Tomo wrote:David R. wrote:I believe that knowledge should be free and that if someone wants to learn something and is willing to become deditcated to it then he should not be denied that urge for knowledge just by the fact that they cannot afford it.
I'm just going to repeat this one last time and see if it sticks:
Magic is not open source.
I laughed a little at that comparison
.
I'm not saying neccessarily free nor am I talking about the "big" secrets, I am talking about enough to get someone on their feet. I would love to see if libraries would carry Mark Wilson's Complete Course, 13 Steps, Art of Astonishment, Bobo's, and a few others just to give enough out for "free" as to actually get them started, get them out to a point where they can support their magic with magic. I am not saying that people like David Blaine should recieve Banachek's secrets for no cost nor am I saying that Houdini should have given away his secrets at the end of every show; what I mean by this is that if someone is interested, we could at least try to give them enough to get them on their feet like we would do with anything else. If your son wants to be a mechanic then you would buy him a few books and maybe give him a quick lesson or two, just enough to get him started to a point where he can support his own ambitions. If your daughter wanted to be a fashon designer you would buy her a few fashion books, some thread, needles, enough to have her know how to make a shirt that she can sell and using the money buy more books with more advanced techniques. The same should be with magic; to get more people interested in this art we need more people to be able to pick it up. Let them get a copy of Bobo's at the library and Mark Wilson's Complete Course and if you're dedicated and practice you now have enough general magic to call yourself a magician and enough "specialization" in coins to be able to call yourself a coin magician when presenting yourself somewhere. Now a newcomer with virtually no money can be hired for a very cheap show. They are hired for a free show and slowly but surely they get a call and they charge $20, then another $20, and another and a few more and now buy a more technical book and get more involved into magic. Now they are more experienced and start charging $30 bucks a show, they do more and more shows and then they buy some more single tricks and some more books, eventually joing the IBM, buying more tricks, and now they are known through-out the United States. We have now added a great magician just becuase someone who was truely interested had enough to get on their feet. Now what if they didn't have access to these books? They come home from watching someone perform magic outside and really want to learn how to be able to do the impossible so they check out their library but they do not find any books. They use the public computer in the library to search for magic and find that a book costs $40, they become dissapointed and sad as they cannot afford such a book. Not only that, but now magic as a whole has lost another potential "Houdini".
Honestly? i'd still do whatever it took to earn myself some money...infact i have in the past, i sold my precious guitars to support someone dear to me and worked 2 jobs...and i sold a collection of records that i loved (which was going to be a semi-retirement fund in my old age)
There is a slight difference here, you had known they were dear to you, therefore giving you reason to do so. You knew what to expect therefore had the reason to give something up. If you had just come home from a magic show or just seeing someone perform outside you will be interested right away in magic and want to find out more about it, but since you have seen what the spectator sees and not the secret, you do not know if what you are about to give up is actually worth what you are getting in return. It is like seeing a beautiful woman somewhere and going on a blind date later, you have to give up everything you own for a *CHANCE* that she might be worth it; would you risk everything for that? Yes, a select few would, but most would only after getting a "taste" of what it is like. Only when you know what to expect will you be willing to give up everything for a love. The same goes for everything in life, including magic, and maybe we would have more people enjoying the art of magic, performing and enjoying, if it was more accessible. That might make things harder for performers, more hecklers *possibly* but if more people enjoy the art, who are studying and have had to deal with at least one heckler themselves, might not heckle someone else. This whole thing could go one way or another, but still, only people with a true interest would have access to these books. True, more people would know secrets, but the fact is that only people with an interest in magic would know about them, it would promote "magic awareness", and it would keep us from loosing potentially extremely valuable future magicians.
Again, this is just my 2 cents on this. Maybe I have gone a little over-board when it comes to saying making it avaliable in libraries. But if you talk to someone either in real life, or on a forum; get to know them well enough that you know that they truely have an interest in magic; why not send them or let them borrow a book or two of yours?
Sorry for the very length response,
~David
but I now understand why what was said, was said.
