Guy Gavriel Kay et la magie

[jerome]

Guy Gavriel Kay parle de magie lors d'une note dans son journal. Il évoque Les Lions d'Al-Rassan.

Voici le début :
"So, as far back as The Lions of Al-Rassan, and I am pretty sure even earlier, I have been making the formal case for the use of the fantastic in writing about history.

I do this argument in a variety of ways, emphasizing one aspect or another, depending on where I am speaking, or for what forum I'm writing. But one aspect of it, in the last six or seven years, is usually this:

I argue that if I make the world of the novel be as my characters believe it to be, I can help readers (today's readers) shake some of the smug superiority that sometimes sneaks into our reading about past behaviours and beliefs. You know: 'Isn't it quaint? People used to think that ...'

When we read of characters in a book fearing demons, magic talismans tossed in the grave of someone newly-dead, the way a stolen horse could destroy a funeral and create an enraged ghost, this 'modern' wryness gets in the way of our respect for them. It isn't insurmountable, and different readers will experience this to different degrees, but I see it as worth wrestling with, as a novelist. "