Wanted: Jack Vance Suggested Reading

[mmadsen]

A spell is cast by chanting a number of syllables. These syllables are so cogent that they must be forced into the brain by a trained mind. Once the sorcerer has cast the spell, he is no longer able to do so until he again consults his books. This indicates to me that the syllables no longer reside inside his brain, preventing him from casting it again.

I don't remember the "forget" part from either of the first two novels. Is it in there?

 

[Lizard]

I don't remember the "forget" part from either of the first two novels. Is it in there?

Yes. Each spell could be used only once, and the various characters often fretted about having "used up" a spell, or having only "one spell left".

It's TOTALLY fire&forget.

 

[Fade]

It doesn't explicity state that the wizard 'forgets' the spell, but he certainly 'memorises' it:

Turjan found a musty portfolio. turned to the heavy pages the Sage had shown him, the Call to the Violent Cloud. He stared down at the characters and they burned with an urgent power, pressing off the page as if frantic to leave the dark solitude of the book

Cugel opened and read; finding an appropriate spell, he held the fire-ball close the better to encompass the acticating syllables. There were four lines of words, thirty-one syllables in all Cugel forced them into his brain, where they lay like stones.

And after casting the spell once the magician is unable to cast it again without consulting his books again. This is detailed well in the second vignette in the first book.

Mazirian paused indecisively. It was not good to use so many spells and thus shear himself of power.

She had set out with but two spells, the Charm of Untiring Nourishiment and a spell affording strength to her arms - the last permitting her to hold off Thrang and tumble the temple upon Mazirian. These were exhausted; she was bare of protection; but, on the other hand, Mazirian could have nothing left.

Since the spells must be memorised again to be used again, and the opposite of memorisation is forgetting, it seems appropriate to term what happens when the magician works the charm to be 'forgetting' the spell.

 

[Chaldfont]

I sort of remember something similar in Robert Zelazny's Amber series. I think casting spells in those books involved performing long, complex rituals ahead of time that left out a few short key steps (I think he called them lynch pins).
When you really wanted to cast the spell, all you had to do was the key steps and the spell would take effect.
He called the practice of memorizing spells "hanging". I have always liked the concept of hanging spells waiting to drop.