Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by elthran 3709 days ago
>Whereas magic enables people to experience the impossible

Someone really didn't put much thought into this statement.

And all the references to Project Magic does lead me to consider who put them up to proposing this

3 comments

What's wrong with "experience the impossible"? Seems like a reasonable description of the situation to me, that's the whole point of magic.
If magic existed it would, by definition, be neither impossible nor supernatural.
Thanks for explaining that to me.

The ordinary experience for someone viewing a magic act is that something impossible has happened. The fact that we know, logically, that it cannot be the case doesn't change the fact that what we experience is impossible. It's unexplainable by the majority of viewers.

If the argument is "magic doesn't exist, therefore what you experienced is entirely normal and unremarkable" then frankly the interlocutor just don't get the point of why people watch magic.

I agree that it sounds like lobbying. That being said, I think illusionists are definitely practitioners of an art form in its own right, so, good on them.

>Whereas magic enables people to experience the impossible

Now you're just playing with the fact that "magic" has two meanings, even if the context is well understood. The sentence is clearly worded, and the only logical interpretation is akin to "video games enable people to experience the impossible", which I find totally valid.

Marketing for the new, US-focused Harry Potter movie? :)