#wizard books

[the-uncanny-dag]

Perhaps if Alan Rickman wasn't such an effortlessly charismatic & fuckable actor, we wouldn't be in this mess

[twelvelms]

I haven't ever really talked about The Wizard Books and the author that wrote them on here. I grew up loving those books and it is a devastating thing to navigate as a grown up trans guy. It's partly because I live in the UK and said author is particularly litigious, and I'm a trans person with a precarious income whose job is to make shows for the internet, and I want to avoid attracting the author's attention if I can.

Though I loved those books, I've always been pretty critical of their central thesis. Part of what was interesting about the earlier books to me were the flaws in wizarding society, the moments where ministry propaganda seems to bleed through into conversations between children. How horrifying and fascinating a thing, I thought! I wonder where this is going.

By the later books in the series it was clear that these flaws weren't a part of the central message of the book in the way I thought they were, and I found that really disappointing, and then. Well. We all know what happened next!

When I was younger, I loved wolfstar. I had my house scarf and tie and I read and reread the books so much my copies began to disintegrate. When I missed a delivery of Order of the Phoenix, I rode my bike 3 miles into the town over where the postoffice returns place was, even though I never cycled on roads because I'm functionally blind in one eye and have no depth perception so I can't tell how far away the cars are. These books were a huge inspiration to me as a child; they're part of the reason I've been a writer since I could reliably hold a pen, and they're one of the reasons I was inspired to make Twelvelms.

If you go back far enough on the Spirit Box Radio tumblr, you'll probably still find posts I made prior to the start of the show about some of the characters in those books, talking about some aspects of them I found interesting that I felt were overlooked.

If you're looking at my list of influences for this show and thinking that these books are a glaring omission from them; yeah. I've deliberately not put them into any of the copy, even where I'm talking about the kind of works which inspired me to make this one because I don't want to bring a painful conversation into focus, and because I don't want to accidentally say something that might catch the attention of the author of those works, and because those works are EXTREMELY popular and if I compare anything I do to them, even to cite them as inspiration, there's a risk I'd look incredibly cocky.

In the world of Twelvelms, the system is broken. Propaganda bleeds into conversation. The characters have grown up with strange beliefs baked into everything they think is true about the world and how they interact with it, and many of those beliefs are harmful. Twelvelms University is a magical and exciting place with hidden rooms and Roman baths in the basement and hallways that whisper to you in the depths of the night. But it's also an institution that fundamentally fails the scholars inside of it.

The people in charge in this world are wrong. The fact the main characters end up in the positions that they do is a bad thing. They should never have been asked to make the choices they are forced to make in this show, but they are. The system is against them, and they didn't notice until they started to ask why things are the way they are.

Why is mage society so completely isolated? Why are half-mage children asked to leave their homes at 13 if they show a talent for magic? Why are Happeners - mages who are born into unmage families - forced to abandon their old lives, set up somewhere new, often in proximity to the most powerful mages in the Alliance? Why is it that when things went wrong in the past, there's suddenly a lack of certainty and information about how it happened and who was responsible?

These questions are at the heart of the story of the show and the world that it is set in.

[siegelst]

any recommend of other books that deals with a similar wizard world. any recommendations?

[geekynerfherder]

Cover art by Les Edwards for the Wizard Books edition of the Fighting Fantasy Adventure Gamebook 'Caverns Of The Snow Witch', written by Ian Livingstone.

[terrypratchettparadise]

Rincewind took another bite of the sandwich. He’d looked death in the face many times, or more precisely Death had looked him in the back of his rapidly retreating head many times, and suddenly the prospect of living forever didn’t appeal.

Terry Pratchett - Eric

[slytheroccamy]

THIS IS A PETITION TO HAVE HOGWARTS: A HISTORY MADE AVAILABLE FOR MUGGLE READERS

Reblog or like to sign the petition

If we get enough people on board maybe Jo will publish it like she did with Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

I personally would love to read Hogwarts: A History and I’m sure many other Potterheads out there would too.

This is a friendly post, negative comments and hate will not be welcome

[3ternal-sl33p]