They're basically reading an instructional manual of a thing that doesn't exist
Exactly! That or like a fictional encyclopedia. Literally in some cases. You can drill down into detailed family histories or muh hard magic systems or intricate details on some dude's sword handle engravings and it's all fictional. And more importantly, pointless to the overall story. It's actually baffling
Probably a weird reaction to seeing your comment but you've made me realize I was using "soft magic" as a term for when the author sees magic as nothing but a tool to make things look cool with no meaning behind it. I was trying to figure out what made magic hard/soft and why so many things I liked looked suspiciously like what people called "soft magic" and you finally made me realize it's bullshit and my gripe was something else. Thank you.
Could it be simply a safe environment to practice and perform specific human thought capacities? Makes me think of how some sports fans can get into serious deep debates with stats and shit. Maybe humans just like working and utilizing their innate functions to think and whatever.
Could it be that learning a fictional universe is actually "possible"? You can nail it down, put everything in it's right place, unlike actual reality, with all it's bias and ambiguity.
Exactly! That or like a fictional encyclopedia. Literally in some cases. You can drill down into detailed family histories or muh hard magic systems
or intricate details on some dude's sword handle engravings and it's all fictional. And more importantly, pointless to the overall story. It's actually baffling
Probably a weird reaction to seeing your comment but you've made me realize I was using "soft magic" as a term for when the author sees magic as nothing but a tool to make things look cool with no meaning behind it. I was trying to figure out what made magic hard/soft and why so many things I liked looked suspiciously like what people called "soft magic" and you finally made me realize it's bullshit and my gripe was something else. Thank you.
I wonder about this too.
Could it be simply a safe environment to practice and perform specific human thought capacities? Makes me think of how some sports fans can get into serious deep debates with stats and shit. Maybe humans just like working and utilizing their innate functions to think and whatever.
Could it be that learning a fictional universe is actually "possible"? You can nail it down, put everything in it's right place, unlike actual reality, with all it's bias and ambiguity.
Or... just escapism maybe? I like to escape, too.