Why Do We Love Magic?
Do you remember watching David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear on live TV? I do.
People were thrilled and in awe of this. But why do we like magic rather than fear it? Shouldn’t we be afraid of disappearing or having our home disappear willy-nilly? Shouldn’t we be scared if someone has the ability to defy the laws of physics?
Kind of yes and kind of no…
If we decide that magic is real and that David Copperfield really did make Miss Liberty disappear, we should be afraid. However, we realize that Mr. Copperfield knows how to trick us into thinking he pulled off a truly impossible feat. The Statue of Liberty is still there, where it belongs.
When street magician David Blane does his magic, the people watching all gasp and giggle. We laugh. We aren’t afraid of Blane because we take it for granted that he will not do harm with his tricks. It is all in good fun. It is all an illusion.
From the time we played peek-a-boo with Mom and Dad, and they didn’t really disappear, we’ve learned to enjoy the magic.
Trick us, boggle our imagination, make it so we can’t believe our eyes…we LOVE it!
Drawing on this love we have of defying the laws of nature, I decided to create magician Richard Blackstone in Magic Of The Pentacle. As the author, I have given this magician “real” power in his fictional world. It’s fun. it’s fun when he changes a deadly knife into an innocent spatula or turns a bowl into a chocolate cake. How cool would it be to be able to change one thing into another thing entirely?
Take a few minutes to see what happens when objects are transformed into other objects in my fictional world of magic.