Greetings and welcome to my website. I am Merlin, occasionally pretentious and oft-longwinded. I'm about to put some of that into practice now:
Except the Magician is a place for me to put my love for arts and culture--film, television, literature, fashion, food, and music. My academic background is primarily in historical literature, theater, and art history, and I've found the skills of media analysis are largely transferable between media as long as you take the time to learn the basics of form and genre. Thus came the initial concept for this website as a place to put and practice my lifelong love of movies. It's branched out a bit--and indeed I have plans to branch out further--but this has truly been such a great exercise. Not only has it helped to refine my taste and knowledge, but it's pushed me put to paper previously nebulous thoughts about what I was watching. I've come a long way from those initial reviews and I'm proud of what I've been writing lately.
As for my choice to keep a website as opposed to the alternatives, my goal was creative control. The first part of that phrase, "creative," was a challenge at first. Historically, I've struggled with a focus on visuals, only made more difficult by my limited experience with html and css. But I've come into my own with it in the past year and a half. I want to find a place of compromise between the design of my site and my first love, writing. As for the "control" part, coding my own site gives me so much flexibility and freedom that I would not have with a blogging service or a Substack account. There are drawbacks as well as the benefits, of course, but I take solace knowing this site is all mine.
Please feel free to reach out about anything on my website or anything you think I'd be interested in. I love to chat and make friends.
There are a handful of mutuals' buttons I was not able to find. If you think you should be here but don't see yourself, please send me a message! Contact information is on my about page.
Feel free to link me!
iced mocha