While watching POTC on DVD recently, I began to wonder… How do curses work? Can anyone just lay any curse he wants on his enemies, just for the fun of it? If not, who determines which curses are valid or worthwhile? Does there have to be a way to lift the curse? Are there any other rules or anything about curses?
Are there any books or movies in which the laws and mechanics of cursing are explained? Regardless of what the stories say, what limitations do you think there should be on cursing someone?
Here’s a concept you may not be familiar with: fiction. It means the author makes up a story. In a fantasy story, it also means he can make up whatever rules he wants as long as they are consistent.
So some curses have to be laid by a witch or wizard, others can be done by anyone (perhaps with the help of a demon). Some people can lay curses to anyone; others books require he needs a reason. Curses are usually liftable, but they don’t have to be.
Check out Black Easter, by James Blish. I’ll say this for Blish; he was an engineer, and all his science fiction (even where it dealt with magic) was well worked out. He tells you the nuts and bolts.
But it is the storyteller’s responsibility to make it consistent and believable (which is why Trek has degenerated). Demons, psychic powers, or hypnosis, pick an explanation and go with it.
And didn’t that always just annoy the hell out of me in Bewitched! Like I just was watching an ep the other day and Esmerelda accidentally teleported Santa from the North Pole to the Stevens’ kitchen and Samantha couldn’t send him back. How stupid is that? OK so you can’t send him back to the exact spot from which she took him. So get creative. Send him to a spot ten feet away from where she nabbed him. Sheesh. There are ways around these limitations people, you’ve been casting spells for hundreds of years and you haven’t figured this out?
Anyway, one of my favorite curse mechanisms is from Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. A member of the royal family has the power to lay a curse as s/he is dying. Nasty powerful stuff.
[nitpick]Blish was never an engineer. His degree was in microbiology and he did graduate work in zoology before dropping out to become a writer. He also did editing, public relations, and criticism later in his life. But not engineering of any kind at any time[/nitpick]
OK, good point. It depends on the story. So I guess what I really mean to say is, what are the rules in a some stories? Like BobLibDem’s Bewitched example, what other stories give rules, and what are they? I know you won’t find a single set of rules that works for all fiction, because they aren’t all consistent with each other (or sometimes even, as hypnobooth said, with themselves). I’m just curious if anyone knows of some more examples of specified rules. I should have been clearer, perhaps.
One common method is to invoke demonic powers. Basically, you ask the devil to do your bidding. This generally requires the caster to trade away his/her soul.
Well… I guess this is kinda meld b/w one thread and another, but…
My Mom cursed me when I was young because I was terribly wicked in the morning: “may you have a child just like you”.
Well, it worked… oldest son Kiffette Alpha wakes up with a squawl, snarls at you, upper lip twitches showing one fang, and is generally very cranky when he first wakes up. My Mom’s curse at work.
Well, in some stories, the curse can’t really be stoped, just passed along, such as in Ring or Thinner. Both examples make it so the curse can be stoped in some sense (if he’d just thrown the pie away, for example), but usually, it still leads to the death of the cursed.
Jackie Chan Adventures deals with curses all the time. Usually, one gets cursed as the result of messing with some ancient artifact, like a mystic stone, ancient mask, or being bit by some funky animal. There’s always some sort of cure that can be gathered by finding another article/artifact/root and making a potion and casting a spell with the words “Yu mo gway gwy mee tzoa” or something like that. Blowfish and garlic are standard ingrediants.
Lots of times, amulets are used to help keep curses at bay as well. As long as a person wears a specific amulet, it will keep them from turning into a werewolf or suffering that burning sensation while they pee. Of course, as soon as the amulet comes off, the curse tends to pick up immediately.
On the Discworld, witches generally curse with headology. Instead of actually turning someone into a frog, for instance, they merely make the victim THINK that he’s been turned into a frog. This saves a lot of magical energy and provides a good deal of amusement for everyone else.
However, do NOT disrespect Granny Weatherwax, or she’s likely to do something that you’ll regret.
I think the evil eye might be the most successful curse, surviving for a long time and crossing many cultures. Unknowingly, a person looks at your kids or land enviously for a long period of time, and this transmits sickness. To counter it, you’re supposed to do stuff like spit on your kids. Luckymojo.com has a pretty cool article on it.
As for fiction, I couldn’t find anything in 20 Master Plots directly relating to curses. The idea of a curse gives you a pretty easy plot structure to follow, though. This means you can crank out a really crappy script in a short period. Here, I’ll make one up.
Introduce the main character.
Have the main character indirectly encounter the curse without knowing what it is.
Introduce the main character’s best friend or love interest.
Have the main character directly confront the curse and face a major setback, like the love interest getting captured.
Have the main character learn about the curse and how to beat it.
Have the main character try to beat the curse.
Have the main character win or lose to the curse.
Figure out some way to have a sequel.
As for limitations within the realm of fiction, I think the rules would pretty much be ways to keep the story interesting and believable.
The main character must be able to beat the curse, or at least minimize its effects.
The result of the curse must be serious, such as death.
All the rules for breaking the curse must be made known and followed. There can be minor twists in interpretation, like with Macbeth, but you just can’t add crap as you go.
Breaking the curse should be difficult, but possible.
The main character must be given enough time to beat the curse.
The person who casts the curse must be punished if the curse is broken.
The main character must be able to find out who cast the curse.