# Does Magical Realism have an opposite? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838 "2005-02-13T05:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/1 "2005-02-13T05:29:48Z")
Is there a genre of writing that is set in a “magical” setting, but with completely common place, human drama, plot lines? If there isn’t, there ought to be. What would we call such a genre, though? Mundane Fantasy doesn’t have a positive sound to it, so there must be a better label. If such a genre doesn’t exist, perhaps a writing challenge to create the genre is neccessary 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/2 "2005-02-13T05:40:58Z")
How about “fantasticodullness”? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/3 "2005-02-13T05:46:36Z")
What would you classify the movie The Fisher King? ---
**Author:** ![WaryEri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea666f/32.png) [@WaryEri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WaryEri)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/4 "2005-02-13T06:04:04Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Is there a genre of writing that is set in a “magical” setting, but with completely common place, human drama, plot lines? Lawrence Watt-Evans seems to approach this kind of thing sometimes in his Ethshar books. He’s got a pretty well flushed out fantasy world ( right down to having “fantasy” names that are as common in his world as John or Anne are in ours. Ethshar is full of Kelders and Sarais, even some main characters. I’ve always found that a nice touch). He’s not afraid to follow the day to day life of some pretty common characters for the entire story, while mentioning much grander real world events in passing. Ithanilin’s Restoration is a good example. Grand events are happening somewhere in the world, but the story just follows a middling talented wizard’s apprentice solving a minor personal crisis. No saving the world or restoring the rightful heir to the thrown or slaying the evil sorceror…just a fairly entertaining story about some pretty ‘common’ people in a fantasy setting, solving a problem that’s really only pressing to those involved. No one great or particularly important in the grand scheme of things is central to the story. Sorry, can’t resist a chance to gush about my favorite fantasy writer. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/5 "2005-02-13T19:27:24Z")
Wel[, since magical realism involves stories in which the fantastical is an ordinary part of everyday life, wouldn’t your genre be one in which nothing exciting happens but people are _really_ amazed by it anyway? “Oh my God! The sun rose in the east _again!_ I’m so fucking blown away!” ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/6 "2005-02-13T21:16:48Z")
I’m not sure I follow. Kind of an opposite of Urban Fantasy (Charles DeLint, for example)? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/7 "2005-02-13T23:06:12Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > I’m not sure I follow. Kind of an opposite of Urban Fantasy (Charles DeLint, for example)? From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical\_realism:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_realism:) > [@](#): > > Magic Realism (or Magical Realism) is an illustrative or literary technique in which the laws of cause and effect seem not quite to apply in otherwise real world situations. The term magic realism was first used by the German art critic Frank Roh to describe the unusual realism of primarily American painters such as Ivan Albright, Paul Cadmus, George Tooker and other artists during the 1920s, under whom traditional realism became subtly infused with overtones of the surreal and fantastical. The term grew popular in the 20th century with the rise of such authors as Mikhail Bulgakov, Ernst Jünger, and many Latin American writers, most notably Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, and Isabel Allende. Today, magical realism is used especially when referring to Latin American literature; it was first applied to such literature by the critic Arturo Uslar-Pietri, but only came in vogue after Nobel prize winner Miguel Angel Asturias defined his novels as fitting into the style. > > It is difficult to distinguish magic realism from conventional fictional realism. After all, the very plots, characters, and narrator of conventional fiction are not truly realistic. However, stories of magic realism tend to treat reality as completely fluid and have characters who accept this as normal. An encyclopedia reshapes the world to fit its descriptions or a stream of blood travels to tell a woman of the death of her son, and the characters simply accept these unprecedented happenings as mere events in their lives. > > Though magic realism has spread beyond these confines, it is worth noting that it often appears in societies with repressive, authoritarian or totalitarian governments and in post-colonial contexts. Thus, critics believe it may represent an accommodation to a severely dangerous form of political reality. > > Although what exactly distinguishes a magical realist novel from a merely fantastical novel is a problem that critics haven’t sorted out yet, there are a few characteristic differences that most readers agree on. Fantasy and science fiction novels portray an alternate world with its own set of rules and characteristics or experiment with our world by suggesting how a new technology or political system might affect our society. Magical realism, however, portrays a reality that someone believes in, once believed in, or could believe in. Magical realist works are often based on folklore, recreating the world as people in the past saw it. Through this, magical realists juxtapose two versions of reality on one setting or event. For instance, in his work The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier describes the execution of a slave leader. Carpentier reveals both the persepective of the white men that the leader is burned and the slaves’ perception, based on their own folklore, that he has escaped to return again when they need aid. Allowing for multiple views of reality in one text, one mundane and one marvelous, is a postmodern technique that challenges the universality of the dominant worldview. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/8 "2005-02-13T23:14:51Z")
There is a book called “Tooth and Claw” by Jo Walton. It’s a perfectly Victorian comedy of manners, except that all the characters are dragons. This sounds like the kind of thing you are thinking of? I don’t think it’s too common. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/9 "2005-02-14T00:24:07Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Is there a genre of writing that is set in a “magical” setting, but with completely common place, human drama, plot lines? If there isn’t, there ought to be. What would we call such a genre, though? Mundane Fantasy doesn’t have a positive sound to it, so there must be a better label. > > If such a genre doesn’t exist, perhaps a writing challenge to create the genre is neccessary 😛 Glen Cook’s _Garret, PI_ novels are set in a Fantasy world, but star a hard-boiled PI. That’s close. BTW–read them. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/10 "2005-02-14T00:28:49Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Glen Cook’s _Garret, PI_ novels are set in a Fantasy world, but star a hard-boiled PI. > [@Hello Again](#): > > There is a book called “Tooth and Claw” by Jo Walton. It’s a perfectly Victorian comedy of manners, except that all the characters are dragons. > > This sounds like the kind of thing you are thinking of? I don’t think it’s too common. Yep, those sound about what I had in mind. Thanks for the recs 😃 I don’t know, but the idea a typical Anne Tyler/Alice Hoffman/Elizabeth Berg drama set in wonderland strikes me as potentially funny. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-magical-realism-have-an-opposite/289838/11 "2005-02-14T00:48:30Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Yep, those sound about what I had in mind. Thanks for the recs 😃 I don’t know, but the idea a typical Anne Tyler/Alice Hoffman/Elizabeth Berg drama set in wonderland strikes me as potentially funny. YMMV Here’s a link to the first Garret Book, _Sweet Silver Blues_. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451150619/ref=pd\_sbs\_b\_2/102-1232838-4078548?\_encoding=UTF8&v=glance](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451150619/ref=pd_sbs_b_2/102-1232838-4078548?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) Damn good, too. Enjoy!