Science and Magic?

:tinfoil:

Until recently in human history science and magic have been linked. Isaac Newton invented calculus to better understand Alchemy.

In the Zombie pop culture there has been a shift from the voodoo zombie to the science zombie. George Romero's ghouls were triggered by funky radiation from a meteorite. Then, we moved to he zombie virus.

Is KC blending the two? Taking the hard science to give tangible results, but using the occult for a splash of something to make the "magic" of story telling happen to transport us to a different reality?

Good observations and question.

I'm not really sure, but I feel like there isn't an occult aspect in WA. Other than some artwork, we don't really have any mention or reference to the occult. Unless we get some detailed descriptions of Ink's tats or the symbols on the note and someone ties them in with voodoo or something, I don't see how the listener would get it. :)

My thought is that any and all occult ties would fall back to the old "anything that we don't understand is magic and anything we do understand is science"

Man, I sure hope that's the case. I'm getting rather tired of science zombies. Science is boring, bring on the magic... Then again I'm pretty biased: given a choice between a fantasy and sci-fi book, I'll always choose fantasy. Anyways, the whole mystery of what caused the zombie uprising in We're Alive does feel a bit occultish to me, especially the speculations people have made about the Ring of Fire. Of course, as we're learning more about Ink and the processes that create our biters, it seems to be leaning much more in a scientific direction, but I'll hold out hope that it can still be a Mischung of science and magic.

Of all the names in the world to choose from, Bill Roberts was tattooed by what could be Cohen. Priest.

So a Priest, tattoos another guy with mystical voodoo symbols as well as chemical structures while a family talking about birth rites bear rings with a classical alchemy symbol.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke

Yea, high tech can look like magic, but magic is its own thing. I am just saying that it is an area that has not been saturated, yet. The tattoos could just be symbolic, but why not more?

If we drift away from We're Alive, and just blend in some magic with apocalyptic fiction. Say the power plants are all off line, but the power lines are still there. We hear the occultist talk about leigh lines (spelling?). Not enough power to run a city, but a nice story might be a few mages using the power of the Leigh lines transmitted over the power lines to do magic.

Suppose the Mayans got it wrong. The 21 December 2012 was when we look into the center of the galactic plane. It was not the end of he world, however it was the temporal minimum of magic. Magic comes from the far side of the universe and the black holes at the center of the galaxy suck it up before it gets here. As we tip back away magic will grow more and more powerful for the next 13,000 years. This time we advance much more quickly and to even greater levels because we are better at studying things and taking notes from having to bang our heads against technology.

I do not think Saul is going to go all Harry Potter (never read those books or seen the movie), but zombie fiction is saturated with viral contagion, but there is ample space for something different...

Changing gears again. In our world lots of people believe in demonic possession, but it is more minor. An influence of behavior, rather than taking complete control. Say the reason for this is the human soul is already there. It is tied to the body and the demon has to fight like hell to just get a sliver of control...

Now, go high tech again. Does God grant a soul to a clone? My story, my rules. I say no. Some pissant demons realize how easy it is to get control of the clones and make havoc. This moves up the chain of command and we have a new spin on star wars clone wars. Toss in demonic possession of clones and blend in the concept of increasing magic and then leveraging high tech with high magic and we have a whole new bunch of fun.

Not sold on the occult playing a part in WA, but I love your breakdown and think it would make a helluva storyline if some more of it were introduced early in the arcs of some character or plot.

Good stuff, Grog!

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Originally Posted by Grognaurd

Suppose the Mayans got it wrong. The 21 December 2012 was when we look into the center of the galactic plane. It was not the end of he world, however it was the temporal minimum of magic. Magic comes from the far side of the universe and the black holes at the center of the galaxy suck it up before it gets here. As we tip back away magic will grow more and more powerful for the next 13,000 years. This time we advance much more quickly and to even greater levels because we are better at studying things and taking notes from having to bang our heads against technology.

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I don't know about that factoring into We're Alive, but I've got to just say that that is a really goddamn cool story idea all on its own.

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Originally Posted by scbubba

Not sold on the occult playing a part in WA, but I love your breakdown and think it would make a helluva storyline if some more of it were introduced early in the arcs of some character or plot.

Good stuff, Grog!

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Originally Posted by Vlarken

I don't know about that factoring into We're Alive, but I've got to just say that that is a really goddamn cool story idea all on its own.

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Um, yea, nothing to do with WA, I sorta ended up trolling myself, sorry. I can come up with broad strokes that sound kinda cool, but when I try to write it just sounds like inane dribble. Thanks for the encouragement, maybe I will try again sometime, soon.

Magic is more powerful than Science. Magic is like politics, don't look at facts, give me power and I will give you results!

Next time the zombies attack the Colony, Gandalf the Grey should be standing at the gates shouting "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"