Magical Realism

[Rincewind]

I go to a writers' group on Wednesdays and we have a list of subjects selected amonst us on what to write about. Next week it is Magical Realism. Sadly the bloke that suggested it died at the end of last month and the rest of us do not know or unsure what magical realism is. I have Googled it and it is paintings and written work and this picture illustrates pretty well what it is. It is a mixture of reality with unreal things but as a normal occurance. Still unsure myself but found an author and a couple of titles that I recognize. Jon Fowles who wrote The Collector and French Leutenants Woman.

[Craig]

Ok, cheers. Might be useful at a pub quiz?

[Zingari]

Just write an ordinary story , but add a few elves or something who hide in cupboards and help or hinder the protagonist and characters in various ways .

hope this helps

[Trav Le Bleu]

Just write an ordinary story , but add a few elves or something who hide in cupboards and help or hinder the protagonist and characters in various ways .

hope this helps

You should copyright that before some uses it.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Ken, forget Google, Wikipedia is your friend... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_realism

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction^[1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre, Magic Realism also applies to film and the visual arts.

One example of magic realism is when a character in the story continues to be alive beyond the normal length of life and this is subtly depicted by the character being present throughout many generations. On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting, but such a character breaks the rules of our real world. The author may give precise details of the real world such as the date of birth of a reference character and the army recruitment age, but such facts help to define an age for the fantastic character of the story that would turn out to be an abnormal occurrence like someone living for two hundred years.

Think of films like The Polar Express, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Hugo or stories like Matilda (many Dahl books would fit I suppose) or Five Children and It.

[danny.]

Read some of the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George RR Martin, that's pretty much magical realism

[Captain...]

Ken, forget Google, Wikipedia is your friend... http://en.wikipedia....Magical_realism

Think of films like The Polar Express, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Hugo or stories like Matilda (many Dahl books would fit I suppose) or Five Children and It.

I don't know if Matilda or Five Children and it quite fit that description, there is certainly magic in what happens, they are surprised by the magic, I am thinking more of Phillip Pullman books, like the golden compass, where all children have demons in animal until they are 16, but this is just an accepted fact and not magical or mystical. Or Terry Pratchett where it is just a world with wizards and dragons, rather a world where they shouldn't exist but do, if you see what I mean.

[Trav Le Bleu]

I don't know if Matilda or Five Children and it quite fit that description, there is certainly magic in what happens, they are surprised by the magic, I am thinking more of Phillip Pullman books, like the golden compass, where all children have demons in animal until they are 16, but this is just an accepted fact and not magical or mystical. Or Terry Pratchett where it is just a world with wizards and dragons, rather a world where they shouldn't exist but do, if you see what I mean.

Dammit, meant to quote you and +1ed you, but that's fine, you do do a lot of good posts - but yes, you're completely right and I also get where you're coming from with Pratchett, which is kind of a reversal of Magical Realism - Everything is magical, but people go about their lives pretty much as ordinary people do now. Reality Magicalism?

Edit: I guess in some instances certain superheroes would qualify.

[Captain...]

Dammit, meant to quote you and +1ed you, but that's fine, you do do a lot of good posts - but yes, you're completely right and I also get where you're coming from with Pratchett, which is kind of a reversal of Magical Realism - Everything is magical, but people go about their lives pretty much as ordinary people do now. Reality Magicalism?

Edit: I guess in some instances certain superheroes would qualify.

Dammit, meant to plus one you, but quoted you by mistake, oh well I guess your post warrants a reply,

I think in superhero terms The Incredibles is the only one that fits the bill for me, there is just an acceptance that there are super heroes, maybe I am getting the wrong end of the stick, but my interpretation of that definition is where what we would consider magical is portrayed as normal and everyday.

(My post didn't deserve a plus 1, it was badly written and full grammatical and syntactical errors, but have one back anyway.)

Edit: As for Pratchett how about realistic magicalism?

[Rincewind]

Terry Pratchett occurred to me when I read the definition but I always regarded his books as fantasy. They are in the fantasy section in shops. Terry Brooks Shenaroa (?) books have elves and dwarfs in. What about Lord Of The Rings. It has humans in although not as main characters. So I suppose stories with mediums and witch doctors can be classed as Magic realism.. Captain Nemo? Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Discworld though are set on another world.

[Daggers]

The collected works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

[ADK]

Surely any fantasy setting qualifies?

[21st Century Fox]

Also a couple of Carlo Fuentes' works are apparently classified as magical realism.

[Daggers]

Surely any fantasy setting qualifies?

Nope.

They are outright fantasy.

[Rincewind]

The confusion imay be that Fantasy is a newer genre than magical realism which has been around for over 100 years. I did not know that until I looked it up. It would be interesting to know when the term Fantasy was first used. I think it may have been like Sci-Fi an offshoot of MR genre.

What genre would Shakespeare's Twellth Night fall under?

[Daggers]

What genre would Shakespeare's Twellth Night fall under?

Dull

[Zingari]

The confusion imay be that Fantasy is a newer genre than magical realism which has been around for over 100 years. I did not know that until I looked it up. It would be interesting to know when the term Fantasy was first used. I think it may have been like Sci-Fi an offshoot of MR genre.

What genre would Shakespeare's Twellth Night fall under?

i'd say it was an early form of farce , not too sure though .

there's not really any magic in it , are you thinking of midsummer nights dream ?

[Rincewind]

Yes the one with the fairies. Puck etc.

Just thought of another. A ballet. Swan Lake.

This is my attempt. Its fairly short so don't worry. Wrote it some time ago. Think it can be improved. Also done one foer children about twelve inch woodlodland folk.

Up early today going bed. It'll mean getting up early again.

The Evil

A long time long ago, magic was all around and mages ruled as kings. One day, an evil force came to the lands so strong that all mages succumbed to its power except one, the newly married Prince Zacradia.

For 10 hours Prince Zacradia fought the evil force until he fell exhausted to his knees. His new bride, Princess Amourille, pleaded with him to stop for the sake of their future children, but Prince Zacradia was defiant.

"I must do this for our people. They are trapped by evil and must be freed. Deep in your heart you must know this, but whatever happens, live or die, I will always love you."

Princess Amourille nodded a reluctant agreement before helping her husband to his feet. He smiled at her and kissed her gently on the lips. In that kiss she felt the word goodbye.

Prince Zacradia stood before the Evil for the last time, and with his dying breath summoned all his remaining power to come forth. Arms outstretched, he cried out, "Be gone evil one, go back to whence you came, to the corridors of Hell."

Sparks flew out from Prince Zacradia's fingertips, changing from blue to red to yellow. The Evil took a step back, then gave an almighty roar as the last remaining magic hit it full on. After shuddering for a few seconds, it exploded, scattering a million pieces throughout the world.

Prince Zacradia had saved his people, but when the Evil spread around the lands it remained in the air, and everyone of us breathes in a little bit each day.

[fleckneymike]

My understanding is that you have to simply create a narrative based in the real world which contains a magical element which people do not view as magical or respond to as magical.

Annoyingly that offers you infinite possibilities which is never particularly helpful.

[Rincewind]

If I didn't know better I'd say the old fella who suggested the subject will be laughing at us from beyond the grave at our confusion and attempts at doing the subject. The majority of the group are rtired women in their 70's who's normal writings involves gentle human relations stories.

There is one bloke who has done some decent vampire and murder tales. I've printed the above off. Will see if I can add and improve it. It's only about 250 words. Half a page.

[fleckneymike]

If I didn't know better I'd say the old fella will be laughing at us from beyond the grave at our confusion and attempts at doing the subject. The majority of the group are rtired women in their 70's who's normal writings involves gentle human relations stories.

There is one bloke who has done some decent vampire and murder tales. I've printed the above off. Will see if I can add and improve it. It's only about 250 words. Half a page.

Feel free to ignore the following and apologies for the didactic tone.

What you've written is fantasy, you're off in a fantasy land and you've used 'magic' which instantly makes it 'stand out' which is precisely what you don't want to do. Try and root your narrative in the mundane and conventional, ignore the magic, ignore the extraordinary (but paradoxically include them).

For example imagine we were all psychic, how difficult would life be or conversely how utopian would it be if we knew what people were about to do, could we prevent murder, infidelity etc would we cease to speak, would we go mad due to all the voices we could constantly hear, would life be unbearable, would we be forced to live far away from one another in order to get some peace and quiet?

Obviously you'll be able to come up with a better premise than that but I think that is what the poor old fella was on about.

[Zingari]

My understanding is that you have to simply create a narrative based in the real world which contains a magical element which people do not view as magical or respond to as magical.

Annoyingly that offers you infinite possibilities which is never particularly helpful.

I've just listened to the words of the song " scarlet ribbons" and I think that would be a good example of what you're saying here .

[Captain...]

Feel free to ignore the following and apologies for the didactic tone.

What you've written is fantasy, you're off in a fantasy land and you've used 'magic' which instantly makes it 'stand out' which is precisely what you don't want to do. Try and root your narrative in the mundane and conventional, ignore the magic, ignore the extraordinary (but paradoxically include them).

For example imagine we were all psychic, how difficult would life be or conversely how utopian would it be if we knew what people were about to do, could we prevent murder, infidelity etc would we cease to speak, would we go mad due to all the voices we could constantly hear, would life be unbearable, would we be forced to live far away from one another in order to get some peace and quiet?

Obviously you'll be able to come up with a better premise than that but I think that is what the poor old fella was on about.

That is where I would be going, another example would be Family Guy, where there is a talking dog that is an equal with humans but is still a dog, but nobody ever questions that the dog can talk or ever regards it as anything other than perfectly normal, and the rest of the setting is suburban America.

[Rincewind]

What about the story that I did about two friends who also happen to be ghosts chatting in a graveyard about their nights work of haunting? No alive people are invoved butthey are mentioned.

[Captain...]

What about the story that I did about two friends who also happen to be ghosts chatting in a graveyard about their nights work of haunting? No alive people are invoved butthey are mentioned.

To me that is just fantasy as there is no interaction between the fantasy and the mundane, if it was a modern world where ghosts were just accepted as an every day occurrence, and people would be joined by their dead grandparents for breakfast, and ghosts went to work etc