Your Magic or Mine? Read Online Free PDF Page A

other aspects. The closest analogy I can think of comes from cooking. Two cooks make the same recipe, using identical ingredients, but … her meatballs taste better than mine.”
    No, she has it wrong, she hadn’t, couldn’t have, cast precisely, Marcus thought, as another chuckle rippled across the room.
    “In conclusion,” she said, “I applaud Dr. Forscher’s ingenuity, creativity, and effort in developing his equation. I’m sure some practitioners will benefit greatly from using it. I agree, we all need to cast our spells as efficiently and productively as possible. All I ask is for those who want to drag us into the future or impose a casting regimen, please, consider the reality of working magic. It’s a matter of art and mastery, a ‘feel’ for the forces within us, knowledge of and respect for our history, and above all, the combination of individual experimentation, experience, and emotions that result in great magic. Thank you.”
    The audience broke out in applause—or rather about half of them did, Marcus noticed. Several people stood with their hands up, a couple waving wildly for attention. Ed called for order.
    There had to be a fallacy in her statements. True, in typical mathematical theorizing, he himself had not experimented in the real world, had not practiced his formula beyond a bare minimum. Some of his colleagues had, and they reported good results. His theory remained valid. The business about “forcing a casting regimen,” however, was far off the mark.
    “Let’s settle down, please,” Ed boomed into the microphone once more. “Everyone will have a chance. Hold up your hands, and I’ll call on you. One of the ushers will bring a mike. Please wait until all of us can hear you before asking your question.”
    While waiting for the ushers to get to their positions, Ed pushed his chair back and said, “Nice job, both of you. I’m going to let the discussion go on until we start getting repetitions in the questions. Okay?”
    Gloriana nodded and saw Forscher do the same. She wondered how he was taking her remarks. Before she could ask, however, Ed pulled forward and called on an elderly man in the front row.
    The man stood and waited until the mike arrived. “I’ve been practicing magic, man and boy, for over seventy years, specializing in oil exploration. I’ve never heard of a general formula for all talents. If your formula is so great, why hasn’t somebody thought of it before?”
    Ed turned to Forscher. “This one’s obviously yours.”
    “Perhaps someone did, sir,” Forscher replied. “I found no record of one, however. From my research, I can tell you that before the seventeen hundreds and the Industrial Revolution, the number of existing spells was relatively small, and the differentiation among them was not great. When professions proliferated, likewise did the need for less general, more specific specialty spells, but everyone seemed to be wrapped up in their talents and even those at the highest levels didn’t confer with others outside their own circle. No ‘Renaissance man’ like Leonardo da Vinci came forward to survey or study a number of different talents or to attempt a consolidation.”
    Ed called on a stylishly dressed woman in the third row on the middle aisle.
    “I’m Loretta Horner,” she announced as though her name should mean something to the group. “Dr. Morgan, I can’t express how great my pleasure is in hearing you say what my husband and I have thought since we read Dr. Forscher’s articles. In our view, ‘regularizing’ spell-casting with a formula will take away all our individual processes and force us into a lockstep parade. Our traditional methods are best.”
    A number of people applauded as she sat down. Gloriana nodded, but didn’t say anything because Mrs. Horner hadn’t asked a question.
    Ed called on a younger man who looked more like what Gloriana expected a mathematics nerd to look like—thin, with round glasses, wearing