In Magic, Inc. by Robert Heinlein, I remember the three laws of magic as:

Law of Identity (maybe Similarity?)
Law of Opposition
Law of Contiguity

However, suspect that after 40+ years, I may be mis-remembering.

thanks, Todd's abra-key-dabra board

[en.wikipedia.org]. has a concise synopsis of the story, but no mention of the three laws of magic.

Arthut C. Clarke had a set of three 'laws', the 3rd of which was 'any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic' -- I'll have to poke around for the other two.

Edit: Here are Clarke's laws

And don't forget Sturgeon's law: '90% of everything is crap'.

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=TC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2023 07:53PM by TheCaber.

Sympathetic magic as described in The Golden Bough.

Heinlein cribbed with his laws of contiguity and homoeopathy.

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Most magic stories have a law of similarity , a law of contagion . There is another one can't think of right now .

I was taking an Anthropology course on Magic and Shamanism around the same time I read Waldo and Magic, Inc. Perhaps that is why I remember the Law of Opposition as being one of the sympathetic Laws of Magic. An example the instructor gave was sprinkling dust on the ground during a drought to induce rain.

I can't remember if Heinlein used the same Law of Opposition, or not.

I'm writing a piece on creativity. I'd like to incorporate these Laws as possible tools to look at things in new ways. It would be nice to get the source accurately.

thanks again, Todd's Ouija board

Quote
Todd's keyboard
I was taking an Anthropology course on Magic and Shamanism around the same time I read Waldo and Magic, Inc. Perhaps that is why I remember the Law of Opposition as being one of the sympathetic Laws of Magic. An example the instructor gave was sprinkling dust on the ground during a drought to induce rain.

I can't remember if Heinlein used the same Law of Opposition, or not.

I don't have the novella on the premises, but as I recall the firmest example of the use of "magic" was of the law of contiguity, which allowed one of the characters to make bleachers, smash them to bits and then reproduce the bleachers on-demand from a single splinter. Each piece of the bleachers "remembered" that it was part of the whole. And I think there was joke about a splinter from a house getting mixed in accidentally.

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I remember it was published as a twosome, as Waldo, and Magic Incorporated. Everybody remembers Waldo, but I confess I don't think I remember anything about Magic inc. Of course that was back around 1966 or so.

Yes, I read both titles (that were packaged as one book).

Apparently, Magic, Inc. is also included in an anthology of Heinlein's works, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein. A search of my local libraries does not show either book available.

A library near Vancouver has a copy of Fantasies. Guess I'll be headed there in early March.

thanks again, Todd's mundane keyboard