Magical Realism

By Julie de Waroquier

One of my favorite things in books and movies and TV shows and anything is when you're left with a sort of mystery. Was it magic or wasn't it? Could the psychic really predict what was going to happen or was she just a really good fraud? Are there little hints of the supernatural that I overlook, or am I just overly imaginative? It leaves things open-ended, room for more imagination to get it. I love it!

So, when I was living in Connecticut, I went to a writing conference.  I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about writing and publishing. While I was there, I stumbled upon something called "Magical Realism".   I wasn't sure what it was. It was in a list of Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror books and along with some other strange and wacky things (Steam Punk and Diesel Punk anyone?), but it caught my eye a bit more.  I mean, I like to write my stories in what people like to think of as "The Real World", but I always like to add a twist to said real world.

My "Real World" in my head consists of a honeycomb of universes all connected by a crazy man in a purple suit named Porfirio who owns a cafe crazier than his name. Some universes are exactly like ours with vampires and shape-shifters and people who practice the art of magic... Others... consist of worlds stuck in the Dung Ages or have magical technology or consist of just the mind and thought.  Other worlds, I haven't even imagined myself yet. However, in my "Real World", any story that's ever been written is true somewhere and somehow in some universe. Even the terrible fanfiction. That's right, in my universe, Fifty Shades of Gray really happened.

You're welcome for that terrifying mental image.

So did House of Leaves... and John Dies at the End...

Cyn, I want you to know...

You're welcome!

Oh yeah, and in some of those universes, our favorite book characters read about us and write fanfiction about us. Captain Jack Harkness has some very interesting work shipping the craziest pairings known to sanity. Like Cyn and my stepdad's dog...

On A LESS CREEPIER NOTE, I'm looking at this list and I'm looking at the phrase "Magical Realism" and I have no idea what it means, but it sounds like it could be my genre.  I promised myself there and then I would run home and find out exactly what it was and then I would find the genre that defined my stories if it didn't fit. I would become a genre detective!

Two years later...

I was looking around online and I came across the phrase again... on TVTropes! It has it's own page.  Well, I couldn't languish in ignorance a moment more. I immediately visited that page to discover if that was my genre or if I was stuck describing my stories as Urban Fantasy when the story isn't really that because I hate cities unless they're important to the plot. And I refuse to write about detectives!

And my vampires don't really give a crap about crime or The Masquerade or... anything really... The modern ages are a confusing place and other universes are more welcoming to their type...

It's nothing like I mentally pictured at all. See, the emphasis is on the "Realism". These stories do take place in the "Real World", but one of two things happens: either there's a little tweak in reality towards the supernatural or the supernatural is just a possibility. So, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald is Magical Realism. So is Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, but the movie based on the book is not Magical Realism. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed are not Magical Realism. If David Lynch wrote it (especially Mulholland Drive apparently), it's either Magical Realism or very close to it. Twin Peaks stretched the limits nearly to the breaking point.Field of Dreams, Pan's Labyrinth, and Stranger Than Fiction all count as Magical Realism.

Does that help you at all?

Okay, here's how you tell as far as I can guess... Say you have a show about four friends and they do a seance...
1.) If the seance summons a ghost that possesses one of the friends, you don't have Magical Realism.
2.) If the seance makes a friendly ghost appear and the four friends and the ghost invite a whole bunch of other ghosts over and throw a party, it's really not Magical Realism.
3.) If the seance causes the candles to flicker and the clown of the group speaks for the dead, but you can't tell if the person is really speaking for the spirits or not... you've got Magical Realism.
4.) If the seance doesn't seem to work, but all four friends dream of talking to their dead loved ones that night, you've got Magical Realism.
5.) If they use a ouji board for the seance and it describes a person that actually died, but one of the characters probably knew about it--Magical Realism.
6.) If one of the friends is already dead, and the others don't know it yet, and the story is how all four deal with that friend dying and it's more emotions than "Hey! Ghost!"... Magical Realism.

Clear that up at all?

Probably not. Well, I've looked up some Magical Realism books and movies from lists online and I'm going to be reading and reviewing them until I get sick of it.  I think I want to try to write a book in the Magical Realism genre because it does look like fun and the best way to find out just how the genre goes is to explore it as much as possible. So, expect some weird book and movie reveiws from now on!

Sweet Dreams!

And Yes, that means February is Magical Realism Month. March may be too...