Hallowmas Eve - Day Two: Art as Magic

Halloween is the time for magic.  We want magic.  We NEED magic.  As we've thrown off the shackles of silly (and often dangerous) superstition over the years, we as human beings also lost that belief in magic, and in supernatural forces under the command of a studied adept.

Alan Moore, creator of "Watchmen" "From Hell," "V for Vendetta," and "The Killing Joke," amongst a billion other amazing things, raises an interesting notion in this linked video (I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed youtube video):  That magic is art, and art is modern magic - that being, the manipulation of words and images to achieve a change in consciousness.  Making all true artists, be it a musician, painter, sculptor, illustrator, writer, etc., also true practitioners of magic (and I ain't talking about pulling a quarter out of someone's ear, folks).

Alan says it far better than I could, and with a cooler accent, right here.

(Special thanks to Brother Joe Pulver, an Arch-Mage of the Highest Order, for the heads up on the vid)

 

Alan Moore:  "It's not the job of the artist to give the audience what it wants.  If the audience knew what it needed, then they wouldn't be the audience, they'd be the artist."