Terry Pratchett's wise words about magic and witches have been featured or mentioned in several articles. I said this in More magic and witch wisdom:
“The points he makes and the warnings he gives have a much wider application than to just his imaginary world and characters.”
The above extract has a wider application than to just Terry Pratchett: it has relevance to Jonathan Stroud and his magicians, an elite group who operate in an alternative modern London that is ruled by magic.
The Amulet of Samarkand, the first book in Stroud's Bartimaeus series, has been referenced in an article about William Gladstone and in one about disowning unworthy people in favour of books. I have selected some more material from The Amulet in order to highlight some of what Stroud says about his magicians.
While Terry Pratchett respects and is fond of his witches, Jonathan Stroud obviously dislikes and despises most of his magicians. They certainly seem to be a very unpleasant bunch indeed; they remind me of David Icke's reptilians!
Jonathan Stroud's magicians are very status conscious. They seek out opportunities for social climbing. Image is everything; they are fixated with the trappings of wealth. They are always greedy for more.
The magicians are hierarchical and authoritarian; they flatter their superiors and are arrogant with anyone they see as their inferior. They have nothing but contempt for ordinary people or 'commoners', i.e. those with no magical abilities.
These extracts remind me of another group of people:
“With magicians it's usually pretty simple: they fall into three distinct types, motivated by ambition, greed, or paranoia.”
“Magicians are the most conniving, jealous, duplicitous group of people on earth, even including lawyers and academics. They worship power and the wielding thereof, and seek every chance they can to undercut their rivals.“
“You believed in the notion of the honourable magician, who takes responsibility for his actions. Mere propaganda. Such a thing does not exist. There is no honour, no nobility, no justice. Every magician acts only for himself, seizing each opportunity he can. When he is weak, he avoids danger—which is why second-raters plod away within the system.”
This sounds rather like something that Taylor Caldwell would say about politicians!
Another edition of this entertaining book:
