I believe it is more commonly considered absurdist, surrealist, or existentialist fiction, though I have heard it referred to as precursor magical realism.Um...doesn't Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis count as magic realism? If so, it's the only one I read and, even though it through me for a loop at first, I ended up really enjoying it.
It'd be The Metamorphosis, typically considered a masterpiece.For a character to transfigure without any set up or rhyme or reason would be considered bad.
Off topic, but related:I've always thought magic realism is an oxymoron and I just plain dislike the genre. I found Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits to be a real yawner. I did like Kafka's Metamorphosis but I wouldn't call it magic realism, just an allegorical tale.
F.
Everybody associates García Marquez with the term "magic realism", and rightly so. He's a genius and master at his writing craft.
If you want another truly fine example of an amalgam of fantasy/realism read the wonderful Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola (The Palm-Wine Drinkard, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts).
And certain older writers drifted into this territory before it really had a name. Joseph Conrad, on occasion, as in his famous short story "The Lagoon". And William Faulkner from time to time as well. Or the greatly under-appreciated pre-Beat experimentalist Kenneth Patchen, especially in The Journal of Albion Moonlight.
But, like any style of writing, practiced poorly and with self-aggrandizing intent, attempts at "magic realism" can be truly awful.
Glad you said this, I immediately thought of Marquez, Atwood, DeLint, and others who are wonderful with this genre. People have been using myth as metaphor since the beginning of time, and it takes time to hone this craft, like any other.
On the other side, I do have a pet peeve when I'm reading a good story and the writer sort of runs out of gas 200 pages in and suddenly your hero has taken a left turn on a quest to hell for a magical doughnut that will save the kingdoms and restore the land to its proper ruler. But that's really a peeve with sloppy writing and plotting, and that's in every genre.
Off topic, but related:
Have you ever seen any magical realist cinema, like Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone or Pan's Labyrinth? If so, what do you make of them? I think they're very engrossing and not boring in the least. I also think they put the lie to the "oxymoron" of magical realism as they manage to explore the paranormal without upsetting the detailed realism of their characters, dialogue, plots, and settings -- which isn't an easy thing to do, I don't think. Suspending disbelief, keeping things "verite," when characters perpetually bleed from their heads and when demons eat fairies, is quite an achievement to me.
_Richard
Pan'sYes! I try to buy the screenplays when I can find them to study how things were done. (I need things on paper )
Um...doesn't Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis count as magic realism? If so, it's the only one I read and, even though it threw me for a loop at first, I ended up really enjoying it.