This Is A GOOD Quote! - Tumblr Posts

A lot of stories about learning magic hide the cost of magic: they tell a story that you can have magic through your own individual efforts, i.e. that magic comes by studying hard, learning something, and you just have it! You get this magic, and it’s yours.

Our own society encourages us to pretend that magic is free in similar ways. “I worked hard, I got paid, and I bought this iPhone. It’s magic! And it’s mine!” But we know, we all know deep down, that much of the actual costs are being paid by other people somewhere else, or will be paid by you in the future and in your children’s future.

Magic isn’t free. Whenever there is real magic, someone pays for it. And trying to claw apart the story to get to that truth, to expose and show that truth on a visceral level, is part of what I’m trying to do.

— Author Spotlight: Naomi Novik