@neilhimself you know what else is magic?
Getting in your climate controlled coach, driving to somewhere 40 miles away and arriving about a half hour later, and all the while you listened to a symphony played by a 100 piece orchestra.
I admit it's not as magical as being moved by words written someone 1000s of miles away or centuries in the past, but it is pretty damn good nonetheless.
@neilhimself https://epeus.blogspot.com/2002/04/i-can-read-peoples-thoughts.html
I can read people's thoughts.
Using an ancient technology, handed down over millennia, improved and refined along the way, I am able to read people's thoughts. And not just people nearby, or people I know. I can even read dead people's thoughts.
This gives me a great deal of power and knowledge - I can learn from their lives, their experiences, their dreams and fears, their insights and imaginings.
@neilhimself I remember hearing Alan Moore and Warren Ellis answering this question. I don’t know if I want to read Grant Morrison’s answer, but I might like to hear it.
Fuck yes! And, this is only a tiny "snapshot". Gather up all the little sparks and mysteries, it's impossible to deny the presence of magic. I don't want to remain in this world without it. Consider: An undisclosed, unselfish and unclaimed act of kindness on behalf of someone disliked and disregarded that goes against human nature. I understand there are opposing forces. There always will be. So...
@neilhimself No it isn't. No more than me being able to make that chair at the other end of the room float in the air... by literally walking there and lifting it with my hands.
@neilhimself I became an engineer because I wanted to be a wizard. The wizards always seemed to have much more interesting and fun lives than the princesses.
@neilhimself Yess! And also Stephen King argues in On Writing that telekinesis exists, because he can make somebody somewhere think of a white rabbit with a blue sprayed number eight on its back sitting on a small table with a cloth under it's paws. <3