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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Meds" data-source="post: 1407249" data-attributes="member: 3402">I think that Card doesn't mean that the physics for creating magic have to be layed out. (That would be sci-fi.) Just that the author must show the borders and restrictions within which magic must operate.Personally, I think that Rowling does a great job of delineating her rules of magic, slipping them into the story without paragraphs of exposition.  E.g.i) Magic requires study and practice, a lot of itii) Some spells are harder to learn than othersiii) Magic requires natural talent -- you either have it or you don't.iv) Magic requires a wandetc.These restrictions make for fairly generic fantasy and so it's easy not to notice them. No-one's cutting off their limbs in order to channel magic, say. But the rules are still there.  And for Rowling's purposes the rules are ideal: it's not the main focus of the story, plus, in some ways, learning magic is a lot like learning at say, math, at school, something her target audience can relate to.The rules are still somewhat open-ended -- some borders aren't fully defined. We don't know what Dumbledore is capable of in a duel, say.  That's not a problem to me as a reader. I think it's also true of other successful fantasy fiction.</blockquote>