Listening again to Wolf Hall, after learning of the sad death of Hilary Mantel, I was struck by this quote, a thought of Cromwell’s:
”When you are writing laws, you are testing the meaning of words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have the power to make things happen in the real world, and, like spells, they only work if people believe in them.”
I do not believe. I cannot suspend my disbelief. The spell is broken.