Trade of the Tricks
Inside the Magician's Craft
1st Edition
Published on 14. September 2011
308 pages
978-0-520-95052-8 (ISBN)
Description
From risqué cabaret performances to engrossing after-hours shop talk, Trade of the Tricks offers an unprecedented look inside the secretive subculture of modern magicians. Entering the flourishing Paris magic scene as an apprentice, Graham M. Jones gives a firsthand account of how magicians learn to perform their astonishing deceptions. He follows the day-to-day lives of some of France's most renowned performers, revealing not only how secrets are created and shared, but also how they are stolen and destroyed. In a book brimming with humor and surprise, Jones shows how today's magicians marshal creativity and passion in striving to elevate their amazing skill into high art. The book's lively cast of characters includes female and queer performers whose work is changing the face of a historically masculine genre.
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09/2011
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University of California Press
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1st Edition
University of California Press
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Person
Graham M. Jones is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Content
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Men of a Thousand Hands
- Secrecy and Risk
- Being Magical
- Magic as a Culture of Expertise
- Staging Talk
- All the Tricks in the Book (An Overview)
- 1. An Apprenticeship in Cunning
- Profiles in Cunning
- Joining the Tribe
- Internalizing Magic
- Seeing through a Spectator's Eyes
- Ideologies of Learning
- Conclusion
- 2. The Social Life of Secret Knowledge
- Creating Secrets
- Circulating Secrets
- Destroying Secrets
- Conclusion
- 3. Potency and Performance
- Presenting Magic
- Outside the Box: Female Magicians
- Discourses of Domination
- Play Signals
- Conclusion
- 4. Business as Un-Usual
- "A Few Professionals Lost in a Sea of Amateurs"
- From the Stage to the Supermarket
- Getting the Job Done
- Intermittence du Spectacle
- "People Need to Know You're an Artist"
- Conclusion
- 5. Conjuring Culture
- The Family Romance of Modern Magic
- The Enchanted State
- Magic as Cultural Heritage
- Magic as Fine Art
- Toward a New Magic?
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: "Giving People a Gift"
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
