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@allertingthbs

Just wanted to say that I think you made some really really really good points which hadn’t even occurred to me!

My only concern with what you said (and I know this wasn’t directed at me, so if you want to ignore my comment, that’s fine!) is that people oftentimes don’t care much about context. I’ve noticed this especially in regards to Christian fantasy.

If we have, for example, a guy everyone refers to as the Maker, what is everyone’s first thought? No, I’m guessing it’s not “hey, look! Here’s this this guy named the Maker! Due to the context of the story, he probably doesn’t represent God.” The point being, even if the author writes about a guy named the Maker and the context of the story doesn’t have anything to do with him being God, people are still going to have some difficulty getting away from how similar to God he sounds.

This is the main problem I see with using the word “magic.” It’s not so much about how we’re using the word as the word itself. When people hear the word magic, they either think of fluffy unicorns and fairy dust, or sorcery. That’s not something we can get away from. The word will carry this connotation with it wherever it goes, including into a fantasy world where it’s used differently. That’s the biggest concern. By using the word magic, even if we redefine it as something other than sorcery, is still going to make people think of sorcery.

Okay. I think that’s all I got. Loved your point about how we have to recreate things to make a fantasy world, which isn’t lying!