Live Evil: Of Magic and Men

Download or read book Live Evil: Of Magic and Men written by Sophia Vivienne Kottmayer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2011. Magic and the Supernatural have become de rigeur in popular culture to an extent that it is well-nigh inconceivable to imagine our quotidian lives without them. It is most probably the notion of danger and prohibition that incites our curiosity for these conceptions: they can be used for the Good, but out of control they trigger Evil. Oftentimes it is claimed that something is only magical until it can be explained in rational terms and that therefore we remain in a state of childish ignorance if believing in it. We are made to think that it is more conducive to focus on what happens in the here and now than to worry about the afterlife. From a perfectly logical point of view, though, this must be a misconception, for there is no such thing as purity. Consequently, rationality cannot exist by itself. And after all, do stark facts not mar the pleasure of the marvellous? This collection of academic papers seeks to analyse how over centuries mankind has cast supernatural experiences into narrative, into archetypal stories which account for a specific culture’s heritage, all the while trying to conserve the marvel emerging from the inexplicable.