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Originally Posted by j. d. worthington  Save for one rather loose mingling of the two (definition 4 for "magic"), they're quite different |
Umm... no, not at all. "Magic"'s third and fourth noun definitions are things I hadn't thought of: the fourth is just a metaphor for the other definitions, and the third is also separate from "real magic" (as it's described in fantasy books where "real magic" is really real
), as either a metaphorical reference, homage, commercial exaggeration, or fraud pretending to really be "magic". So even though I didn't think of those, they only stem from and refer back to the "real thing" anyway.
And other than those two, every definition you just quoted for "magic" has the word "supernatural" built in, or "unaccountable" in the last case (which describes the same thing: can't be accounted for by the laws of nature).
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Originally Posted by j. d. worthington a great number of ghost tales have the spirits anything but in control of their actions. |
Not that it would make any difference, especially if someone ELSE is in control, but describe some examples.
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Originally Posted by j. d. worthington And, as is evident from Teresa's entire statement, the emphasis is on "uncontrolled or uncontrollable by those within the tale". |
That's a bad way to categorize something as magical or not. It means the very same thing becomes magical or unmagical just based on which of the people involved are and aren't in the story. It's like saying a story in which the characters' lives are strongly affected by politics still doesn't have politics in it if the politicians who made things that way aren't shown doing it.