Abstract
This paper explores the representation of magic and madness in Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness trilogy (2005–2007). Throughout the series, magic is constructed as an abject and disabling force that threatens to disable magic-wielders, either through madness or death. Despite being represented as a ubiquitous force, the consequences of magic are gendered, and the female protagonist of the trilogy, Reason, sets out to remove the threat of magic. The intersections between ableist, magical and feminine discourses are explored via a feminist disability politics and Kristeva’s concept of abjection. While, at times, the trilogy challenges the ability/disability binary schism, the narrative closure reaffirms dualistic constructions of reason/madness, ability/disability, reality/fantasy and masculine/feminine. Thus, rather than redressing social attitudes towards mental illness and critiquing normative constructions of disability and the other, Larbalestier’s trilogy reaffirms dualistic and normative constructions of mental illness.
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Notes
Magic or Madness won the 2006 Andre Norton Award and was shortlisted for the 2006 Ethel Turner Award, the 2005 Aurealis Award for Best Australian YA novel, and a 2006 Ditmar Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy novel; it also made the American Library Association 2006 Best Books for Young Adults list. The sequel, Magic Lessons, was shortlisted for the 2006 Aurealis Award for Best Australian YA novel, while the final book of the trilogy, Magic’s Child, was shortlisted for the 2008 Ditmar Award.
The Fibonacci sequence is also used in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003) to access the sacred feminine, which is constructed as a threat to the patriarchal institution of the Catholic Church.
This construction of Jason Blake as a life-draining male suppressor is reminiscent of the character Carmody Braque in Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover (cf. Wilkie-Stibbs, 2002, pp. 107–112).
Reason’s lack of positive female role models is similar to Gilbert and Gubar’s interpretation of the young Snow White who, like Reason, has no positive (living) female role models (Gilbert and Gubar, 2000/1979, p. 42).
See Kidd (2004) for a more detailed discussion of how Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy challenges normative constructions of mental illness.
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Troy Potter is a PhD candidate at Monash University, Australia. His research interests include representations of belonging, gender, sexuality, and disability in children’s and young adult literature.
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Potter, T. Abject Magic: Reasoning Madness in Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness Trilogy. Child Lit Educ 45, 255–270 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9214-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9214-7