# Resources On Magic Realism



## LWFlouisa (Dec 16, 2017)

Thought this might be helpful for those unfamiliar with the genre:

Understanding the literary genre Magical Realism

Magic realism - Wikipedia

Elements of Magical Realism

Noteable Books:
House Of The Spirits -- Isabelle Allende
100 Years Of Solitude -- Garbriel Garcia Marquez
Weeping Woman -- Haruki Murakami

I thought I'd at least mention, as there seems to be considerable misunderstanding of the literary catagory, with one noteable author having once called it "Urban Fantasy for Latin Americans." Or a polite way of saying you write fantasy.

Some places even go so far as to say it's a subset of fantasy, but that's not really the case. And kind of a misunderstanding of the word Magic in Magic Realism.

I've also found: 23 Mind-Bending Paintings By Canadian Artist Rob Gonsalves

It started out as a visual art phenominon as a counter-balance to Expressionism.


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## Dark Squiggle (Dec 16, 2017)

Thank you. I have known about this in painting, and have tried to copy it, but didn't know what it was called or that it existed in literature. I also didn't know what it was called. I think I may read something by this Marquez as soon as the semester ends.
Does Neil Gaiman count as Magic Realism? Not so much _Neverwhere  _and _Stardust,  _more of _Coraline, The Sea at the End of the Road, _and _Ansansi Boys._


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## LWFlouisa (Dec 16, 2017)

Dark Squiggle said:


> Thank you. I have known about this in painting, and have tried to copy it, but didn't know what it was called or that it existed in literature. I also didn't know what it was called. I think I may read something by this Marquez as soon as the semester ends.
> Does Neil Gaiman count as Magic Realism? Not so much _Neverwhere  _and _Stardust,  _more of _Coraline, The Sea at the End of the Road, _and _Ansansi Boys._



Neil Gaiman is a tricky case, some of hos work seems like magic realism, while others seem more like urban fantasy. Generally the difference as I understand it (I'm still learning about it myself), is that in Urban Fantasy the magic intrudes into the plot. While magic in Magic Realism (also called Marvelous Realism) is more taken for granted.

For example, the example I've seen used (although I can't stand musicals) is the fact that people in a musical take randomly bursting into song for granted, even if we as a audience find it intrusive. But a musical would not necessarily have anything else in it that constitutes magic.

But a musical that has fairies and elves, would automatically slip into fantasy.

Possbly Coraline, I'll need to read it to see.

It gets tricky, as in my own work, I don't even have anything as concrete as musical numbers. Just as there is Hard Fantasy (with well defined magical rules, and/or perma death), I may do some type of Hard Marvelous Realism.

The magic is similar to magic realism, except that while it doesn't intrude into the plot, there are abstract rules for how it behaves: Time is flexible, and different timelines can bleed together into a kind of "You can walk to the 19th century". But time can't make you unborn or create a paradox.

Me being labelled magic realism only came about more recently. Up till then I was labelled as "not quite Scifi, but not fantasy."


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## Dark Squiggle (Dec 17, 2017)

I guess Gaiman doesn't count as Magical Realism, but he definitely spins a decent bit of it into his Urban, Dark and High Fantasy. 
I think its genius, but then I am biased. When I read most of Gaiman's work, I feel as if it was written for me, as it seems to hit some harmonic in me.
I can't write in his style,  but my goal in my writing is to capture his mood, and I think this Magical Realism is a big part of it.
It's kind of like how the magic of Tolkien is the poetry woven into the books in the form of songs, and all the rest is just backdrop.
I like the musical analogy, and both in defense of musicals, and to further the analogy, musicals are songs strung together tell you a story, and everything else is a bonus - that's why they work just as well as bootlegs as they do as  high budget movies.


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## bobfily (Sep 1, 2021)

I like realistic special effects that make me think about the future of the gaming industry


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