discussion right now. Moving on...)
I also respect Butcher's ability to spin a noir-style yarn about magic and still keep it realistic. For instance, in an action movie, if the hero takes a bullet in the shoulder, it hurts and looks bloody but usually doesn't impede his arm function much if at all. If Harry Dresden, on the other hand, gets shot in the shoulder,1 I know he's going to be seriously handicapped by it, just like someone would be in the real world.
On a related note, I approve of Butcher's treatment of magic. It's not like "alternate science," as is commonly the case in fantasy. Instead it's living, barely controllable, unpredictable, subject to a dozen different factors and conditions and incorporates social behaviors into its mechanics. Going into someone's house uninvited may be possible for a human wizard (it is apparently harmful to certain magical creatures, like vampires), but it will mess up his magic, even if the house in question has no magical protection.
There's a point in the book where Harry Dresden professes a religious faith in white magic, in spite of how unreliable it often is. Butcher's not to obvious about it, but he treats magic2 like a religion. The man knows his history. These days we take it for granted that magic is distinct from religion, but it was not always so. Until the advent of modern fantasy, magic was "bad religion" - how Christianity (and other established religions, Christianity being the most obvious and pertinent example) viewed pagan or heretical ways of appealing to a higher power in an attempt to affect the world. Traditional Taoism and Shintoism have no concept of "magic" as we understand it, although we might describe some of their practices as magical and some of their religious figures to be magicians.3 The ancient Greeks and pre-Christian Romans didn't distinguish between magic and religion either, although they agreed that there were certain questionable ways of/reasons for invoking the power of the gods. Even then, what was considered "questionable" changed depending on who, when, and where you were, and precisely what you were trying to accomplish.
Whoops, went off on a tangent there. I meant to say that Jim Butcher treats Dresden's magic in a way that a person versed in magical history can appreciate. In brief, the practice of magic is also the practice of a religion, one that's primitive, messy and often scary. That's just the kind of magic I like.
1 He probably will some time later in the series, or he'll get stabbed or something. I'd be surprised if he didn't.
2 And, somewhat more explicitly, science.
3 My favorite example is the Japanese onmyoji. We would consider the onmyoji to be a royal magician, sort of like Merlin was to King Arthur, but he was actually a priest. Unfortunately the Wikipedia article on the subject doesn't site sources and is not well-written, but it should give you a general idea.
There are a number of things I appreciate about this book. One is the narration, which is clear, witty and amusing. I tend to like my fiction best when it's written from a first-person view. It is, paradoxically, both more natural than third-person narration and more difficult to pull off effectively. (But I'm not getting into that whole discussion right now. Moving on...)
I also respect Butcher's ability to spin a noir-style yarn about magic and still keep it realistic. For instance, in an action movie, if the hero takes a bullet in the shoulder, it hurts and looks bloody but usually doesn't impede his arm function much if at all. If Harry Dresden, on the other hand, gets shot in the shoulder,1 I know he's going to be seriously handicapped by it, just like someone would be in the real world.
On a related note, I approve of Butcher's treatment of magic. It's not like "alternate science," as is commonly the case in fantasy. Instead it's living, barely controllable, unpredictable, subject to a dozen different factors and conditions and incorporates social behaviors into its mechanics. Going into someone's house uninvited may be possible for a human wizard (it is apparently harmful to certain magical creatures, like vampires), but it will mess up his magic, even if the house in question has no magical protection.
There's a point in the book where Harry Dresden professes a religious faith in white magic, in spite of how unreliable it often is. Butcher's not to obvious about it, but he treats magic2 like a religion. The man knows his history. These days we take it for granted that magic is distinct from religion, but it was not always so. Until the advent of modern fantasy, magic was "bad religion" - how Christianity (and other established religions, Christianity being the most obvious and pertinent example) viewed pagan or heretical ways of appealing to a higher power in an attempt to affect the world. Traditional Taoism and Shintoism have no concept of "magic" as we understand it, although we might describe some of their practices as magical and some of their religious figures to be magicians.3 The ancient Greeks and pre-Christian Romans didn't distinguish between magic and religion either, although they agreed that there were certain questionable ways of/reasons for invoking the power of the gods. Even then, what was considered "questionable" changed depending on who, when, and where you were, and precisely what you were trying to accomplish.
Whoops, went off on a tangent there. I meant to say that Jim Butcher treats Dresden's magic in a way that a person versed in magical history can appreciate. In brief, the practice of magic is also the practice of a religion, one that's primitive, messy and often scary. That's just the kind of magic I like.
1 He probably will some time later in the series, or he'll get stabbed or something. I'd be surprised if he didn't.
2 And, somewhat more explicitly, science.
3 My favorite example is the Japanese onmyoji. We would consider the onmyoji to be a royal magician, sort of like Merlin was to King Arthur, but he was actually a priest. Unfortunately the Wikipedia article on the subject doesn't site sources and is not well-written, but it should give you a general idea.
