So You Think You Want Magic?

I’ve said before that I want to learn something I can take away from my reading.  I want to gain some sort of insight into the world.  Lately, I’ve been wondering if there is anything I’m learning (the stuff I’ve been reading does seem pretty mindless).  Then, the other night, I was faced with a problem that I really just wanted to go away.  I didn’t want to deal with it; I just wanted it gone.  So when my dear, sweet hubby asked if there was anything he could do to help, I jokingly said I wanted him to call a wizard to poof it away.  He laughed and said he didn’t know where Oz was located.  

It started me thinking though (and I even remarked to him) that honestly if I’ve learned anything from all my paranormal reading it is that magic doesn’t really solve anything.  There are all sorts of instances where it actually creates more problems than it fixes.  The book I’m reading right now, Reckless Magic by Rachel Higginson, is the perfect example of that.  When Eden discovers she’s more than just a teenager with a penchant for having weird things happen around her, that she’s actually a witch, it just makes life so much more complicated.  Not only is she now faced with a monarchy she never knew existed, but it rules her life and brings with it all sorts of complications.

There are so many examples throughout the books I’ve read:  Mind Readers (if you’ve ever thought it would be easier if you just knew what someone else was thinking, let me just say IT’S NOT).  Elementals (ever wished you could control the elements so you could say, stop the rain, etc.  Well that brings a slew of problems with it!)  The list could go on and on.

All this brought to mind a quote I heard from JK Rowling once in speaking about Harry Potter.  She said, “I think it’s about ‘This world is cruel.’  It’s as cruel as our world.  It’s just – it’s a mirror image.  And just as they can solve things that we can’t solve, so they can create problems that we don’t have.  And that’s always been the problem for Harry.  That he enters this world and believes it will be an escape and it’s not.  Human nature is human nature, whether or not you can use a wand.”

I think it’s that human nature that says “If only I could do magic all my problems would go away.”  But the good thing about reading books like these is that they teach us not to think like that.  We will always have problems and rather than wish them away we need to face them and tackle them with everything we’ve got.