@nprofile1q... @nprofile1q... And Grossman has great fun with the conventions of magical worlds—one of his swipes at Rowling, for example, is about using wands in casting spells. But his deeper criticism has to do with the question one character asks in The Magicians, wondering if humans discovering magic might have been a mistake: 'If there's a single lesson life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so. … Magical thinking: that's what Freud called it. Once we learn otherwise we cease to be children. … Tell me this: Can a man who can cast a spell ever really grow up?'