Speshul

For this week I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It's about a high school senior named Quentin who is full of angst and disappointment about his average life until one day he finds himself on the lawn of a magic school called Brakebills. Suddenly the magic and adventure he's craved his entire life is within reach. He's no longer bored with life, and no longer just another average nerd. Throughout the first chapter, we see Quentin moping over his mediocrity nonstop--even through finding a dead body. His biggest concern is himself and what people might think of him. 

The story takes place during one of the biggest transitional stages in his life: moving from high school to college. While I was reading this I kept thinking about something I read in a psychology class. I can't remember exactly what theory it's from, or who wrote it, but it was about developmental psychology. There's a stage in human life where we feel like we're the hero of our stories waiting for our call to action. We're not as egocentric as we were when we were children, but a part of us still feels like we're special somehow, and we just haven't been discovered yet. As we transition out of adolescence into adulthood, we start to accept that we're more or less like everyone else. 

Magical school stories are an answer to that "what if" question. What if we really were special? In Magicians, instead of losing that feeling, Quentin gets affirmation. At least momentarily. Along with the physical liberation of being on his own at college, he also gets to experience a new world of possibilities with magic. He can now be self dependent--with magic. 

It will be interesting to read on and see how this all affects him. I'm predicting that the novelty and sense of adventure might end up wearing off on Quentin once he grows accustomed to the world, and once being a magician becomes normalized and he's yet again at the same level as his peers.