This thesis contains what I consider to be the best of my work over the course of my three years in the MFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University, and it is meant to demonstrate my range of ability as a creative writer. Included are a portion of my unfinished novel, Twelve Hearts of Clay, as well as a few of my favorite short stories. "Calluses," my foray into experimental writing, is perhaps the most completed piece in the collection, having found publication in the October 2010 issue of Blue Crow Magazine, an Australian literary journal. "Dead Baby Jokes," the short short piece included here, was also published, in Front Porch Flash Fiction, a local anthology from Sink/Swim Press. "An Epic Masterpiece, TBD" veers into the realm of the absurd and "Grace" is my attempt at straightforward realism. "The Dragon's Daughter" is a modern retelling of a medieval folktale. I see the novel, Twelve Hearts of Clay as the heart of the thesis. The concept for the novel came to me slowly, and over the course of a number of drafts, beginning in the Fall of 2010 in Dr. Cokal's Novel Writing Workshop. I've included the first fifty pages in sequence, and then I jump forward in the narrative to events coming down the line. Included are four modern fairy tales that will mark the four different sections of the novel and also serve as a fantastic versions of the main characters' histories and backstories. My novel and many of the stories included here place the magical world of myth and folktale right alongside the realistic world we know and see daily, and elements of each world can seep into the other. These stories are meant to draw on the reader's pre-existing understanding of narrative as a way of processing the world, something I think we learn in the form of childhood stories and fairy tales. The novel's themes and concepts of art, troubled romance, constructed identities, fairy tales and folklore are all reflected in the short stories. Each story takes a single theme and explores it outside of the context of the novel, which is, I believe, a result of the way I've been working, switching back and forth between the novel and stories, depending on which project was frustrating me the least at that moment, but ruminating always on the same questions and concerns.

1 Abstract The thesis examines the relationship of the literary phenomena magical realism and postmodernism. The starting point of the thesis is the statement that both the terms embody various common features (ideological, thematic). The author targets the definition of both styles and their genealogical delimitation in the first part. In the second part, the author relates these two terms to the particular work - the novel The History of Danish Dreams of the danish author Peter Høeg. It is possible to find demonstrable principles of both magical realism and postmodernism in this wider prose. The author of this thesis illustrates principles and themes with examples from the novel and the interpretations.

The aim of my thesis is to improve the orientation of students in the field of the basic hermetic sciences, for exemple the alchemy, the astrology and the magic, which are developping also nowadays. The first part of my thesis is considered to describe the renewal of the hermetism in Bohemia in the end of 19th century and to watch its development till the 30th of the 20th century. Another part of my project decribes the hermetic society "Universalia" and it presents the main and significant members of this groupe. Chapiters that follow this text deal with the alchemy, the astrology and the magic - it's the essential part of my theses. They are considered to explain the young people these terms, to present them the history of these hermetic sciences, to open the scientific approach and first of all to compare several texts of czech hermetics of the limited period with the contemporary view with the following purpose - to instruct the students to approach to the hermetic science in the critic and cautious way. The last text is dedicated to the ocult science in the nazi Germany and to its relation with Bohemia.

Medicine and healing, constantly changing through time, have always been important aspects of life. The desire to avoid the inevitable state of death has driven mankind in all corners of the world to develop certain ways of prolonging life from a very early time. While it is recognized in the modern day that disease and infection are caused by microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and parasites, the ancient Egyptians believed that gods, demons, and spirits played the main roles in causing such troubles. Therefore, it does not seem strange that, besides being devoted to the use of various natural drugs and materials in healing treatments, the ancient Egyptians also incorporated religion and magic into their treatment methods. Magic, religion, and medicine enjoyed an equal symbiosis all throughout the Pharaonic times, and one cannot easily separate one from the other. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any kind of systematics in the way magic was used in ancient Egyptian healing treatments, specifically in the treatments involving incantations and spells. The comparison of the relevant treatments in relation to each other will be conducted both within and in between the individual papyri. The surviving ancient medical papyri are a handful of texts ranging approximately from 1800 BC to 300 AD and give us a precious idea of what the arts of medicine and healing could have looked like in the ancient Egyptian world. A chosen number of the ancient papyri, dated to the 18th dynasty, will be studied in order to better understand the concept of healing and, more significantly, the importance of the power in words. The main sources used are the ancient material of the medical papyri themselves, complemented by a knowledgebase built on the plentiful previous research on the subject available. Numerous studies on the subject of both medicine and magic in ancient Egypt, as well as on the surviving medical papyri have been conducted since the end of the 19th century. The collection of ‘Grundriss der medizin der alten Ägypter’, consisting of nine volumes, was published between the years of 1954 to 1973 and still stands as the most extensive study on the combined ancient Egyptian medical papyri. Several works on the different individual papyri, mainly the Edwin Smith papyrus and the Ebers papyrus, have also been published throughout the years. While there does not appear to have been any intentional systematics in the way the ancient Egyptians conducted their treatment methods containing incantations, there are similarities to be observed. It seems clear that rational medicine and magical incantations and rites, together with the fundamental element of religion, was the ideal combination in the treatment of any condition or complaint.

Este trabalho se propõe como um breve tratado sobre as relações entre os discursos vigentes da arte contemporânea e o pensamento mágico ocidental. No cruzamento entre o ensaio poético, a antropologia da arte, a estética e a bruxaria, desenha-se um círculo no qual se desenvolve a pesquisa sob o signo da \"besta\" acadêmica: a interdisciplinaridade. A partir disso, estudam-se uma série de projetos curatoriais recentes que lidam com magia, ocultismo, xamanismo ou animismo, prestando atenção aos preconceitos que se manifestam em alguns desses discursos curatoriais. Entretece-se esta reflexão com referências históricas que servem de marco explicativo para a queda em desgraça do pensamento mágico ocidental e, junto com ele, do status da imaginação e da imagem como formas de conhecimento. Uma vez definida a situação em que ficou esta tradição depois de sucessivas campanhas de desprestígio, introduzem- -se uma série de figuras que serviram depois à construção de uma nova (mas talvez sobretudo velha) teoria mágico-estética. Seguindo a esteira de pensadores contemporâneos ligados ao realismo especulativo e à ontologia objetual, o trabalho se reconecta com uma esquecida tradição mágico-estética (ocidental) não isenta de uma dimensão mítica e animista (ou vitalista, se se prefere). Faz-se questão de colocar a \"palavra do artista\" no mesmo nível que a \"palavra do filósofo\", mas evitando converter os artistas citados em objeto de pesquisa. O trabalho defende que existam - apesar dos séculos em que a elite intelectual ocidental vem predicando contra a possibilidade de uma ontologia mágico-estética - indíviduos e coletivos que desenvolvem sua atividade à margem dos preconceitos dicotômicos que hoje alguns pensadores acadêmicos de vanguarda se empenham, não sem dificuldades, em transcender. Nesse sentido, o trabalho argumenta que muitos artistas eram já materialistas vibrantes e realistas especulativos antes da valorização, em voga hoje, dessas correntes filosóficas. / This work intends to be a brief treatise on the relations between contemporary art and western magical thinking. At the crossroads between poetic essay, anthropology of art, aesthetics and witchcraft, a circle is drawn under the sign of the academic \"beast\": interdisciplinarity. From this point of departure, we study a series of recent curatorial projects that deal with magic, occultism, shamanism or animism, paying close attention to the prejudices that surface in some of these curatorial discourses. This reflection is intertwined with historical references that serve as an explanatory framework for the fall of western magical thinking and, along with it, the loss of status of both imagination and image as respected sources of knowledge. After having defined the state of neglect this (magical) tradition was left in after successive smear campaigns, we introduce a series of figures that will serve to construct a new (but perhaps rather ancient) magical-aesthetic theory. Following the trail of contemporary thinkers linked to speculative realism and object-oriented ontology, the work reconnects with a forgotten magical-aesthetic (western) tradition with a mythical and animistic (or vitalist, if you prefer) dimension. We also emphasize the importance of put-ting the \"artist\'s word\" on the same level as the \"philosopher\'s word\", whilst at the same time carefully avoiding to turn the cited artists into an object of study. We claim that - in spite of the centuries in which the Western intellectual elite has been preaching against the possibility of a magical-aesthetic ontology - there are individuals and groups that are active in the margins of the dichotomous prejudices that today some avant-garde academic thinkers are trying to transcend with much difficulty. In this sense, the work argues that many artists were already vibrant materialists and speculative realists much before the new on-to-materialistic philosophical currents which are very much in vogue nowadays.

Este trabalho pretende investigar algumas das relações que se estabelecem, no campo religioso brasileiro, entre umbanda e Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD). Para além do discurso demonizador neopentecostal, que classifica as religiões afrobrasileiras como \"coisa do diabo\", acredito haver diversas trocas simbólicas entre essas denominações que, a princípio, parecem tão distantes. A etnografia estará estruturada de forma a mostrar, inicialmente, o funcionamento interno desses dois sistemas religiosos - atentando para suas cosmologias e estruturas rituais. Em seguida, será abordado o intenso intercâmbio simbólico que se estabelece entre eles. Será dedicada especial atenção a determinados símbolos que são fundamentais para compreender o relacionamento dessas religiões: os exus e as pombagiras são os melhores exemplos. Finalmente, serão discutidas questões que poderiam ser consideradas mais \"espinhosas\" no que diz respeito ao relacionamento entre umbanda e IURD: notadamente, as polêmicas sobre a intolerância e o preconceito no campo religioso brasileiro. / This work intends to investigate some of the relations that have been established, in the Brazilian religious field, between Umbanda and the Universal Church of The Kingdoom of God. Beyond the neopentecostal accusations of devilishness, that set Afro-Brazilian religions as \"devil-like\", I believe there are some symbolic exchange between these two religions that, at first, seem so far apart. The ethnography is set in a way to display, initially, the internal working of these two religious systems - looking into their cosmologies and ritual structures. Then, the intense exchanges set between them will be approached. Specific attention will be given to particular symbols that are crucial to understand the relationship of these religions: the exus and the pombagiras are the best examples. Finally, some questions concerning the relationship between Umbanda and the Universal Church that could be considered more \"delicate\" will be discussed: the polemics about intolerance and prejudice in the field of religion in Brazil.

No description available.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo pensar o cinema de George Méliès, na virada do século XIX para o século XX, como um prisma através do qual refratam-se espectros da modernidade, ou seja, elementos recorrentes em seus filmes que desdobravam questões caras àquele período, e que se ressignificam de diferentes maneiras à luz da chamada pós-modernidade. / The present research aims to think George Méliès' films, at the turn of the nineteenth century for the twentieth century, as a prism through which refracted specters of modernity, that is, recurring elements in his films, each one unfolding differente meanings about that period, and each one of them ressignfying themselves in different ways in the light of the so-called postmodernity.

Quantum computing has enormous potential, but this can only be realised if quantum errors can be controlled sufficiently to allow quantum algorithms to be completed reliably. However, quantum-error-corrected logical quantum bits (qubits) which can be said to have achieved meaningful error suppression have not yet been demonstrated. This thesis reports research on several topics related to the challenge of designing fault-tolerant quantum computers. The first topic is a proposal for achieving large-scale error correction with the surface code in a silicon donor based quantum computing architecture. This proposal relaxes some of the stringent requirements in donor placement precision set by previous ideas from the single atom level to the order of 10 nm in some regimes. This is shown by means of numerical simulation of the surface code threshold. The second topic then follows, it is the development of a method for benchmarking and assessing the performance of small error correcting codes in few-qubit systems, introducing a metric called 'integrity' - closely linked to the trace distance -- and a proposal for experiments to demonstrate various stepping stones on the way to 'strictly superior' quantum error correction. Most quantum error correcting codes, including the surface code, do not allow for fault-tolerant universal computation without the addition of extra gadgets. One method of achieving universality is through a process of distilling and then consuming high quality 'magic states'. This process adds additional overhead to quantum computation over and above that incurred by the use of the base level quantum error correction. The latter parts of this thesis report an investigation into how many physical qubits are needed in a `magic state factory' within a surface code quantum computer and introduce a number of techniques to reduce the overhead of leading magic state techniques. It is found that universal quantum computing is achievable with ∼ 16 million qubits if error rates across a device are kept below 10^-4. In addition, the thesis introduces improved methods of achieving magic state distillation for unconventional magic states that allow for logical small angle rotations, and show that this can be more efficient than synthesising these operations from the gates provided by traditional magic states.

This thesis is concerned with the psychology of magic and illusion. In particular it is focused on three illusions, which can be conceptualized as types of invisibility: (1) Illusions of omission - failures to see, (2) Illusions of commission - seeing things that are not really present, and (3) metacognitive illusions - people's false beliefs about their own cognitive and perceptual systems. The work presented in this thesis is set out to explore these illusions through behavioural visual experiments inspired by sleight-of-hand magic tricks. Across three distinct paradigms using stimuli ranging in complexity from static line drawings, to recorded videos, to live events, I demonstrate that manipulations of observers' expectations and attentional set can result in perceptions of visual events that are variously accurate representations, illusions of omission, or illusions of commission. I also demonstrate that these illusions are often associated with failures of visual metacognition, in that they are generally considered to be surprising and counterintuitive. In addition to these empirical elements of the project, I also consider historical and contemporary connections between experimental psychology and magic tricks. I show that, in some instances, magicians' misdirection techniques anticipated developments by experimental psychology by hundreds of years, and that the idea of investigating the mechanisms of magic tricks and illusions played a key role in the development of experimental psychology as a scientific discipline. Through this combination of historical analyses novel experiments, I show that the integration of magic and experimental psychology has a great potential to drive future research in human cognition and perception.