The thing about the technopunks is that they can be practically applied, 'Magepunk' does not meet this criteria. Stage magic, which is a practical application is definitely steampunk due to Maskeleyne and Priest.
Once again, you quite fail to take
my point, and so we must simply
agree to disagree.
As for stage magic and the art of
deception : magic, machinery and
trickery are etymologically related.
Magic and machines share exactly
the same ambiguity, the idea of a trick
or a counterfeit, of machination and
scheming, of ingenious engines and
cunning devices - the
device is
devious.
And speaking of engines :
" The word engine obviously comes from
the Latin
ingenium (from in and gigno,
genui, to produce), which signifies
primarily the innate natural quality
of a thing, then of a person, the
natural capacity or disposition, and
very soon in Latin even, talents,
abilities, and specially the faculty
of invention, genius, and wit; and so
an engine signifies properly a machine
or other means skillfully adapted to
effect a purpose, and an engineer is
one skilled in constructing engines
or devising plans. "
~ from :
Significant Etymology;
or, Roots, Stems, and Branches
of the English Languageby James Mitchell
Download@GoogleBookshttp://tinyurl.com/lafaqgIt is not so great a stretch, then, from
a wizard ( "wise man" ) to an engineer,
working at 'natural magic', or physics :
"Having observed the forces of all things
natural and celestial and having examined
by painstaking investigation the sympathy
among those things, we bring into the open
powers hidden and stored away in nature;
thus magic links lower things as if they
were magical enticements ( note the
etymological connection between a gin/
snare/trap and an engine ) to the gifts of
higher things... so that astonishing miracles
thereby occur, not so much as by art as
by nature to which - as nature works
these wonders - this art of magic offers
herself as handmaiden."
~ Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
"Nature is a magician, as Plotinus and
Synesius say, everywhere baiting traps with
particular foods for particular objects. . .
The farmer prepares his field and seeds for
gifts from heaven and uses various grafts
to prolong life in his plant and change it
to a new and better species. The physician,
the scientist and the surgeon bring about
similar effects in our bodies...
The philosopher, who is learned in natural
science and astronomy and whom we are
wont rightly to call a magician, likewise
implants heavenly things in earthly objects
by means of certain alluring charms used
at the right moment."
~ Marsilio Ficino.
The idea that magic has anything at all
to do with 'supernatural' power is a
recent one - originally, the word simply
referred to
power, and
ability. Magic
and mechanism are cognate terms; the
magus is one who is
'able to get things
done'.
" Vodou isn't like that," Beauvoir said.
"It isn't concerned with notions of
salvation and transcendence. What it's
about is getting things
done. "
~ from :
Count Zeroby William Gibson
Chapter 13,
'With Both Hands'Preview@GoogleBookshttp://tinyurl.com/yjyhmze
