[lojban] Re: "Magician" - a case of deliberate polysemy?

["Craig Daniel" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

> The English word "magician" can both mean the stage magician, and the
> sorcerer. Now termakfa is definitely correct for the second sense. However,
> because of the tendency to believe that the stage performer actually
> performs magic, I suspect it would end up applying to the stage magician as
> well. This would be a case of human desires deliberately creating ambiguity.
> C'est la vie. (ti selkai loi selfri?)

It depends in part on whether what the stage magician does counts as
makfa. A stage magician (or close-up magician or whatever) creates the
illusion of something happening that could not occur without magic,
but for the most part the audience doesn't believe in the magician's
powers - and isn't supposed to. (A notable exception is those
mentalists who "work strong", and even the ones who don't but are
plagued by people believing in them despite their own assertions to
the contrary. Modern audiences aren't quite as used to mental
illusions as they are to the more physical kind, I guess.)

Is makfa found in what appears to be happening? Or is it in the
process by which it happens, which the audience may not know but
expects to be non-supernatural? Or is there makfa in the sense of
wonder the audience feels when they see a good magician performing?

I'm inclined to the latter view, but that one may require a pe'aru'e at least.

mu'o mi'e .kreig.daniyl.


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