Those who follow and admire him find something gallant, and Cyrano-like, in his quest to make magic matter, not as a redoubt of nostalgia but as a living art that might cross over with the other arts.
Penn put me in a car and said, 'My ability to speak quickly and clearly is the only thing keeping us alive.' ") But his friendship with Vernon led him in another direction as well — backward, in a sense, to try to define what it was that made magic matter, why the tradition counted, and what it meant.
Just letting things take their course, allowing the "free" market do its magic, makes matters worse in a world that Paul Krugman (New York Times, 2/10) calls "lemon socialism," where the losses from economic activity are borne by taxpayers, and the gains by the corporate elite.
This paper was supported by the following grants: Magic That Matters Fund to Chulan Kwon.
And how much will a collector pay to own a portrait that comes with a history of controversy as well as vestiges of that old Leonardo magic, no matter how misplaced?
It's a difficult dance, the one between magic and matter.
"I was looking for a magic moment," Matter continued.
I hope they don't settle for safe: I hope they search for the magic, no matter how uncomfortable it can be.
It was a ritual transformation of private toil into public magic — or of matter into spirit, if one wanted to be moony about it.
To me, that's magic, some grey matter in someone's head inspires others to read, play and create ideas of their own.
