Magic violates the laws of physics. In some states it violates other laws as well. I suppose with the recent election some forms of magic may become the law in certain southern states. In the reality based part of the country (does Massachusetts still count?), what doesn’t violate the laws of physics can usually be accomplished without resorting to magic.
Magic is fun in stories in part because practitioners can wave a stick, and make dreams come true (poof, Mitch McConnell gone). I’ve been reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the eldest boarder. LoTR is unlike some of the more current children’s fantasy novels. Harry Potter uses magic to accomplish any task trivial or great. When apart from the muggles, the witches and wizards don’t just violate the laws of physics, they conjure whatever they wish for. Yet there are still rich people and poor people, not to mention enslaved half-naked house elves.
In Tolkein’s fantasy things are a bit different: magic is hard. Gandalf wears himself out unlocking doors and the like. It is never used for trivial things. This is compelling, it suggests that maybe one can violate physical laws, but it’s not easy.
As I write this we have just read about Frodo and Sam’s final push towards Mount Doom. According to the interactive map at the LOTRproject.com, it takes ten days for Sam and Frodo to half circle Mordor then make it to Mount Doom. In this time they’ve little to eat but “lembas,” the “waybread” made by elves. Tolkein scholars, and some who are not so much scholars as cellar dwellars, compare lembas to hardtack, the staple of militaries of the past. Many also claim connection to the Eucharist of the Catholic Church. Its significance draws from both.
Hardtack is made from flour, water, and if you’re lucky salt. It can last for months or longer and so furnish calories, though little else, at need. Lembas, on the other hand, has “a potency that increased as the travelers relied on it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.”
Hobbits aren’t particularly tall, Tolkein said they were perhaps four feet high. But they were rather stout (when not marching across barren wastelands). I looked at some online calorie calculators and these hobbits would use at least 2000 calories a day, probably more, backpacking across Mordor (that wasn’t one of the exercise choices on caloriecounter.com). Lembas was supposed to give enough energy for a day’s march. This strains credulity and violates the laws of physics: it is magic.
I don’t get to make lembas, because despite what I like to think, I’m not all that magical. But now that the weather is cool again, I’ve taken to baking bread. My first loaves were whole wheat, water, butter, yeast and salt. The bread one buys in stores, even most “natural” bread, tends to have a much longer list of ingredients. I think the simple loaf packs more of a punch. A slice of good bread does seem to sustain more than the calories in it might suggest. It still doesn’t violate the laws of physics, but the Republicans can’t take it away from me.
