Wizards Alone?

Storm Front by Jim Butcher is the next book on my list, and I definitely recommend it. For those who may be unfamiliar with the plot, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard. He is also a detective, and right now he has to help the police figure out how two people have been murdered by having their hearts blown out from the inside. There is definitely some black magic going on, and everyone thinks that Harry is the killer.

Butcher has this little book packed with action, and with explanations of magic and all things wizardly. There are so many really good explanations throughout this book about how magic works. “Magic is created by life, and most of all by the awareness, intelligence, emotions of a human being” (Butcher, 18). “Those who deal in magic learn to see the world in a slightly different light than everyone else. You gain a perspective you had never considered before, a way of thinking that would just never have occurred to you without exposure to the things a wizard sees and hears” (Butcher, 35). There are explanations on magical practices, like the power behind a name (page70), or the power behind circles (71). The use of blood in magic (71) and what a third eye is and what it does (314) are also included.

My favorite passage here, though, is Butcher’s explanation for the difference between wizards and normal people: “Wizardry is really about thinking ahead, about being prepared. Wizards aren’t really superhuman. We just have a leg up on seeing things more clearly than other people, and being able to use the extra information we have for our benefit. Hell, the word wizard comes from the same root as wise. We know things. We aren’t stronger or faster than anyone else. We don’t even have that much going in the mental department. But we’re god-awful sneaky, and if we get the chance to get set for something, we can do some impressive things” (Butcher, 171). Long passage, but the point is that we can relate to wizards because they aren’t that much different from us.

They do see different things from us though. They can see trolls and goblins and other wizards which go relatively unnoticed by us, and they can apparently look into your soul if they gaze into your eyes. This book is the first on my list that has really been set in the modern world. Tolkien was medieval all the way and Rowling separated her wizarding world to make it feel less modern, but Butcher puts Dresden right in the middle of a society we understand. They are in our world. What is interesting to me about this is that even though Dresden is in our world, so are all of these other magical creatures. Butcher didn’t just insert wizards; he inserted an entire subculture of magical beings. In Harry Potter, Rowling also doesn’t have just wizards and witches. Is it necessary then, for practitioners of magic to be accompanied by their own magical culture. Can they stand alone?