Good thread & what often gets overlooked is an understanding of how magic (even in just "Western" societies) was historically understood to operate. The idea of codified, systemitized magic is something *incredibly* modern & reflects a post-Enlightenment understanding of metaphysics & epistemology

BDbretdevereaux.bsky.socialOct 9, 2024 2:57am

One of the responses this thread (on the Bad Place) got, a few times, ran roughly "if magic is common, magicians become engineers" or variations of that theme - the assumption that magic would be rapidly systematized by fictional pre-modern societies. And I don't think this is right. 1/

I'd make a joke about "engineering the task of calling the local fixit guy to help me with my problem" but these people also relabeled talking to people as "social engineering" so reality beat me to it

Understandings of how magic operates really *does* sync up with broader, cultural understandings of how the world works. The idea of magical energies being manipulated in a systematized way is *mostly* post-industrial revolution. [pushes older Asiatic understandings of chi/ki/prana off-screen]