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Author
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Comment
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Calliope Lynne Remick
Unregistered User
(5/28/02 5:08:19 am)
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Magical Realism?
Good morning fairy tale enthusiasts. I see that some of you are knowledgeable about Magical Realism and wish to ask two questions:
1. Would "Away," a novel by Jane Urquhart be considered Magical Realism? and
2. Can you recommend some young adult or children's authors who are considered Magical Realists, like, for example Russell Hoban and his "The Medusa Frequency."
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Calliope
Unregistered User
(5/28/02 5:11:07 am)
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More Magical Realism?
I thank you in advance for any answers you
may have to the above question.
Also, are there any magical realist films you can
recommend in addition to:
Like Water for Chocolate
Chocolat
Thanks again!
Lynne Remick
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catja1
Registered User
(5/28/02 7:15:38 am)
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Re: More Magical Realism?
Francesca Lia Block is often considered a magical realist -- her most famous is Weetzie Bat, but her best is, I think, The Hanged Man (though it could be argued in the latter that the magical elements are really part of the protagonist's psychotic fugue state).
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Gregor9
Registered User
(5/29/02 5:09:35 am)
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Re: More Magical Realism?
Certainly T. Corraghessan Boyle has written as a magical realist, more so in his stories than his novels. Not YA material, however.
Greg
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swood
Unregistered User
(5/29/02 7:43:09 am)
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Magical realism in YA novels
Interesting someone should bring up this issue, as I have recently done some thinking about the mid-century change in children's fantasy novels, but did not know what to call it.
I recently read L.M. Boston's _The Children of Green Knowe_ which has been reprinted to capitalize on the recent craze for children's fantasy books. The book is a gentle fantasy based on the idea that building's have the power to transmit the lives of the people who inhabit them. Tolly, whose parents live faraway, is sent to live with his great-grandmother who lives at the family home, conveniently haunted by family spirits.
Among other things, this book contains a passionate connection to the natural world, as well as a lot of allusions to Anglo-Saxon mythology and the bloody conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, which have plagued British history. (Not to mention British literature.)
An Amazon reviewer defines this book as "a mood piece disguised as a children's ghost story."
L.M. Boston's work is among the first in children's literature to incorporate fantasy into a contemporary setting. (As opposed to the child time traveling to a different time or place as in C.S. Lewis' the Chronicles of Narnia.) Comparable titles include:
* Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_
* Elizabeth Marie Pope who wrote _Sherwood Ring_ and _Perilous Gard_.
though I would also include Francis Hodgson Burnett's _The Secret Garden_ which is much older, but nevertheless blends gentle, dreamlike, fantasy into the daily world. (Her _A Little Princess_ is also fantastic, but I'm not sure if I would call it magical realism, though the convenient ending certianly smacks of magic. My favorite treatment of this book is Cuaron's 1995 film, which is definitely magical realism. Industry gossip has it that he may direct the 3rd Harry Potter film. That could be interesting!)
The problem with all the above titles is that they were written primarily in the mid-century (or before) and have a very similar tone, vastly different from what's being written now.
* Francesca Lia Block is an excellent example of contemporary fantasy blended with realism. If you enjoy her work, I would recommend:
* Margaret Buffie a Canadian author who has written a number of YA thrillers incorporating fantasy into the everyday world, my favorite being _Angels Turn Their Backs_, which deals with agoraphobia, a parrot that channels its dead owner, and needlework.
* Adele Griffin is an excellent YA author whose book _The Other Shepards_ definitely deserves reading.
I would also include the work of Adele Geras whose Egerton Hall trilogy (which has been discussed on the board before) loosely based on Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel, is more real than magical:
* Tower Room
* Watching the Roses
* Pictures of the Night
Some found it dull, I thought her portrait of adolescence to be incredibly perceptive and think it would appeal to readers the age of her characters.
She also wrote a fabulous book called _Apricots at Midnight_, which is a story-quilt book and definitely contains elements of the fantastic. It is sadly, out-of-print, but may still be available at your local library.
I will add more as I think of them.
Sarah
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swood
Unregistered User
(5/29/02 8:28:39 am)
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Will Hobbs
I think that list was a little *girl*centric. I'm trying to think of some more boy oriented books utilizing magical realism. (Would Robert Louis Stevenson count?) I am a great admirere of Will Hobbs, a Colorado author who writes bully adventure stories for boys, often set in the American West. It's not precisely magical realism, but at times contains mystical elements. I would recommend _The Big Wander_ about pre-Lake Powell Arizona, and _The Maze_ about runaway juvenile delinquent who rehabilitates himself along with the endangered Condor, in the desert.
Sarah
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Gregor9
Registered User
(5/29/02 8:38:45 am)
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Re: Stevenson
It depends on how broadly you want to define magical realism.
Arguably, the strict definition is of a type of South American fiction in the mid-to-late 20th Century (Borges, Fuentes, Marquez, Cortazar, et. al.), and the North American and European fiction emulating that style (Boyle, Calvino, etc.). As such it can't incorporate Stevenson or anyone else just because they mix fantasy and reality. For them "fantasy" already exists as a category. MR is a sub-genre therein. But over time it has lost its precise meaning and become, like "post-modernism" a moving target that's harder to define.
Greg
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tlchang37
Registered User
(5/29/02 5:15:08 pm)
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Re: Stevenson
Thanks Greg,
I was just going to ask how one would define Magical Realism. (Would Isabel Allende be included in the 'formal' definition?) If MR is no longer held strictly to this description, how then would it differ from other realistic fantasy out there?
Tara
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catja1
Registered User
(5/30/02 8:49:40 am)
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Re: Definition
According to _The Encyclopedia of Fantasy_ (Clute and Grant), the term magical realism initially appeared in 1920's Germany, where it applied to certain artists working in a vein related to, but distinct from, Surrealism; the difference being that the magical realists conceived of a discernible reality as a frame for their fantastic imagery -- as opposed to the Surrealists, whose strange material was completely divorced from "the real world." Magical realism had become attached to Latin American writers (Borges, Marquez) by the 1980's, and "subjects its various subjects to manipulations that make the fictional seem true, the historical seem imagined: but always within an ultimate frame that acknowledges the ongoing world." For Latin American writers, it became the primary lens through which to deal with the vast network of story of the region that European modes weren't really able to cope with; the slipperiness of story itself is a central concern of magical realists. Other writers the term applies to are Brian Aldiss, James P. Blaylock, Peter Carey, Angela Carter, E.L. Doctorow, John Fowles, Mark Helprin, Salman Rushdie, and Emma Tennant (618-19). Among YA writers, much William Mayne's stuff might also apply, as well as Garner's _The Owl Service_ and Margaret Mahy's material (esp. _The Tricksters_), but Block is most often cited (and she claims Borges and Marquez as influences).
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Terri
Registered User
(5/30/02 9:56:06 am)
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Re: Definition
Lynne: Just a quick note to say that I loved "Away" by Jane Urquhart, and definitely consider it to be Magical Realism.
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Samantha
Registered User
(5/30/02 10:36:22 am)
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Re: Magical Realism?
as far as YA magical realism, perhaps David Almond's 'Skellig,' 'Kit's Wilderness,' and 'Heaven Eyes' fit the bill? They're such darkly beautiful and magical books.
Samantha
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swood
Unregistered User
(5/30/02 11:05:56 am)
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Thanks for the definitions
If there's one thing certain about definitions it's that they are also changing. Thanks for giving us a framework from which to discuss.
Sarah
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Gregor9
Registered User
(5/31/02 5:16:53 am)
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Re: Definition
Catja,
Clute certainly knows his stuff.
I wonder what artists from the '20s were singled out as separate from but similar to surrealists? Some of the symbolists, perhaps? This warrants further investigation.
Greg
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Judith
Berman
Registered User
(5/31/02 6:09:34 am)
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Re: Definition
The twenties are also the period of one of my favorite architectural movements, German Expressionism, which definitely incorporates elements of the fantastic.
Although Russian writers aren't included in the Clute and Grant definition, there is a constant thread of fantastic realism, or realistic fantasy, in Russian literature (it says something that Poe is part of the Russian literary canon). Some of Zamyatin's (author of WE) short fiction falls here, not to mention Bulgakov (THE MASTER AND MARGARITA), Sinyavsky (aka Tertz), and Aksyonov. Most of the great 19th-century writers wrote at least some works with fantastic elements, starting with Pushkin and his wonderful Russian fairytale renderings, which are almost worth learning Russian for just to read aloud.
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tanaise
Registered User
(5/31/02 10:18:43 am)
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Magic realism for kids
E. Nesbit's books are magic realismish, esp "The five Children and It." Likewise Edgar Eager who wrote "Half Magic" and a number of others that have just been re-released. I adored them when I was younger.
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