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"The Secret History of Magic" by Peter Lamont & Jim Steinmeyer

book review by Riley Burnham 1/18/2024

this was good(!)

my biggest takeaways: Harry Potter names are pretty clearly dredged from this body of work: Harry [Houdini], Nevill [something-or-other], Hermione [Queen of Magic, something Herman], & so on...

​​​​​​​we learn ultimately that magic & conjuration are art forms mixing theater w/ cleverness; sometimes reaching for supernatural/grandiose explanations for otherwise just clever trickery

it ends in the modern era, where people continue mixing technology w/ theatrics, giving us video magic [think YouTube, D. Copperfield, etc.], where the shtick really is making us wonder How they pulled it off

good stuff