No illusion: Magic makes a comeback

Magic is hot, but not in the way it once was. A few centuries ago, being a great magician might have gotten you burned at the stake. Today, it might land you a permanent gig in Las Vegas.

For proof of magic's resurgent popularity, look no further than your local cineplex, where a magic-based movie, "The Prestige," has been holding steady in the top 10 box-office chart. That follows on the heels of another successful magic movie, "The Illusionist."

And those films come after years of our culture creating superstars of magicians such as David Copperfield, Doug Henning, and Penn and Teller. And then there is the phenomenal appeal of novels about a youngster growing up in a magical world, Harry Potter.

Odd, isn't it, that in this day when we can send space probes to the outer edges of the solar system and map the human genome that we would still be so astounded by those who can make us think we see something that we don't?

For Simon During, an English professor at Johns Hopkins University, the relationship that a civilization has to magic says something profound about its culture. He made his case in the 2002 book "Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic."

"My thesis is that a kind of shift happens when magic stops being connected to religion," says During, a New Zealand native. "Magic had been treated as something that showed an illegitimate relationship to the supernatural.

"But, beginning in the 17th and 18th century, when it stops being seen as something from the devil, something dangerous and bad, it becomes available to be fictionalized," he said.

His argument is that you cannot have a make-believe world until you acknowledge that there is such a thing as make-believe, until you realize that magicians, like novelists and moviemakers, are creating illusions, not revealing another form of reality.

The divine or the devil?

In his book, During traces magic back to the earliest days of recorded history. Early in the Judeo-Christian tradition, there was an attempt to make a distinction between miracles and magic — one the work of God, the other of the devil.

Church leaders dismissed claims that when Moses threw his staff on the ground and it turned into a serpent, he was merely performing a magic trick. At the same time, they banned those who practiced magic. Sorcerers and witches were hanged, drowned, burned or imprisoned, laws that remained enforced up until about 1800.

"Religion still has a problem with magic," During said, pointing to denunciation of the Harry Potter books by some church leaders.

"Some evangelical religions, then and now, obviously still use these forms of magic," he said. "But the big established churches are all afraid of magic. They would want to say that there are real miracles, but would be down on people claiming to have any sort of supernatural power. Still, there is always a slippery line there."

In some cultures, belief in the constant presence of the supernatural remains widespread. There are those who see, for instance, lightning strikes not as random acts of nature, but as the conscious work of witches.

During notes that European powers who had come to terms with magic used this understanding when colonizing nations, hiring magicians to woo the indigenous crowds.

Freed of its religious trappings, magic became the most powerful form of entertainment. In a very real way, magic formed the foundation of what grew into the modern entertainment industry.

"In the period between about 1860 and 1920, magicians were huge stars," During said. "They were making more money than anyone else, more than movie stars."

Houdini, who named himself after the 19th-century French magician Robert-Houdin, was the biggest of these stars, but he was not the conventional magician, creating the appearance of something that wasn't really there. Houdini's escape-from-certain-doom acts often used illusions, but that was not all they were.

"Most of his were daredevil acts, done in real time," During said. "They weren't completely illusions, as some involved real skills, though Houdini did do magic."

A hobby of the everyman

Both "The Illusionist" and "The Prestige" are set in the late 19th century as magicians were taking their place in the nascent world of celebrities. The growth in science and industry was giving magicians tools that allowed them to create more and more elaborate illusions.

During says that optics was one of those. "It allowed a whole new type of magic to develop, concealing people," he said.

Electricity, which plays a big role in "The Prestige," was another. "A lot of early scientific stuff was first used in magic shows," During said. "Electricity was used in magic shows in the 18th century — people had never seen it before."

Magic became popular not just as an entertainment, but also as a hobby. Magic shops opened in every city.

"This huge culture of amateur magic developed, something that has really died away," During said. "People from the upper classes, the middle classes, the working classes, all listed magic as a hobby. It was huge from about 1860 to 1930. The Depression really kills it."

Though magic never disappeared, after that it remained on the entertainment sidelines, something for kids. Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom promised a world of illusion for the young.

Adults were too busy staring in wonder at the burgeoning creations of modernity — atomic bombs exploding, rockets heading into space, televisions bringing pictures into the home. No longer did magicians mediate science — science brought us its magic directly.

But as science lost its grip on the imagination, magic regained its appeal.