Concerning Magic

As a literary landscape, notions like "magic" and "witchcraft" and "occult" have a great use.  But these things considered as a realm of serious inquiry is quite horrifying.  What makes horror stories horrific is precisely the fact that, within the fictional realm of the story, these things are taken by the characters to be Real; the charm of the macabre can only exist for one who sees in it only fantasy or superstition.  I will read a tale about a witch with fascination:  I will not read a manual written by a witch.