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Regarding the cane mentioned at the end of the piece, sounds similar to Harry Potter wand magic lore, i.e., unicorn hair core. Is hair core (and other elemental “magical” items) something unique to H.P., or is this something J.K. researched and borrowed from historical alchemy?
p.s. As a Mormon, I have never heard of the 1857 quote from Heber Kimball. It's one of those moments lost to contemporary Mormon dialogue, but certainly conveys the sense of magic espoused by early Mormonism.
Just to clarify, "unicore hair core" means "the core of the wand is a unicorn hair," not "the core of a unicorn hair is the wand."
Anecdotally speaking, I've seen many references to hair being used in magic rituals. Just one example is the schoolyard cliche of keeping a lock of a loved one's hair.
The Object Lessons book series, of which this excerpt is part, is stunning. It's edited by Ian Bogost (a philosopher and video game designer, of Cow Clicker, "Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism", and pressure washer[1] fame), and every single volume is delightful. Highly recommended!
My favorites are "Cigarette Lighter" and "Dust", but most everyone will find one that resonates most with them. People on Hacker News are likely to enjoy "Password", released today!
I listened to an ITunes U course about game design and one of the speakers used the word "Bogostian" and ever since then I've adopted it.
The things he chooses to work on all seem "Bogostian" to me now and this is no exception.
Surprised the story of Samson in the Bible wasn't mentioned. Interesting article, nonetheless.
The examples from Muhammad's hair and the other mentioned actually have their roots from this more ancient example in the Bible:
"And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." 2 Kings 13:21
I've sometimes wonder about subtle things in our nature and if anyone is going to bother collecting history and information on them. I doubt this is the first book on hair but it's still a good example of what can be done elsewhere.
Fascinating! I never gave that much thought to hair except about how it looks, but this is a whole new dimension.
I might give this book a read. I'm getting the same sense of realization about the historical power of hair from this except that I felt when I first saw Kill La Kill and realized that not only does clothing have the potential for great power in the future, it has indeed been very powerful for longer than written history itself.