Tag: superheroes
It’s semantic, my dear Watson
by Terry on Mar.19, 2010, under A. Lee Martinez
Batman IS NOT magic. Batman IS fantasy, however.
Lee & I seem to be working with two very different definitions of magic. In Lee’s definition, magic is synonymous with fantasy and the words can be used interchangeably. This definition leads inexorably to the conclusion that Batman is magic because a) superheroes are magic and b) Batman is a superhero, therefore c) Batman is magic. But, in my humble opinion, it is a sweeping generalisation to assume that all superheroes are magic.
In my definition, magic is a subset of fantasy. To use the language of deductive reasoning, all magic is fantasy, but not all fantasy is magic. I’m not disputing the fact that Batman is fantastic. Batman is wicked fantastic. Some of the stuff he can do is pretty darn unlikely. But the fact remains that it is unlikely, not impossible. Yes, it is very, very unlikely that one person could be the best at everything - detecting, disguising, super-sciencing, athleticism, you name it - but it is not impossible. Yes, it would be bizarre for “real” people to run around dressed like bats, but it is not impossible. Yes, it is unusual for real people to keep a Rogues’ Gallery, but Allan Pinkerton did and he was a real dude. If it’s at all possible, no matter what the odds are against or how unlikely or remote, in my definition, it is fantasy not magic.
Magic is the impossible. It’s controlling wind (like Shannon Hale’s Goose Girl and Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind), it’s the ability to fly/levitate (like Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn), it’s shooting bolts of fire (like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files). It’s the stuff that us mere mortals constrained by the laws of physics just couldn’t possibly do.
In conclusion, I would like to offer this Venn diagram as irrefutable proof that Batman, while he is fantasy, is most decidedly not magic.
