Magic is an exercise of a pattern of thought (sometimes represented by a gesture, ritual, or the calling of a true name) that results in manifestation/s. But these patterns of thought can have so much to do with whimsy that magic often is jokes.
Helen OyeyemiBecause he says he can't stand you and you act like you can't stand him, and whenever a man and a woman behave like that toward each other, it usually means something's going on.
Helen OyeyemiIt occurred to me that I was unhappy. And it didnโt feel so very terrible. No urgency, nothing. I could slip out of my life on a slow wave like thisโit didnโt matter. I donโt have to be happy. All I have to do is hold on to something and wait.
Helen OyeyemiIn Narnia a girl might ring a bell in a deserted temple and feel the chime in her eyes, pure as the freeze that forces tears. Then when the sound dies out, the White Witch wakes. It was like, I want to touch you, and I can touch you, now what next, a dagger?
Helen OyeyemiI see all mythology as one tradition, a way of disseminating knowledge that must come to us in code so that we can live sanely with it, since some forms of knowledge are too dark, or too complex, to be plainly spoken. And so we have these weird (and also sometimes entertaining and surprising and heartening) tales that belong to all of us.
Helen Oyeyemi