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04-22-2007, 12:03 AM
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#1
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Scribe
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 83
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Magic Realism
Was wondering who here uses magic eralism and even surrealism in their works?
Or who has read any works with these two elements in them....thoughts, critiques....
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 'There are things known, and things unknown, and in between them are the doors.' Jim Morrison.
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04-22-2007, 12:56 AM
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#2
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Addict
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: On my ass, in my chair, online.
Gender: Male
Posts: 155
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What do you mean? Several things come to mind, but It would be nice if you could be more specific.
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04-22-2007, 02:05 AM
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#3
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Scribe
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 83
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Was looking on the wikepedia under Magic Realism - there is much more about it but basically here are the elements:
Elements of magical realism
The following elements are found in many magical realist works. - Fantastic elements, which may be intrinsically plausible but are never explained.
- Characters accept rather than question the logic of the magical element.
- Exhibits a richness of sensory details.
- Uses symbols, runes and imagery extensively.
- Emotions and human sexuality as a social construct are often developed in great detail.
- Distorts time so that it is cyclical or so that it appears absent. Another technique is to collapse time in order to create a setting in which the present repeats or resembles the past.
- Inverts cause and effect, for instance a character may suffer before a tragedy occurs.
- Incorporates legend or folklore.
- Presents events from multiple standpoints - ie. alternates detached with involved narrative voice; likewise, often shifts between characters' viewpoints and internal narration on shared relationships or memories.
- Mirrors past against present; astral against physical planes; or characters one against another.
- Open-ended conclusion leaves the reader to determine whether the magical and/or the mundane rendering of the plot is more truthful or in accord with the world as it is.
- Owns differing properties of magic and realism at the same time, while incorporating the two together often seamlessly.
If you check it out it goes into more detail....
__________________
'There are things known, and things unknown, and in between them are the doors.' Jim Morrison.
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04-22-2007, 02:12 AM
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#4
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Writing Machine
Join Date: Sep 2004
Gender: Private
Posts: 1,748
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Magic realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez comes to mind. Surrealism, I have The Dedalus Book Of Surrealism, The Identity Of Things (a book of shorts). An interesting read but a tough one. Of my own writing, in which I tend to experiment a lot, some might be considered magic realism, though I don't write with that in mind, but I don't think anything I've ever written qualifies as surrealism and don't think I'll ever write anything close to what I've seen in the Dedalus book.
Cheers,
Rob
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04-22-2007, 08:33 AM
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#5
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Addict
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: On my ass, in my chair, online.
Gender: Male
Posts: 155
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The Otherland series seems to do almost everything on that list. Great read if your into fantasy/science fiction mix books.
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04-29-2007, 05:48 PM
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#6
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Scribe
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 95
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Years of enjoying fantasy literature have taught me this:
You have to have rules.
It sounds silly, but there has to be a very clear, practical limit to what magic can and can not achieve.
There has to be very precise methods of casting, purely because then when a character does something specific, then the reader knows it's a spell, without you having to say.
Don't ever leave magic utterly open-ended so you can deus ex machina at the end!
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04-29-2007, 08:00 PM
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#7
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,512
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sometimes i use it in my own writing, and lots of contemporary writers do too. salman rushdie, gg marquez, anderson-dargatz, steven hayward. if its done well, i think its great.
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04-30-2007, 03:04 AM
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#8
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Writing Machine
Join Date: Sep 2004
Gender: Private
Posts: 1,748
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by C.C.Benjamin
Years of enjoying fantasy literature have taught me this:
You have to have rules.
It sounds silly, but there has to be a very clear, practical limit to what magic can and can not achieve.
There has to be very precise methods of casting, purely because then when a character does something specific, then the reader knows it's a spell, without you having to say.
Don't ever leave magic utterly open-ended so you can deus ex machina at the end!
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Magic Realism and the magic one finds in fantasy are different things.
Cheers,
Rob |
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05-04-2007, 03:20 PM
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#9
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Scribe
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 95
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Rob
Magic Realism and the magic one finds in fantasy are different things.
Cheers,
Rob
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I'll be honest, I was pretty wrecked and had the feeling I should read the thread first... 
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One Man's Last Stand -- href="http://www.writingforums.com/showthread.php?t=80791
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