are we writing magical realism?, blog.
Sorry if something reads awkward, I wrote and made this on the phone!
So, first of all, my credentials:
I’m latina… that’s enough for some people, oops.
I’m not going to distract ourselves so much with history, Internet already has a lot of that. But we can say it originates in Latin America at the beginning/midst of the 1900s, but is written in other parts of the world as well.
Most of the time, the definition we heard is something on the lines of mixing reality and the fantastic, treating the unreal as real. Also, a lot of people see it as fantasy for latinos.
But all this is quite vague and ends in lots of people from countries where isn’t common thinking it just means contemporary fantasy, fantasy for literary writers, or thinking it is an… aesthetic… *shivers
Well, if it’s none of that, what is? How do I know if I’m writing it? Everybody says something different… And, yeah, a lot of people don’t see eye to eye on this, so this is as far as I know and my personal opinion. But here are eight things I think defines magical realism (particularly differentiating it from fantasy):
i. Yes, it’s fantasy, but the point isn’t magic.
In fantasy the point is magic, is people thinking “oh, how crazy! the magic, the other world!”. Even if is a contemporary low fantasy, the fantastical elements are the focus (most of the time, at least, there are always exceptions).
In magical realism magic is just there. It has a relevance in the plot, character, or setting as much as cup of water, a ride on a bus, or the night. Nobody is going to stop for it nor explain it.
The story in fantasy is about, for example, about a magical girl. In magical realism is about the girl, who so happens to be magical.
ii. And one of the reasons for that it’s because it’s character driven.
While magical realism is not “the fantasy for literary writers” I think it has that in common with litfic: the plot can be a more… quiet one. Maybe not 100% character driven, but with a subtle plot. And if the plot is not that strong, fantasy can’t shine in the plot either.
And, if there’s a strong plot (let’s say, action with spies or some shit) magic has nothing to do with the premise. It’s not a “I’m a secret agent and I read minds but nobody can know about it”, more like an “I’m a secret agent in this Totally Normal World where sometimes someone reads a mind”.
iii. Because magical realism is not a classic genre either.
If I tell you I’m writing an epic fantasy, most people know the type of story I’m talking about. In other world, inspired by the past, high fantasy, probably with this magic journey as a plot, and with very specific clichés an archetypes as options.
We can’t do that with magical realism. It’s more like saying we’re writing historical fiction. It’s just one factor of the plot (or setting), and we can have a romance that is historical, as well as a thriller that is historical.
Magical realism is too broad to even have clichés or archetypes.
iv. And it’s too vague: we’re not writing hard magic systems here.
A really thin line divides magical realism with a low fantasy-soft magic system. I think there are lots of stories that fall in a awkward in-between.
Maybe the difference, really subtle, resides in magical realism “making less sense”.
This other type of fantasy usually has some kind of rules that bend a lot, or some thematic focus. While magical realism looks more like surrealism, kind of dreamlike in a sense, where different unconnected stuff can happen without any sense of logic.
This doesn’t really mean it doesn’t makes sense. Usually it does but in other ways, like an emotional one.
v. Not only that, but sometimes, magic is not magic.
In a fantasy, the fantastic element resides in magic itself or a concrete thing, but once again, magical realism looks like surrealism. Sometimes the magic resides in the uncanny, in a weird version of reality.
Maybe it has elements that exists but are so strange and unknown that it feels unreal. Or things that could happen but the chances are so low and the conditions so precise that it kind of doesn’t make sense (like surviving with a tiguer in the ocean).
And sometimes it feels like a strech to reality: something that could happen but a little too much, like exacerbated. Think about the gothic subgenre, or these post on Tumblr listing a specific setting + gothic. I remember one about university, telling for example, that the answer is always communism, in any class even math, or that time doesn’t pass. Is interesting and funny because is somehow relatable, it feels like that even if we know that’s not realistic.
vi. And sometimes the magic is ambiguous.
A lot of the times we have explicit magic or magical elements… but we can’t be sure if they are really an out of (our) world thing or it has a logical explanation.
For example, ghosts are super common in magical realism… but also in real life. Most of us probably know somebody who has a experience with a ghost (some of us ourselves), or know some legend about spirits in our place.
So, if a character sees a ghost in magical realism, we, as readers, have to ask ourselves: is this character really seeing a ghost or it’s just imagining it?
Same if we have a witch who hex someone and then bad things happens to that person. Or tarot cards telling that something is going to happen and then it does… All that can happen in reality, and it can be real magic or just coincidences.
vii. Related to that, this ambiguity exists because a lot of the time the magic is based in real beliefs and lore.
Let me put it in other words to get across the point:
vii. Magical realism doesn’t has to be in Latin America to work, but it needs to have a heavy setting and folklore.
Just as in gothic literature, setting is just another character, and is super common to base the magic in the folklore of that specific setting… and that usually creates this ambiguity.
In fantasy there’s a lot of focus on being original, but magical realism (usually) is very traditional. We work with what we already have in our settings.
And this also means… sometimes… magical realism and reality has more in common that one would think.
For example, Border is a Swedish movie with trolls… this only works in Sweden (or near it) because it’s part of their stories. In Latin America it would be too alien for us. But, for example, Argentina has a lot of lore with duendes (like elves or gnomes).
viii. Finally, magical realism is not an escapism.
People usually thinks about fantasy as escapism. While I think is incorrect, sometimes it is like that… Even if not, the fantasy part is super romantic and we want to be in that world.
In magical realism not so much. It has a love-hate for life and reality. It’s not bad but it has a comment to make about it. Magic is beautiful but mundane, life is cruel and romantic, all bittersweet.
And yes, usually, in Latin America, that means talking about colonialism and poverty.
If any of you want to add something, don’t doubt it!
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