Thank you! I have heard about magical realism in literature but not in visual art. I always thought Frida Kahlo was a surrealist. But that painting isn't entirely surrealistic, is it? The hearts are realistic. Would you call magical realism a compromise between surrealism and realism? Years ago, I read Chronicle of a Death Foretold and remember it being very good.
I am motivated now to try my hand at writing a magical realism story. I love trying new things. Thanks for reminding me about it! I guess the trick is to make the magic seem like an ordinary part of the everyday world. @Xoic - would you say Beastseekers is magical realism?
What Are the Characteristics of Magical Realism? Every magical realism novel is different, but there are certain things they all include, such as: Realistic setting. All magical realism novels take place in a setting in this world that’s familiar to the reader. Magical elements. From talking objects to dead characters to telepathy, every magical realism story has fantastical elements that do not occur in our world. However, they’re presented as normal within the novel. Limited information. Magical realism authors deliberately leave the magic in their stories unexplained in order to normalize it as much as possible and reinforce that it is part of everyday life. Critique. Authors often use magical realism to offer an implicit critique of society, most notably politics and the elite. The genre grew in popularity in parts of the world like Latin America that were economically oppressed and exploited by Western countries. Magic realist writers used the genre to express their distaste and critique American Imperialism. Unique plot structure. Magical realism does not follow a typical narrative arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end like other literary genres. This makes for a more intense reading experience, as the reader does not know when the plot will advance or when the conflict will take place.
The thread has been moved to the lounge where it belongs. Is it relevant to writing? Sort of, but with a few degrees of separation. I don't have an issue with it, but we could lump any number of random threads into the "sort of has something to do with writing." You have a few threads that fall under that category, Louanne. Some where you often seem to be the sole participant. That should tell you something about your audience. I'm not criticizing or taking issue, but it shouldn't surprise you that the majority of our forum is interested in writing and writing only. Agreed. The forum is like a radio or a television. If you don't like the program, change the channel. Speaking in general, your friendly neighborhood moderators don't particularly care what is discussed or not discussed. So long as it isn't completely irrelevant, argumentative for argumentation's sake, some form of spam or advertising, offensive, abusive, or--and this one fries our proverbial gonads more than anything--a thread that is clearly intended for someone's personal entertainment and has nothing to do with discussion/community, aside from one can't find an audience in real life and has to resort to the generic online populace to get their jollies. And I will voice a minor concern that doesn't quite qualify as a warning, but is getting close. A lot of these threads in question have random content that could just as easily fall under the "random thought/useless fact" thread. We combined those and streamlined the Lounge to prevent the sub-categorization of random things, which only leads to more random things and more threads that have nothing to do with writing. This isn't as much of a problem as it has been in the past--mainly because our serial Lounge Lizards have been "retired"--but it is something we will continue to keep an eye on, lest the mission of this forum gets lost. Our biggest concern is random threads attract random members who can quickly overpopulate the real writers who come here to share and learn. So long as everyone can keep that in mind, have at it!
I'm not well educated enough on the subject to give anything approaching a definitive answer, but that's how it appears to me. Side thought: Richard Brautigan used to be The Man for counterculture readers in the sixties and seventies. Though he didn't write what is now thought of as magical realism, there were some similar elements in his books. I read my first Brautigan novel when I was confined to a tent in elk camp during a snowstorm with nothing to read but The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western. I'm not sure I understood a bit of it but I read it in one sitting, too fascinated by what he was doing with words and images to put it down for long.
I have just spent a few minutes reading some quotes of Richard Brautigan. They suggest that his novels would indeed be fascinating reads. I liked this one: “I had a good-talking candle last night in my bedroom. I was very tired but I wanted somebody to be with me, so I lit a candle and listened to its comfortable voice of light until I was asleep.” ― Richard Brautigan And I think this one hints at a healthy self-deprecation: “I will be very careful the next time I fall in love, she told herself. Also, she had made a promise to herself that she intended on keeping. She was never going to go out with another writer: no matter how charming, sensitive, inventive or fun they could be. They weren't worth it in the long run. They were emotionally too expensive and the upkeep was complicated. They were like having a vacuum cleaner around the house that broke all the time and only Einstein could fix it. She wanted her next lover to be a broom.” ― Richard Brautigan, Sombrero Fallout
I'm not sure. I wondered that, but I don't know the definition well enough. I considered looking it up, but I don't want to get bogged down in technicalities. I find they kill artistry. Time enough to categorize afterwards.
I understand. You don't want to put your writing into a box. You don't want to write "within limits." But I think magical realism is more of a vision than a defined structure, and that vision will be different for all writers.
I don't think it's magical realism or urban fantasy or any of the defined tags, and I don't want to be influenced by any of them. I don't know what it is, that will only become clear as I write it. It's being written from inner sensibilites, not toward exterior goalposts defined by industries.
“The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. ” ― John Updike
In high school I took a literature class called The Individual in Society. One of the writers we were exposed to was Brautigan. I still remember the first of his work that I read, written in 1967 when he was poet-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology: I don't care how God-damn smart these guys are: I'm bored. It's been raining like hell all day long and there's nothing to do. At the same time that class was offered, the high school English department offered Literature of the Supernatural in which students read books like Dracula and Frankenstein. Some conservative folks came all sorts of undone over the notion, claiming the Satanic Bible was required reading because a student did a book report on it. It even got written up in National Enquirer. Say what you like about California now, it was a hell of an interesting place to attend high school in the early 1970s. I went on an ecology club field trip and ended up spontaneously picketing Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
@Catriona Grace Those who are indignant at appropriation of the name correctly applied will soon enough be indignant about "appropriation" of the style itself. There's a personality that finds personal meaning in adopting such causes as outlet for their intrinsic superiority. Therein would lie good material for exploration in a novel.
You write it. I'll read it. Be sure to incorporate generous amounts of magical realism into the story.
At the link, a gallery of the visionary paintings of JheffAu: https://www.jheffau-art.com/visions Copied from his bio: Jheferson Saldaña Valera, known as JheffAu, is an artist and medicine man born on November 1st, 1983, in the city of Pucallpa, Peru. At the age of twelve he began his interest in art, and, as the grandson of a traditional healer, he naturally felt the call of sacred plants and his ancestors' medicine. At the age of fourteen, he decided to follow the long initiation and training path required to attain mastery of shamanic practices. As a self-taught artist, his neo-Amazonian style visionary painting was a result of the visions induced by master plants. On his canvases, he paints the spiritual and invisible worlds that he perceives. His works transcend the veil that separates us from the spiritual realm and invites us to explore this other world of shamanic visions. Flor de Vida, by JheffAu
Very cool imagery and colors. I am not comparing Jheffau to Carolos Castenada, but this post above brought to mind the Don Juan books. The concept of learning from a shaman attracted my truth-seeking pagan twenty-somethingth self. However, eager as I was to accept Castenada's experiences as valid, I couldn't make the leap past, "Non-fiction. Yeah, right." Romancing the supernatural and presenting his fantasies as anthropological fact was a disservice to all concerned. My husband, who read several of the books, summed them up as, "An old guy got a young guy totally stoned and told him ghost stories." True concepts interwoven into honest fiction are more compelling than burying the same concepts into a carefully woven web of lies designed to enhance the writer's personal importance. As a visual artist, I say, "This is what I see and feel." As a fiction writer, I say, "This is what I want you to believe, at least for a little while." As a non-fiction writer, I say, "I'm sharing what I've learned with you." Visual art crosses with fiction and nonfiction without conflict. Fiction incorporates elements of nonfiction without conflict. But when non-fiction deliberately incorporates fiction and calls it truth, problems begin.
The Nuragic civilization lived on Sardinia, Italy, from about the 18th century BC up to the Roman colonization in 238 BC. The Nuragic Sanctuary of Santa Cristina, located in Paulilatino, Italy, dates to about 1000 BC. The well of St. Cristina (below) is a remarkable work of vulvar (yonic) art, tying together water and the gateway to life. "It represents the peak of water temple architecture. Its proportions are so balanced (...), its geometric composition so exact (...), so rational (...), that it doesn't seem possible (...) for it to have been built around the year 1000 BC".
When I came across it 30+ years ago in the fiber art world, it was referred to as "vag art." I like the image above. Thanks for sharing it. (Scurries off to save it in the Inspiration File.)
I should put the word "yonic" in the new word thread. I just learned it today. If you Google images of "yonic art" you'll see a nice collection.
Not only that, some of Kafka's work is magic realism and Kafka was basically the inspiration for Márquez to start writing.
Several decades ago, I was working on a white to pale ecru three-d abstract fabric collage inspired by a photo my husband took inside a cave in the Guadalupe Mountains (he was a professional caver at the time). When I finished it, I showed it to my husband whose first remark was, "Well, that's vaginal." Up until that moment, I hadn't seen it that way, but yep, he was right. To top it off, the cave that inspired it was called Virgin Cave, the materials included satin and lace from my wedding dress (not that there was anything virginal about me by the time I got married), and the cross section of a conch tucked amid twisted thread and pearls was suggestive enough that even I should've noticed. Virgin Cave was the first thing I ever had accepted into a juried art show in a real live art museum.
