Information about Wish

WISH could refer to:

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A wish is a hope or desire for something. Fictionally, wishes can be used as plot devices. In folklore, opportunities for "making a wish" or for wishes to "come true" or "be granted" are themes that are sometimes used.

In Literature

In fiction a wish is a supernatural demand placed on the recipient's unlimited request. When it is the center of a tale, the wish is usually a template for a morality tale, "be careful what you wish for" writ large; it can also be a small part of a tale, in which case it is often used as a plot device.

The template for most fictional wishes is The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, specifically the tale of Aladdin, although in the tale of Aladdin the actual wishes were only part of the tale. Also, Alladin's demands, while outrageous per se, were mainly variations on wealth (which is still often taken as the most 'common' request).

Classically the wish provider is often a spirit, jinni or similar entity, bound or constrained within a commonplace object (Aladdin's oil lamp for example) or a container closed with Solomon's seal. Releasing the entity from its constraint, usually by some simple action, allows the object's possessor to 'make a wish', ie. present their demands to the entity.

The subservience of the extraordinarily powerful entity to the wisher can be explained in a number of ways. The entity may be grateful to be 'free' of its constraint and the wish is a thank-you gift. The entity may be bound to obedience by its 'prison' or some other item that the wisher possesses. The entity may, by its nature, be unable to exercise its powers without an initiator.

Other wish providers are a wide variety of, more or less, inanimate objects. W.W. Jacob's Monkey's Paw is a well-known example of this. Piers Anthony puts a spin on this idea in Castle Roogna: a magic ring claims to grant wishes, and then claims credit when a wish comes true, apparently from the unaided efforts of the characters -- but every wish made on the ring sooner or later comes true.[1]

Some wishes appear to be granted by nothing in particular. Snow White's mother's wish for a beautiful child might have been a coincidence,[2] but the father's wish in The Seven Ravens transforms his sons into ravens,[3] just as the mother's wish in The Raven transforms her daughter. This is common in a tale involving a person, male or female, wishing for a child, even one that is a hedgehog, or a sprig of myrtle, or no bigger than a hazel nut -- and promptly having such a child.

The number of wishes granted varies. Aladdin had an unlimited number. As in the Charles Perrault tale The Ridiculous Wishes, three is the most common,[4] but others may be granted to fit the constraints of the tale. Several authors have spun variations of the 'wish for more wishes' theme, though some disallow this as 'cheating'.

In many stories the wording of the wish is extremely important. For example, characters often say, 'I wish I was wealthy.' This wording could be taken literally, the wish granted so that at one time the wisher was (used to be) wealthy but is not any more. Saying, 'I wish to be wealthy', then because 'to be' refers to either the present or the future, they would become wealthy.

A common problem is the granter of the wish being either extremely literal or through malice granting the request in a manner designed to cause maximum distress (such as a request for wealth being granted through inheritance/insurance on the death of a loved one). Certain authors have also tried an "always on" approach: the careless use of the word 'wish' in everyday conversation having, often unpleasant, consequences. An example is seen in the 1967 film Bedazzled and its 2000 remake.

In Practice

Of course, the making of wishes occurs outside of the realm of fictitious magical items, and circumstances for making wishes abound.

Some traditional opportunities for wishing

  • Blowing out candles on a birthday cake
  • Blowing a fallen eyelash off of a friend's finger
  • Blowing dandelion achenes
  • Holding your breath for the entirety of a tunnel
  • Tossing a coin into a wishing well or fountain
  • Locking pinky fingers with someone who just said the same thing as you at the same time (as an alternative to a "jinx")
  • Seeing a shooting star
  • Seeing 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55 on the clock. Referring to the book Romiette and Julio this is known as the Fabulous five. Also 11:11 & 12:34.
  • Finding, or breaking, the wishbone in a turkey (Another version, you and a friend will pull on the two ends of the wishbone. Whoever gets the "joint" as well as their "leg" gets the wish.)
  • When a lady bug lands on you.
  • When you catch a feather
  • When you see 8 magpies

Internalization of wishes

Magical possibilities aside, the act of formulating a wish can be beneficial. The wisher has an opportunity to identify what they most desire ("I can have anything at all in the world--what do I want?"). Often, wishing is a time for first becoming aware of a previously-unarticulated hope. Once identified, these hopes can become personal goals.

Wishes in Popular Culture

See also

References

1. ^ John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Rings", p 813 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
2. ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 243 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
3. ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 136 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
4. ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 166 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
WISH-TV channel 8 is the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its transmitter is also located in Indianapolis. As of 2007, it is the ex-flagship of, yet still owned by, the LIN TV group, which also owns area stations WIIH-CA (a Univision affiliate) and WNDY-TV (a My Network TV
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television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts both audio and video to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television.
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City of Indianapolis

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Seal
Nickname: Indy, the Circle City, and (less commonly) Naptown
Location in the state of Indiana
Coordinates:
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The State of Indiana

Flag of Indiana Seal
Nickname(s): The Hoosier State

Motto(s): The Crossroads of America

Official language(s) English

Capital Indianapolis (785,597)

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worldwide view of the subject.
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Radio broadcasting is an audio (sound) broadcasting service, traditionally broadcast through the air as radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation) from a
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Galatia is a village in Saline County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 1,013.

Geography

Galatia is located at (37.840409, -88.610815).
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Webcams are small cameras, (usually, though not always, video cameras) whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video conferencing application.
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Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

The Nueve de Julio Avenue, named in honor of Argentine Independence Day (July 9, 1816)

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Motto
En unión y libertad   (Spanish)
"In Union and Freedom"
Anthem
Himno Nacional Argentino
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:For other uses of The Wish List, please see The Wish List (disambiguation)


The Wish List

Author Eoin Colfer
Country Ireland
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
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Toyota Wish is a minivan produced by Japanese automaker Toyota since 2003. It is available as a six and seven-seater, equipped with either a 1.8 or 2.0-litre gasoline engine. It is positioned below the Ipsum and above the Spacio in Toyota's minivan range.
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Women's Institute of Science & Humanities - WISH is one of the premier institutes of higher learning for women in Pakistan, committed to encourage and provide balanced and progressive education with excellence to a diverse female student population to meet the challenges of
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A Wish is a supernatural gift granting an unlimited request. It can also refer to:
  • Wish (manga), a shojo manga series created by CLAMP
  • Wish (album), an album by The Cure
  • Wish (Feargal Sharkey album), an album by Feargal Sharkey

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Wish is a shōjo manga series created by Clamp. It is published in English by TOKYOPOP, and it retains its right to left format. The American translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.
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Clamp (or CLAMP) is an all-female Japanese mangaka group. Their manga series are often made into anime after release. More than 92 million Clamp tankōbon copies have been sold worldwide (as of November, 2006).
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A plot device is an element introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. In the hands of a skilled writer, the reader or viewer will not notice that the device is a construction of the author—it will seem to follow naturally from the setting or characters in the story.
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Fiction is the telling of stories which are not entirely based upon facts. More specifically, fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes.
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The supernatural (Latin: super- "above" + natura "nature") pertains to entities, events or powers regarded as beyond nature, in that they cannot be explained from the laws of the natural world.
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For the theatrical allegory, see morality play.


Morality Play is a detective story by Barry Unsworth, a Man Booker Prize-winning author.

Published in 1996 by the W. W.
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A plot device is an element introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. In the hands of a skilled writer, the reader or viewer will not notice that the device is a construction of the author—it will seem to follow naturally from the setting or characters in the story.
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One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة Kitāb 'Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, Persian:
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Aladdin (an adaptation of the Arabic name (orginally Tunisian) Alā' ad-Dīn, Arabic: علاء الدين literally "nobility of faith") is one of the tales of medieval Arabian origin
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GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS (now GXS) that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. At its peak in 1991, GEnie claimed around 400,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users.
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oil lamp is a simple vessel used to produce light continuously for a period of time from a fuel source. The history of oil lamps extends for about 10,000 years, from prehistory to as late as the 19th century, or even until now in some rural remote communities.
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Solomon (Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה, Standard  
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"The Monkey's Paw"
Author W. W. Jacobs
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Horror, Short story
Publication date 1902

"The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by author W. W. Jacobs. It was published in England in 1902.
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Piers Anthony
Born: July 6 1934 (1934--) (age 73)
Oxford, England
Occupation: novelist, short story writer
Nationality: USA
Writing period: 1967 - Present
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Castle Roogna

Author Piers Anthony
Cover artist Darrell K. Sweet
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Del Rey Books
Publication date July 1979
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Snow White, (in German, Schneewittchen, Snowdrop in their first edition[1]) is the title character in a fairy tale known from many places in Europe, the best known version being the one collected by the Brothers Grimm.
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The Seven Ravens is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.[1]

It is tale number 25, and Aarne-Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds. Georgios A Megas collected another, Greek variant in Folktales of Greece.
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