The magic of affection
As a scholar of medieval magic, passing the magazine stand at the checkout is like stepping back in time. The women’s magazines promise sex tips which will keep him returning for more. The men’s magazines guarantee six-pack abs in only six weeks and surefire techniques for getting commitment-free sex. If this stuff really were surefire, would they need to publish new techniques every month? But it’s not effectiveness that sells these magazines. It’s the hope. Bronislaw Malinowski says that the function of magic is to ritualize optimism, to reinforce “faith within the victory of hope over fear.” By this he means once we perform magic, we ritualize our hopes, albeit that ritual itself produces no effects. This only captures one aspect of magic, but it’s a crucial one. Perfect sex and other miracles There is a huge modern industry that leverages our vulnerabilties. many scientifically unproven techniques offer not only power over love and sex, but health, wealth, good luck, influenc...