Im. "The Man Who Lost His Magic": The Horizontal Axis

Hatchet Face (1785-1863)

In the earliest times to which authentic history extends, the law will be found to have already attained a fixed character, peculiar to the people—like their language, manners, and constitution. Nay, these phenomena have no separate existence; they are but the particular faculties and tendencies of an individual people, inseparably united in nature, and only wearing the semblance of distinct attributes to our view. That which binds them into one whole is the common conviction of the people—the kindred consciousness of an inward necessity, excluding all notion of an accidental and arbitrary origin. Friedrich Carl von Savigny

Lafferty liked to tell people that he stopped writing on his seventh birthday, dating the end of his career to November 7, 1984. This was only partly true, since some of his most interesting work and thinking came after that date. Originally titled "The Men Who Didn't Believe in Magic," "The Man Who Lost His Magic" was completed on October 13, 1987.

Lafferty’s interest and proficiency in German is a part of his work that continues to intrigue me, so I’ve decided to write a series of blog posts on one of his final pieces of fiction and its importance. I’ve written before about how, for Lafferty, the largest hermeneutic circle is metaphysical—how he wanted to explore the relationship between history and eternity, ringing changes on the theme from his earliest stories to his last.

The academic lives of the Grimm brothers offer a fascinating way into this side of Lafferty. They began as Romantics and ended as hardened German scholars, still Romantic, changed from the young men who learned from Friedrich Carl von Savigny (important to the role of the Commonwealth in the story) and and their early intellectual circle friends, which brought into their thought and lifelong project the influence of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805), They helped both mystify and demystify culture. It’s no surprise they caught Lafferty’s attention, and perhaps no surprise either that, as he closed down his writing shop, he made a final fictional statement about them.

Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861)

In the story, the importance of the Magic Meadows—and the relationship between word and world, as both nature and metaphor—is as significant as the writing on the wizard’s robes and what Jacob can read and cannot read.

In this first post, I’m sharing a translation I made of the Grimm brothers’ entry on Nature from their opus Deutsches Wörterbuch. Their treatment of the term includes over thirty shades of meaning, many of which speak directly to the Magic Meadows. Future posts will explore more of what is at work in the story.

Pretty obviously “The Man Who Lost His Magic” deconstructs the rationalist worldview embodied by Jacob Grimm by juxtaposing it against the magical reality of the Meadows. The Meadows are not sustained by empirical laws but by belief and storytelling. Jacob's "loss of magic" is presented as a tragic consequence of his rigid adherence to a singular, objective reality, ultimately leading to his forcible and eternal assimilation into the very world of folklore he sought to control. The historical Grimm who composed the Natur entry bears on this in a number of ways.

Natur.pdf

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Grimm's Dictionary Definition of "Natur"	“The Man Who Lost His Magic”
A. Nature as Creative Force (Active Sense)
1. Nature as World-Force: The generative, formative, transforming power in the universe; a quasi-personal, active force.	"I do believe it, and my believing makes it so. And I'll trick you into believing and you'll fly also."
1.a. Innate Endowments: Natur denoting the innate physical or mental characteristics given to a living being.	"Yes, he had a hatchet face... Jacob, however, was a kind and considerate man. It was only an accident of mismatching that he had a hatchet face."
1.b. Personification of Nature: Nature spoken of as an explicit, human-like entity (e.g., Mother Nature) with whom one can interact.	“‘What are you, a fairy godmother, to grant wishes?’ / ‘Oh, Jacob, it's now known that any good person can grant a wish to any other good person.’”
2. Nature as Order or Law: The regularity and law-governed course of natural phenomena; the "order of nature."	"That was why he was sent from the Commonwealth to regularize the irregular people of the Meadows..."
B. Nature as Created World (Passive Sense)
1. Nature as Universe: The totality of what exists; the whole visible creation, conceived as a dynamic whole.	"The World of the Commonwealth that you think you come from does not exist on the same plane as the Magic Meadows here. One is only a metaphor of the other."
3. Nature vs. Artifice (Natur vs. Kunst): The contrast between the natural state of something and what is artificially made or altered.	"It is only Schwarzkünstler the Sorcerer repairing wings for persons who will fly tonight... And the Sorcerer is making a new set of wings for somebody."
3.b. Pristine State: The imagined "state of nature" before society or law; a pure, innocent, or uncorrupted state.	"You people must now take on the responsibility of substantiality and of anxiety so as to become of some good to the Commonwealth.”
AA. "Nature" as Life Principle in the Individual
5. Innate Disposition (Nature of a Thing or Person): The inherent quality, character, or fundamental constitution of a person or thing.	"Then 'all ways' is mistaken. I was the hatchet-faced man, young and old. He was always pleasant and handsome."
5.d. menschliche Natur (human nature): The innate characteristics of human beings collectively.	“An unbeliever has got to believe in his unbelief,” he cried out. ... "I abjure the whole idea that I am flying high in the air. I refuse the whole double-damned superstitious illusion!"
5.e. Personal Nature or Temperament: An individual's inborn disposition, character, or habit ("second nature").	"Swearing and fuming, Jacob Grim fought against the grotesque things that now had him in their coils."
BB. A Natural Being (Creature, Individual)
2. Human being as "a nature": A person, with emphasis on their character type (e.g., "a good nature," "a false nature").	"Among the investigators who had disappeared was Jacob's own brother. Jacob, however, was a kind and considerate man."
2.e. Higher beings as Naturen (natures): Poetic use for angels, spirits, etc.	"But what if I still don't believe I'm flying?” he croaked. / "You'd better believe it,” jibed the chimney swift that was flying circles around him in the air...

Concept	Role	Character	Quote	Note
1. The Dichotomy of Reality: Rationalism vs. Magic	Jacob's mission from the Commonwealth to regularize the irregular people of the Meadows.	Jacob Grim: He sees the world through what he takes to be science, logic, and order. Magic is "nonsense," "silliness," "superstition," or a "regional illusion." His goal is impose the Commonwealth's objective reality, which links him to the historical Grimm’s tie to Savigny and Romantic nation building. Magic Meadows Residents: They perceive their world as authentic. The Commonwealth's reality is questioned as a mere metaphor or a "dank conspiracy to dream such a world.	Jacob: "...a bladed brain that would cut through every sort of nonsense.""...to regularize the irregular people of the Meadows...""It was only a local glob of magic, which is another word for silliness or superstition."   Schwarzkünstler: "The World of the Commonwealth that you think you come from does not exist on the same plane as the Magic Meadows here. One is only a metaphor of the other. Which?"	This sets up the story's central ontological conflict. It is not just a story of a man encountering magic, but a war between two mutually exclusive realities. Jacob’s failure is preordained because his tools of 19th-century logic and reason are incompatible with the physics of the Meadows.
2. The Power of Belief as a Creative Force	Here we have one reason why the original title Lafferty gave the story is superior to the published version. Sometimes he got unlucky this way as when “The Long Afternoon,” a major Lafferty work, was renamed “Among the Hairy Earthmen” The ability to fly and the summoning of gold. These acts are contingent not on physical laws but on the practitioner's and observer's belief. This is a bit like what I have written on the importance of Wittgenstein and seeing aspects in Lafferty. Interestingly, Lafferty himself did a dive into Wittgenstein, something he writes about in a letter.	Jacob Grim: He these events as illusions and refuses to grant them the legitimacy of belief. His active disbelief becomes his defining, and finally fatal, characteristic. Zauberei: She says that belief creates reality. She is confident she can "trick" Jacob into believing and thus enable him to fly. This is an ongoing theme in Lafferty, his interrogation of consensus reality in some of his most difficult fiction.	Zauberei: "I do believe it, and my believing makes it so. And I'll trick you into believing and you'll fly also."   Jacob (during the fall): "An unbeliever has got to believe in his unbelief... I abjure the whole idea that I am flying... I refuse the whole double-damned superstitious illusion!"	The story sets up belief as an active, world-shaping force, a recurring theme in Lafferty Jacob's tragedy is ironic: he is not destroyed by a lack of belief, but by the fierce, dogmatic power of his belief in disbelief. He makes a conscious choice based on his rationalist faith, and that choice has tangible, physical consequences—his wings vanish, and he falls. The passages in “Poor Man’s Guide to Hell” about what happens when you don’t have an sense of up are relevant here: one enters Flatland. This makes the story another comment on Lafferty’s exploration of Flatland. Jacob Grim’s metaphysics make him a resident of it.
3. Storytelling as Reality and Truth	The competing narratives of Schwarzkünstler's eyewitness accounts of biblical events versus Jacob's dismissal of his own collected folktales.	Jacob Grim: Devalues storytelling as a product of elongated boyhoods. This is ironic because of the Grimm Brothers’ work on Kinder und Hausmärchen. Lafferty’s Jacob prioritizes his "significant scientific work" and service to the Commonwealth over the tales that made him famous.   Schwarzkünstler: Presents his tales not as fiction but as lived experience ("I spent three days on the Ark with Noah... I was an eyewitness."). Story is a primary mode of being and knowing.	Jacob: "As to the tales that my brother and I collected... I'd disown them now and withdraw them, except that they still pay me very well."   Schwarzkünstler: "Think how much better it would have been if the tales had been the central thing to you, and if the philological games had seemed the recreation."	This is a late and intellectually mature version of Lafferty meta-commentary, this time a meta-commentary on the historical Brothers Grimm. The story critiques Jacob for abandoning the magical world of his own collected stories in favor of rationalism. His fate—to become a "talking bone" telling tales in a valley—is a complete, ironic reversal. Everyone who rejects “Up” will be forced to inhabit the world he disowned. Again, this is the ultimate metaphysical horizon in Lafferty.
4. The Fluidity of Identity, Life, and Death	Characters and states of being defy the rigid categories of the rational world.	Jacob Grim: Demands clear, binary definitions. He cannot comprehend a state between life and death or an identity that is both singular and dual.   Magic Meadows Residents: They exist in a state of flux. Life and death are not opposites; a mother and daughter can be the same person; the dead possess "greater mobility." This is related to comments in In A Green Tree that a character makes about life and death not being for Catholics what it is for other people	Jacob: "My brother, is he alive or dead?"   Schwarzkünstler: "‘Dead’ and ‘Alive’ are not such opposites as you might think..."   Narrator/Crone: "[Dorothy] died several years ago." / "In her case, that only gives her greater mobility."   Narrator: "Both the mother [Zauberei/Enchantment] and the daughter [Täuschung/Illusion] said that they were the same person. And no one had ever seen them together."	The magical reality of the Meadows dissolves the fundamental binaries that structure rational thought. It’s like the “draw” in Barnaby’s backyard in “Animal Fair.” The names Zauberei (Enchantment) and Täuschung (Illusion) being one person suggests that in this world, reality and illusion are inseparable. Jacob's inability to accept this fluidity is a core aspect of his intellectual and spiritual failure.
5. The Nature of Magic: Innate vs. Acquired/Lost	Magic is an inherent state of being that can be lost through the adoption of a rationalist worldview. This being Lafferty, magic is an analogue of religious reality.	Jacob Grim: He "lost his Magic." This loss is equated with his service to the Commonwealth and his embrace of rationalism. It makes his forced flight "bumpy."   Magic Meadows Residents: Possess magic as their natural state. It is the air they breathe and the ground they walk on.	Sorcerer: "Happy flying tonight, Jacob. But you have lost your Magic. That means that it will be a bumpy flight for you. You lost your Magic."  Jacob (in response): "But I found a Commonwealth that will engulf the whole world."	The magic Jacob lost is not just the ability to perform tricks, but a fundamental way of perceiving and interacting with the world. He traded a participatory, enchanted worldview for a detached, analytical one. The story frames this not as a gain of knowledge but as a profound and crippling loss, a trade of soul for system.
6. The Consequence of Unbelief: The Valley of the Talking Bones	The fate for those who, like Jacob and his brother William, refuse to believe in the reality they inhabit.	Jacob Grim: Experiences it as a horrific end—a splattering of his body and a loss of everything he stood for. He is made permanently "irregular." William Grim & Others: A state of eternal, communal existence. They are still but differentially bodied and conscious, laughing, singing folk-songs, and telling tales. It is a form of afterlife defined by the oral traditions of the lebensnwelt that Jacob lost.	Chimney Swift: "Just the bones of unbelievers who fell from the great height."  Zauberei: "It's also called The Valley of the Talking Bones... The bones of the dead people there talk to each other. Sometimes they sing. They have a good time." William: "It'll be about a thousand years before we regain it, but we have plenty of time here."	The Valley is the story's ultimate verdict. It is not oblivion, but a forced reintegration into the world of myth. The rationalists are stripped of their old bodies, things that can be primary objects of scientific inquiry—and reduced to their essence: a physically bounded voice and story. It is the final triumph of the religious worldview over the scientific one. The thousand-year sentence is a mythological timescale, dwarfing the historical progress of the Savigny/Grimm dream of the Commonwealth as the pinnacle of Volksgeist.