... Say what?

[ladybug_archive]

So, looking over a recent email from Amazon, I've discovered there is a genre called Magical Realism. I took one look at that and my immediate thought was, "... Magical ... Realism? Isn't that an oxymoron?"

I suppose the idea is that it uses fantasy settings/characters/etc. to teach real-world lessons, but I am still amused by the genre name. It just sounds so nonsensical.

And I finished a fic yesterday for the intriguing 31_days prompt "Between the last remaining headstones." I couldn't pass up a chance to do another cemetery fic. I used the real locale Bayside Cemetery as the setting. Its condition is absolutely, utterly appalling and heartbreaking. I've never heard of such widespread desecration of a modern cemetery. It's better than it was a few years ago, thanks to some people who have really tried to work on it and an official clean-up project, but as far as I know, it's still not ideal and it's still very bad off in the deeper places not visible from the road. I also hear it's haunted. Considering its state, that's no surprise. Coffins were broken into and robbed and the bones scattered all over the ground! Worse, I heard of at least one skull being deliberately broken by some intruder who apparently just wanted to make fun of it. I felt like crying when I read that. The dead must be very furious.

Also, I watched Joseph on Quincy, M.E. in The Final Gift episode. He was wonderful and adorable and the main guest-star and the character was a good guy! And there was a May-December romance going on that was going to be happy and I was thinking "Oh man. Lucky, lucky girl." And totally envying the actress who got to be there with him! I was inwardly squealing with glee.

I love whenever I see a May-December romance turn out happy. In 1960s TV, it generally didn't seem to, but by the 1970s, they were doing some great stories at least sometimes. Other than the Joseph one, I can think of two other awesome ones, both of which had Simon. One was an Ironside episode and Simon's character was a bystander. The other was a Marcus Welby, M.D. episode and Simon was involved in the romance. Squeeeee. Oh, and I just remembered one time 1960s TV did a really sweet one: The Lovers episode of One Step Beyond.

Comments

[yamsteapot.livejournal.com]

Yes. Magical Realism is a very real (no pun intended) and legit genre. It's particularly popular in Latin American literature. While there is use of fabulism and magic to teach lessons/help emphasize the moral of the story, it's actually the opposite of what you'd think with setting. The setting is usually very mundane (or some define it as the "rational" world). The defining factor is that there are incidents of magic or magical elements and they're accepted/not questioned in that setting. So if you break down the name, essentially it's realism with unquestioned elements of magic.

There's two Gabriel Garcia Marquez stories that come to mind as ideal examples: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (which I read in high school), and "Light is like Water" (which I teach to my freshman).

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see. Interesting.

Intriguing stories, for the most part. I like the first one best. The second one causes me to scratch my head a great deal; I had to read it twice before I understood what was going on. I suppose it's the deepest of the two, and also to me, the most illogical. A man with wings is easy enough for me to accept (albeit the spider lady bit was just weird), but a literal flood of light that can drown people is getting a little brain-breaking.

[kirarakim.livejournal.com]

Someone beat me to the explanation of Magical Realism but my favorite example would be Haruki Mukakam's novels (although he breaks some of the rules of the genre so not everyone considers his work part of it).

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't think I've heard of him, offhand.

[kirarakim.livejournal.com]

My personal favorite of his books is the Wind Up Bird Chronicles (maybe because it was the first I read and I've never read anything else like it) but to introduce people to Murakami I would recommend his collection of short stories The Elephant Vanishes to get a feel of his works. He is one of my favorite contemporary authors. The only thing I don't like about his works is they have a lot of badly written sex scenes (although not so much in the short stories).

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information! I'm not sure what I think of the genre in general, but I'll keep his name in mind if I want to look into it more.

Ah, it seems like every favorite author always has at least one thing not so likable about their stories. Although some things are easier to ignore than others.

[pleasant-valley.livejournal.com]

I've read quite a few books that are classed as Magical Realism. I tend to like books that have a sense of magic and whimsy to them. I guess I'm a bit of a dreamer and not very practical minded. :P

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

For me, it depends on the type of magic involved. Some I'm okay with, while others are just getting too weird for me. Magic for me has always pretty much been a means to an end, and something I put up with pretty much only for that. Like, sometimes I'll have a character struck down by magic and only the one who loves them the most (usually in a platonic manner, if there's no romantic interest) can break the magic's hold over them. I'm crazy about that. ;) And also I like that someone in that situation can wake up and be alright, instead of having to be in the hospital for weeks. So sometimes I'll do a magical death/ailment if I'm not in the mood for blood. But since magic can also lead to things I am not comfortable with at all, like people being turned into animals, I'm pretty wary of its presence in media.