Magic as sheer power isn't interesting; magic as cheat codes, workarounds, making the best of a bad situation, stone soup, the weapon of the weak, *is* interesting.
That's one of the oldest definitions of magic I ran into in fiction: talking the universe into being what you want. What you want is obviously not the way things normally are, or they would already be; so you convince it otherwise. It's in Le Guin, McKillip, even Diane Duane. Sometimes formal spells are important, sometimes just knowing the difference between what things are and what you want them to be. It must be older, but those were my first encounters.
the Massey-Harris company owners
Can I assume these are the same Masseys that eventually produced Raymond, Daniel, and Anna?
no subject
That's one of the oldest definitions of magic I ran into in fiction: talking the universe into being what you want. What you want is obviously not the way things normally are, or they would already be; so you convince it otherwise. It's in Le Guin, McKillip, even Diane Duane. Sometimes formal spells are important, sometimes just knowing the difference between what things are and what you want them to be. It must be older, but those were my first encounters.
the Massey-Harris company owners
Can I assume these are the same Masseys that eventually produced Raymond, Daniel, and Anna?