A few weeks ago I visited a club where the speaker was doing a folk tale from Hawaii. It was introduced as such by the Toastmaster but without much more background. The speaker began with, “The days in Hawaii are mostly the same length the whole year.” Because it’s close to the equator, I thought. Next sentence the guy said, “This is because Maui (a Polynesian hero) battled the sun to make it so.”

I loved it! He didn’t start with, “This is some Hawaiian folk tale, from 1000 AD, it shows their rich cultural heritage, blah blah.” He threw us in the middle, no details required, no science. He did the entire speech straight, as if it were real.

On the opposite side would be George Lucas in The Phantom Menace. The Force and the original Star Wars in general was a cool, anti-Star Trek type thing because they never delved into the technical details. Until we learn from Obi Wan that the Force is some sort of mitochondria field and that you can scan someone with some Tricorder type thing to see if they have it or not.

Ugh. It doesn’t take much to blow the magic.