Lucas Blogs About Magic: A History

Hmm, morning doesn't have idea lighting conditions for my crummy webcam bookselfies.

So, what's this book's deal?

Well, Magic: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present is a book by Oxford archaeologist Chris Gosden. As you may have guessed from the title, it examines the place of magic in societies around the world from the earliest evidence of magical practices by early humans up to the present day. Unfortunately, part of the deal with this book is that I didn't finish it.

Lucas!

I know, I know. This was one of those books that I just couldn't get into back when I was in my "it seems like all I can finish is comic books" funk. On the one hand, that means I have plenty of comics that I can blog about. On the other hand, I feel a weird compulsion to blog about books I didn't finish and why I didn't finish them. Unlike say, Bloody Rose I didn't stop reading this book because I hated it. The subject matter is legitimately fascinating. What role does magic play in society?

I'd ask you the same question, but apparently you won't know the answer since you gave up on the book.

Fair point; but—at the risk of SPOILING the end of my blog post—I would like to take another crack at this book later. Anyway, Gosden begins by defining what exactly he means by magic. He specifically does not mean prestidigitation, illusion, or conjuring or other feats performed as entertainment. The magic he's interested in is a form of participation in the world through ritual means that is also explicitly not religious (well, I mean, there's some overlap, but magic can be performed outside the bounds of religious belief structures). So you know, an early example might be stone age cave paintings.

Why the emphasis on "might"?

Well, since the people who made the paintings didn't leave behind any writings it's hard to say for sure, but the fact that they left them behind in somewhat inaccessible places, and the decreased oxygen supply in caverns might induce an altered state, and the fact that they are sometimes accompanied by hair and bone shoved into crevices in the rock indicates that they have slightly more significance than merely being representational. And again, while it's important to acknowledge (as Gosden does) that we don't know for sure what significance these paintings (or say the paleolithic Venus figurines or the Nazca lines) had for the people who made them, they clearly held some significance. As Gosden moves forward in history to the Mesopotamian civilizations, he follows the way that magical practices interacted with the growth of religious institutions. It's all fascinating stuff, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't grabbing me.

How far did you make it?

Ninety-four pages.

Out of?

Four hundred thirty-two, if you don't count the notes and other back matter. So not really a representative sample. I'm not sure exactly why I couldn't get into it. Gosden is an engaging writer, and the text is well organized with each chapter focusing on a particular time and place. But somehow I just never got on his wavelength. Like I said, I'd like to give this book another chance; I just would feel dishonest if I didn't make a post about the fact that I didn't make it that far.

Well, was there anything you found off-putting about the book?

Okay, so if I'm being fully honest, I may have been a bit more closed-minded about the subject than the book would like. Gosden treats the question of the efficacy of magic with agnosticism. And while I understand the value of this intellectually, I still struggled to put aside my own skepticism about magic in order to engage with it in good faith. So I think I need to give the book some space and try to come back to it with a more open mind. In any case, I might just find myself blogging about this book again, hopefully the whole thing.

Well, good luck.

Magic: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present by Chris Gosden, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux hardcover edition, 2020, 482 pages, pairs well with moonlight and secretive rituals

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As I mentioned, Gosden is a professor of Archaeology at Oxford University.