Magical Realism vs. Urban Fantasy

Actually, as GGM wasn’t immediately obvious to me what or who it was referring to, my initial thought was that it was part of the title, but then after a few seconds of re-parsing the sentence I figured it probably was actually the author. And then I thought, as mentioned, isn’t it interesting how the assumption is we would know who that is, and searched GGM to see if everybody regularly referred to this person as GGM and I’m just woefully ignorant. But it seemed that nobody does actually do that, and so the assumption seemed to be that either you’d know who it was from the familiarity of the book title, or you wouldn’t at all and that’s that. And I didn’t know, which is fine. But after all that I did think that being cryptic about it seemed to me to be needlessly frustrating, which is what I was commenting on.

And now you know how my brain works.

Different strokes etc. My brain must work differently. I’m just like, “Whoever GGM is, it must be the author of the book.” Nothing particularly cryptic-feeling for me.

Don’t discount the elves…

I’d have no problem with calling it Urban Fantasy if it took place on a suburb, or an isolated farm-house, or even on a Space Shuttle! To me, the key is that it’s today’s world, such that urban environments and the technological support they imply exist in the story. The mere existence of a cell phone makes it “Urban Fantasy,” even if it all takes place in Death Valley.

What I’m gathering is that the “Real World” – of today – is the stage, and some kind of magic intrudes upon it, but doesn’t alter it fundamentally.

I’d never heard of him or of the book until two days ago.

Heh! You should see mine in action some day!

My first impression was that urban fantasy has beings from legend operating behind the scenes or openly in a modern setting. The old tales are true. Magic realism doesn’t have legendary or mythological beings, it’s just that cause and effect aren’t limited to the strict laws of physics.

In Water for Chocolate, a person’s emotions or intentions can leak out and affect the world around them. A character who’s frustrated with forbidden love cooks a meal and when her family eats it, they are also consuming and feeling her passion. One of her sisters is so affected that she bolts from the table, grabs a horse, and rides off to live with bandits. At the end of the book, the character who cooked eats candle stubs as a form of suicide. The wax is eventually lit by the heat of her broken heart and she bursts into flame. These things don’t happen in an “I found this old spellbook” way, but as if that’s just the natural way the world works.

In urban fantasy the magic is…magical. It’s special, and unusual, and there’s often an element of secrecy around it that only some people are “in” on.

In magical realism the magic simply* is*. No matter how fantastical the magic elements might seem to the readers, to those within the story it’s not remarkable, it’s simply accepted as part of the way things are by the characters.

Also magical realism tends to be more literary while urban fantasy is more pulp.

Most magical realist works don’t get categorized as “fantasy” and its authors are not “fantasy authors”

Urban fantasy is definitely in the fantasy / genre side of things

Sort of what I think Thudlow Boink meant when he said it partook more of “literary modernism.”

I confess, I cannot write in a “literary” style. I don’t comprehend it. Yeah, I can put in the occasional existential metaphor, and the obligatory allusion to other literary work – a nod to Tolstoy is easy enough – but, honestly, I am not sophisticated enough to do it properly. I write pulp. Heck, I miss the “Heroic Fantasy” genre that was popular in the 70’s! Gimme Conan. Or even Fafhrd!

(“Black was the pain of Brak the Barbarian…”)

ditto. so are these correct? if not, what are the correct labels for such a difference? i’m guessing just plain fantasy vs … ?

There are no labels. There are no lines or boxes or definitions, unless a publisher slaps one on the cover. There are huge free-form clouds of similar works, and labels get put on because people are pattern-makers and categorization makes life easier, but any individual work can have any of a dozen or a dozen dozen labels and be collected in various clouds depending on whatever point a person wants to make at the time. Or they take labels off, the way many actual science fiction movies and tv shows are carefully not called science fiction because to most people science fiction means only spaceships. (“It’s not science fiction; it’s about people.” Gag)

In my 40 years in the field, people agree less than they did when I started.

Urban fantasy is an offshoot of the “sword and sorcery” genre.

Magical realism is an offshoot of the “local color” genre.

(I’m kidding. Mostly.)

Why kid? this is mostly right.

Urban fantasy will tend to involve standard fantasy creatures: Vampires, demons, Were, fairies, wizards, warriors, etc.

Magical realism will tend to involve strange events which may or may not be occurring in the main characters (often a child) imagination.

Urban Fantasy takes noir tropes for it’s plots and characters. There will be a world weary hero who takes a lot of punishment but always does the right thing, a femme fatale, a wise old adviser, a ruthless completely despicable villain, a bad guy who has some traits of honor and nobility, colorful minor characters, etc. There is usually a climactic showdown, and often a romance novel style love story.

Magical realism is often a coming of age story and is always populated with a lot of charming eccentrics. Strange events occur, but no explanation is given. There is an overall wistful tone, reminiscent of someone nostalgic for a lost childhood.

Sure, they’re marketing categories, and there isn’t a bright line, but it’s not to hard for a publisher or bookstore employee to say “OK, this goes in mainstream lit, while that goes with the fantasy novels.”

mbh and Larry Borgia: I love this exchange! I feel comfortable with your definitions (or descriptions), not least because they match the way I am coming to sense the meaning of the genres.

I would say that some Urban Fantasy avoids the “noir” flavor, by taking on more of a “quest” flavor, or a “riddle game” flavor. But, yeah, there often are the stock characters you describe, and there often is a showdown.

(I’m currently writing a UF novel where the antagonist is a demon, and one of the protagonists is a “James Bond” type spy. And, yeah, it’s pulp. What can I say? I like this stuff!)

This is one of the first differences I identified between these genres, too.

It would actually never occur to me to categorize magical realism with urban fantasy. They simply feel far too different.

My account name, by the way, is a reference to one of my favorite magical realism pieces.

I googled “Crocodiles and Boulevards” and the first hit was a SDMB post having to do with some other topic entirely, posted by Crocodiles and Boulevards.

What is the allusion to?

To Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles, alternately known as Cinnamon Shoppes.

I don’t blame you for not spotting the allusion. It’s weak one at best, but I liked the sound of all the syllables in my username spoken together.

Not sure if this actually helps, but “magical realism” is usually considered a genre of Latin American literature. The term is usually applied to writers like Laura Esquivel, Isabelle Allende, and, yes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I just sent off for Street of Crocodiles, and One Hundred Years of Solitude is on my reading stack.

I’m starting to think that the Latin American connection is spurious; it seems to me that it would be like saying that Children’s Literature has a British connection, because of Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, A Child’s Garden of Verse, the Hobbit, etc. The connection isn’t really definitional, just incidental.

A genre doesn’t know the language it’s written in…

(Although Alexei Panshin noted that “Containers are accountable for what they contain.”)

That particular can of worms is already open. :slight_smile:

I think Latin America simply has a better established literary presence/history in magical realism. Magical realism, however, is clearly present in Europe and Asia as well. Just take a look at Murakami’s work, which is quite famous.

I’m unfamiliar with any magical realism out of Africa and Australia, but I’m sure it exists.

EDIT: Also, excellent choice in picking up Street of Crocodiles. It’s a very fast read at only a little over 100 pages.