talkmagic.co.uk

I could find no review of this book, so I have taken it on myself to write one


Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring
By Michael Mangan

Source:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/v ... k,id=4581/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank at £20
Or check your local library, they may have the rights to an e-book version -> free!


Content
Introduction: magic and performance
Chapter One: Binaries: early attitudes to conjuring.
Chapter Two: 'The evil Spirit has a hand in the Tricks of these Jugglers': conjuring and Christian orthodoxy
Chapter Three: 'Fire and faggot to burn the witch'? Conjuring between belief and unbelief in early modern England.
Chapter Four: On the margins: criminals and fraudsters
Chapter Five: On the boundaries of the human
Chapter Six: Acting and not-acting: Robert-Houdin
Chapter Seven: Before your very eyes: life, death and liveness
Chapter Eight: Narrative ambiguity and contested meanings: interpreting Harry Houdini
Chapter Nine: Mediums and the media
Chapter Ten: Magic, media and postmodernism

About 300 pages.

Difficulty
If you can read, you should be fine.

Review
"The magician is an actor that plays the part of a magician" is something we have all heard a thousand times. But what is this "magician", which we are supposedly playing? How should he be perceived? How has he been perceived How has he perceived himself? How does he change with time, when the fascination of the day changes from witches to science to contacting the dead? And how can we understand contemporary magicians such as Blaine or Brown? And to return to Robert Houdin's maxim -what does it actually mean to "play the part"?

Tracing magic back though history, and focusing especially on Houdini, this book explores in great detail the "cultural history" of the magician in western society - paradoxically caught as he is between the showman and the shaman. It is a fascinating read, thoroughly researched and well-written. You will learn several possible reasons why you would saw a woman in half; why not to trust a magician's autobiography; and the essentially necromantic nature of television. You will not learn any tricks. I greatly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the magician's place in the world. It is a rather long read and is probably not for everyone, but well worth it if you decide to put in the effort. I do not know if you will become a better magician from studying this, but I probably have.

I see no reason not to give this book 10/10, it does what it promises to do, in a highly learned manner and yet as clear as crystal.

Bonus info: Our very own TalkMagic forums are referenced in the last chapters of the book.

Seems a very interesting reading, thanks for the review.