Week Two – Question #3 – The Magic Question
Odo and Sybil learn that “magic takes what it gives.”
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What is another way of saying that in today’s terms?
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Why is this point so important to the story?
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How is this idea of magic different from magic you have encountered in other stories?
well you could say that to give up something you get something and to get something is to give up something. This concept is kinda important in this story because Thorston was willing to give up sybil’s life to live another lifetime cuz he was selfish. this idea is different because it shows the use of magic and the downfall of it, unlike in some otehr books were they have unlimited use of power and the only thing it does is drain their energy.
At first when i read the saying, “magic takes what it gives.” I thought it was similar to todays saying,life is an echo.what you send out you get back.what you give-you get. Or another saying one half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. Which are ways of explaining it, but after reading the book it didn’t satisfie me. I think it is like today saying “easy come,easy go,”The quickest route is not always the best one.
It is so important in the story because that is the moral of the story.part of using is the book,is trying to find a chaet way in life.thorston spent so much time trying to make his life easier, he let it pass him by.it was harder for him to use the cheat way than it was for it all to be taken away.
in other story magic just gives you what you want, and thats it,there are hardly any consequnces in getting what you want. magic is either good or bad, in this story it is not so obvious.
Another way of saying “magic takes what it gives” in today’s terms is that magic always backfires, to get something from magic you must give something in return, to something as simple as a handful of sand to something as intense as someone’s live. This point is so important to the story because the alchemist wants to live forever, to avoid death, but he must first take the lives of another (Sybil and Odo) to accomplish this task. Also the spell of making gold with eventually backfires and the gold will turn to dust. This idea of magic is different from magic you have encountered in other stories because other stories doesn’t abide by this rule in magic and get things from mid-air. For example Harry Potter novels, all they need is a wand or even the wave of the hand.
* To April C. p5- I agree with the quote you have written from Alphonse Elric from the show Full Metal Alchemist because I’ve seen this show and understand the meaning of “magic takes what it gives” because the brothers have tried to bring back their mother from the dead but they were forced to give one of their souls to retrieve their mother’s soul.
Another way of saying “magic takes what it gives” is you lose something to gain somethings else. Like Alphonse Elric from Full Metal Alchemist always say:
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy’s first law of Equivalent Exchange.”
This point is so important to the story because there are consequences and benefits to everything. For example, Thorston will be young again once he swallows all the stones. But when this happens, Sybil will die. Another example is Odo’s magic. The benefits are that he can do things, like move items, turn tiny objects into water, etc., with magic, but the consequence is that his magic is temporary.
This idea of magic is different from magic I’ve encountered from other stories. When I read stories with magic in it, the character doesn’t have to lose something to use magic.
What is another way of saying that in today’s terms?
another way to put this saying is Majic recieves what it gives.
Why is this point so important to the story?
this saying is so important because when majic gives Thorston eternal life, it wll take it from Sybil and Odo.
How is this idea of magic different from magic you have encountered in other stories?
ive never really read any stories about majic or that contains majic in it, but in the other books i have read Love was expressed as majic, that is different from this book because in this book they use “actual” majic and sorcery.
Odo and Sybil learn that “magic takes what it gives.”
Another way of saying that in today’s terms is magic have an equal and opposite reaction. This point is so important to the story because Thorston wouldn’t have ever use Ode nor Sybil, for their essence, to gain eternal life and Ode, Sybil, and Alfric (Damian?) couldn’t have used the Book Without Words’ magic to aid them freely because they know something worse would vex them afterwards. This idea of magic is different from magic I’ve encountered in other stories with the idea of magic having consequences instead of just having benefits; in other stories I’ve encountered, the one who casts the spell just gets worn out at best after launching a hex or restoring health to himself/herself or the caster’s allies.
Hey, its me again ( as you can see I have no life) but anyway I think that it means ” you get what you get but later on you best give dat junk back to me!” In other words magic will give you something that you want or enjoy but later on it will be taken back from you whether you like it or not. It is important to the story because in order for Odo to see the what magic really does to creatures he had to first understand this point. This theory of magic is more detailed and you can tell that Avi really thought of this story and really put thought into it. I remeber in “Freak The Mighty” the concept of how sourcers and wizards were such good magicians and how they would use magic to fix things ( in that case I guess his leg) but he put it like magic is so harmless. That is how I guess you tell authors apart. So when all this stuff happened i was like ……. hold up ….. when did magic but I guess it is different writing styles. This is how the idea of magic is different ferom the story “Freak The Mighty”.
Another way of saying “magic takes what it gives” in today’s terms is basically saying that with you giving something you also lose something. This is so important in the story because you get the understanding of it as the story goes on and things are being taken as well as given by magic. This idea of magic is different from the magic I have encountered in other stories by in most other stories the magic is just used without there usually being something taken from any of the characters.
I think when Sybil means magic takes what it gives because everything that her and odo ask for they get it but in a few minutes it gets taken away. This point is important in the story because the magic that odo has is very weak and even though he gets what he wants it gets taken away. This story is very different from other stories because the magic gives and takes also the magic here is used for evil.
Magic gives what it takes………….
I guess another way of saying this in today’s terms would be “give and get.” This point is very important in the story becuase it prevents them from just using the book’s magic freely,they know there are consequences.This sort of maigc is very different from any other I’ve ever read about.Most magic just requires you to say spells,or use items,or use spiritual energy or whatever.Magic like that just gives,and only benefits the user,never takes from them.