Wondering at Houdini and the Miracle Mongers

I wrote my first biography on Harry Houdini. I was in middle school, and I thought he was an intriguing figure. How could someone be so famous for "magic"?

Recently, my interest in him sprouted up again, and I checked out some books from the library both by and about him. The ones about him generally are not so good. They are mostly written by more recent magicians who just build him up as a mystical celebrity, which is interesting because Houdini spent a lot of time "disproving" mysticism, spirituality, sooth-saying, etc. He was much more about physical acts.

One book by Houdini, Miracle Mongers and their Methods has provided me with a couple awesome quotes and I am only a few pages in...

"But when we tire of space flight and electronic wonders, might we not yearn for the days when we could see, before our very eyes, a piece of red-hot iron bitten off by some diminutive oriental in a turban, or wonder at a frail lady who supports the weight of a dozen men?" -James Randi (in the introduction)

Pretty ridiculous. Also....

"All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance." -Samuel Johnson (quoted by Houdini in the preface)

This second quote reminds me of the concept of DeBrau which I read about a few days ago. It refers to this mime named DeBrau who got put on trial in France and all these people came to the trial just to hear his voice. The author was using DeBrau's name as a gloss for the effect of getting captivated by unfamiliar sounds. Sort of like Stendhal syndrome...