An incoming New Year always seems like an appropriate time to contemplate years passed, and this year I have found myself thinking a lot about a consistent theme in my life that has been a significant guiding force behind my interests and aesthetic sensibility. Ever since I was a kid, I have secretly believed in magic. I’m not sure what this can be attributed to, though I certainly credit some early influences like the little pewter wizard holding a crystal ball that my grandmother gave to me when I was still very young (and that I still have), and books like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe which taught me to always be on the lookout for hidden passageways to other worlds. My imaginative capacity plus the desire to find whatever magic waits right around the corner are very likely at the bottom of all the fantasy and sci-fi I’ve read, the hundreds of video games I’ve played, and the peculiar way I sometimes look at the world.

My love of fantasy and magic has become a background influence throughout the years, but my appreciation of it was recently stirred by Amazon.com’s announcement that they had successfully won the auction for J.K. Rowling’s Tales of the Beedle Bard, paying almost £2 million (equivalent to almost $4 million) which Rowling has dedicated to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity that she co-founded. Aside from the amazing amounts of care and attention to detail that went into the creation of this book, I am captivated by it for several reasons. First, the manner of its creation is true to what I feel is necessary for making a magical object. The book itself is one of only seven in the world, hand illustrated and written by the author, bound in leather and adorned with silver and moonstones (side note: the stone I always wear around my neck is a moonstone). There is an element of power imbued by the author through the painstaking process of writing and drawing the contents with her own hand. This is not a mass produced item, it is something very personal, something actually crafted.

Aside from the look of the book (which I think is perfectly fantastical), the notion of transforming an object from a fantasy world into a something real is magical all by itself. This is part of the reason that people get so excited about props used in films like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. More specific to my infatuation with this artifact, however, books (along with video games) have always been some of my most trusted ambassadors to fantastical worlds, so I see them as conduits, like Alice’s looking-glass to Wonderland. And in many of the fantasy books that I like to read, the story often hinges on some secret, magical knowledge of great importance that can only be found in a legendary book. It’s no surprise, then, that books represent something essentially magical to me, and J.K. Rowling has managed to create one that is especially rare and meaningful.

Just knowing that the Tales of the Beedle Bard exists has fanned that flame of imagination that has always caused me to suspect (and hope) that the extraordinary lies just under the surface of our everyday reality. I regularly seek access to those magic realms through books, film, art, and video games, but I look for it too in the proceedings of my regular life. To this day, like I did during my childhood, whenever I manage to glimpse the fantastical through the seams in the fabric of my otherwise ordinary existence, I get an unparalleled flash of delight. The innocent suspicion that magical forces could be at play generates a kind of hope that makes my life a bit more sparkly and wondrous. It is for this reason that I am so grateful to J.K. Rowling and other such story-weavers, be they game designers or film makers. I can only aspire to one day create something that will help others access the fantasy in their seemingly ordinary lives.

Happy New Year! May this be a magical one for you.