Controlling the Frame: I'll Take Sticks And Stones, Thanks
There is magic in this world. When we think of the magic we see in Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, or even Fantasia, we think of the supernatural - bolts of green light or objects coming to life and moving by themselves. But, if magic exists and works in a consistent way, then why would it be called supernatural? Magic does exist, it is around us all the time and is a completely natural part of the world. We all use it to a lesser or greater extent. Those who know how to use it well enhance or destroy lives, cause and prevent wars, and charm others into following their commands.
The two most powerful forms of magic are words and stories. As a fictional character, I’m well aware of my dependence on words. They bring me to life (or not, as the case may be). They conjure an image or impression of me in your head. But it’s not like I spring forth from the computer screen fully formed.
Harry, Eugene, and Power Words
Let me tell you a story about one of my fellow characters. Once, there was a boy wizard who got a wand and went to a school for wizards and witches somewhere in Scotland. His professors taught him how to use special words with the wand to make things happen - powerful things. Let’s call him Harry. As he grew older, he learned more and more powerful spells. He learned that, if he lacked scruples, he could point his wand at someone, utter the words Avada Kedavra, and kill them. Not that he’s done it, of course - Harry is one of the good guys.
Now let me tell you another story. In the 1950’s some evil men pointed their fingers at Bartley Crum and Don Hollenbeck and uttered the word Communist. There was no bolt of green lightning, but not long after both men committed suicide. Many others were stronger than that, yet lives and livelihoods were ruined. For example, in 1950 Senator McCarthy labeled 101 people as communists working for the State Department to the Tydings Committee. All of them were cleared, and the charges labeled a fraud. Yet by the end of 1954, 81 of them had either resigned or been dismissed. None of this was supernatural, yet the word held power.
The Color of Your Eye
Consider Jane Elliott. She did an exercise with her third grade class, telling them on one day that people with blue eyes were better than people with brown eyes. Blue eyed children got extra playground privileges. The brown eyed kids weren’t allowed to play with the blue eyed kids and had to stay indoors. Blue eyed kids were told they were smarter than the brown eyes. In fact, they did do better on the days’ tests. The brown eyed kids, who had been told they were stupid, fared worse. The next day, though, Ms. Elliott turned it around - now it was the brown eyes that were smarter and better. Their test scores reflected it, and the stupid blue eyes’ scores fell. While the point of the exercise was to reveal to the kids and community how racism works, it was the labels “blue eyes” and “brown eyes” that focused the concepts and made them work.
You're Back Up To Full Hit Points
Words also grant relief. This quote from an article on the Mayo Clinic web site is typical:
Though he'd never heard of Crohn's disease, Guy felt relieved just to know what to call it. "Just having a name to put on the disease made it much easier to tolerate, because I knew that somebody knew what was going on even though I really didn't at that point," he says.
My author has felt the same thing with dysthymia. Just having a label helped him focus on it and work out ways to deal with the problem. Before having the label, all he knew was that something was wrong. Because of the word, he was able to do research and find more of the details of the condition. That, in turn, let him work out strategies for coping. In other words, the delivery of a word gave hope and enabled healing.
Casting A Fireball
Finally, let’s move away from labels. Before I started the freelance translation thing, I was an editor. A written manual is a spell that transmits knowledge from one person to another. It’s through the word that a person can operate a VCR (insert joke here), recreate a fabulous recipe, or put together the right concoction of chemicals to create a lethal explosion. How different from that is a magic user in Dungeons and Dragons reading a scroll to learn a fireball spell?
If simple words are a form of magic, why aren’t we constantly amazed by them? Some people perceive and manipulate their power better than others. An illiterate person is largely powerless in our society. Truly gifted writers and speakers set our national agendas and control the frame of our society and our lives.
So here’s an exercise to leave you with. One of today’s power words is terrorist. How has this word been used both positively and negatively by our media and politicians?
If words are powerful magic, however, the simple story is even mightier. That’s next post’s topic.
The two most powerful forms of magic are words and stories. As a fictional character, I’m well aware of my dependence on words. They bring me to life (or not, as the case may be). They conjure an image or impression of me in your head. But it’s not like I spring forth from the computer screen fully formed.
Harry, Eugene, and Power Words
Let me tell you a story about one of my fellow characters. Once, there was a boy wizard who got a wand and went to a school for wizards and witches somewhere in Scotland. His professors taught him how to use special words with the wand to make things happen - powerful things. Let’s call him Harry. As he grew older, he learned more and more powerful spells. He learned that, if he lacked scruples, he could point his wand at someone, utter the words Avada Kedavra, and kill them. Not that he’s done it, of course - Harry is one of the good guys.
Now let me tell you another story. In the 1950’s some evil men pointed their fingers at Bartley Crum and Don Hollenbeck and uttered the word Communist. There was no bolt of green lightning, but not long after both men committed suicide. Many others were stronger than that, yet lives and livelihoods were ruined. For example, in 1950 Senator McCarthy labeled 101 people as communists working for the State Department to the Tydings Committee. All of them were cleared, and the charges labeled a fraud. Yet by the end of 1954, 81 of them had either resigned or been dismissed. None of this was supernatural, yet the word held power.
The Color of Your Eye
Consider Jane Elliott. She did an exercise with her third grade class, telling them on one day that people with blue eyes were better than people with brown eyes. Blue eyed children got extra playground privileges. The brown eyed kids weren’t allowed to play with the blue eyed kids and had to stay indoors. Blue eyed kids were told they were smarter than the brown eyes. In fact, they did do better on the days’ tests. The brown eyed kids, who had been told they were stupid, fared worse. The next day, though, Ms. Elliott turned it around - now it was the brown eyes that were smarter and better. Their test scores reflected it, and the stupid blue eyes’ scores fell. While the point of the exercise was to reveal to the kids and community how racism works, it was the labels “blue eyes” and “brown eyes” that focused the concepts and made them work.
You're Back Up To Full Hit Points
Words also grant relief. This quote from an article on the Mayo Clinic web site is typical:
Though he'd never heard of Crohn's disease, Guy felt relieved just to know what to call it. "Just having a name to put on the disease made it much easier to tolerate, because I knew that somebody knew what was going on even though I really didn't at that point," he says.
My author has felt the same thing with dysthymia. Just having a label helped him focus on it and work out ways to deal with the problem. Before having the label, all he knew was that something was wrong. Because of the word, he was able to do research and find more of the details of the condition. That, in turn, let him work out strategies for coping. In other words, the delivery of a word gave hope and enabled healing.
Casting A Fireball
Finally, let’s move away from labels. Before I started the freelance translation thing, I was an editor. A written manual is a spell that transmits knowledge from one person to another. It’s through the word that a person can operate a VCR (insert joke here), recreate a fabulous recipe, or put together the right concoction of chemicals to create a lethal explosion. How different from that is a magic user in Dungeons and Dragons reading a scroll to learn a fireball spell?
If simple words are a form of magic, why aren’t we constantly amazed by them? Some people perceive and manipulate their power better than others. An illiterate person is largely powerless in our society. Truly gifted writers and speakers set our national agendas and control the frame of our society and our lives.
So here’s an exercise to leave you with. One of today’s power words is terrorist. How has this word been used both positively and negatively by our media and politicians?
If words are powerful magic, however, the simple story is even mightier. That’s next post’s topic.