 Drama: September 16, 2015 Issue [#7197] |
  Drama
This week: Magical Realism Edited by: Joy  
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“Chocolate is a kitchen witch’s secret weapon. It makes friends easily, soothes troubled spirits, and is conducive to romance. When nothing else works, go with chocolate.”
Alyssa Goodnight, Just Say Yes
“Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.”
Claude Debussy
"I just saw a picture someone had made on the internet – I can’t remember where – of a cup with a storm inside it and it was seeing that picture that made me think, 'Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you were sitting around somewhere and that actually happened? That would be brilliant.' ”
Dan Powell
“Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance.”
Oscar Wilde
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the literary mode of magical realism.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Once upon a time, I used to adore the kind of literature some called literary fiction, offhand, as if the genre fiction cannot be literary. Be it in a fair or flawed sense of the word, literary fiction focuses on the human condition in a realistic world and time, as social commentary and political criticism. This means the works like that of Faulkner, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Balzac and others, ancient or contemporary.
My later reading warmed me up to genre fiction during the 1980s and on. Still, the full-fledged sci-fi and fantasy stories passed me by. Although I enjoyed some of those, they didn't feel quite right. Then, a while ago, I started reading the Outlander series and was surprised at the revelation and enjoyment these books held for me. I found the language of the author, Diana Gabaldon, to be beautifully polished and the story construction perfectly executed, even in this series of long-winded stories. That was when I fell for magical realism head over heels.
As an explanation, the Outlander could be a normal historical romance set in the 18th century; yet, one of the two main characters is a nurse from the 20th century. The history and the lifestyle of both centuries are perfectly accurate. Believe me, I checked.  Later books in the same series throw in ghosts, Indian wise men, and women and slaves practicing witchcraft and voodoo. Still, it all felt possible to me, at least while I was reading.
Magical realism is not a genre but a mode of hybrid writing in contemporary fiction, and it is based on reality in a recognizable, mundane world or setting, but several magical elements are added to it in such a way that the reader comes to accept them as real because he learns to look beyond the limits of the knowable. The idea of magical realism first sprang from the visual arts and then took hold during the second half of the twentieth century, first in Latin-American literature, then slowly inching its way and spreading its roots into the world's fiction.
Though containing some of the qualities and nuances of fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction, magical realism is not the same as those genres. While the magical qualities and nuances of those genres are there, a deeper and heavier kind of reality is displayed more powerfully than what the conventional techniques of realism has achieved. In addition, magical realism is not the escapist fiction like the genres are. This is because the readers believe in and agree with the words and actions in the story as they read it, and they find the magical elements within the story to be integral parts of the characters’ daily lives.
As an earlier example, in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, the protagonist's feelings for her beloved are transferred into the food she prepares, and when her sister eats that food, it causes her to burn up in passion. A few other examples are: Practically all of Haruki Murakami’s works, Gabriel García Márquez's works such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Tony Kushner's Angels In America, which place in modern-day America, with angels, Biblical visions, ancestral spirits, and a dream sequence.
The basic elements of magical realism are:
 Place and time, as setting – Usually these are the most realistic, but time can be fluid.
Multiples planes of Reality
Rules and Regulations for every section or establishment inside the plot
Fantastic element or something magical that can be multiplied or added to.
Good characterization with habits, beliefs, and quirks
A confident, convincing narrator or the writer telling the story with authority: If the writer doesn’t believe what he’s telling, the reader won’t either.
What is not magical realism is when the magic can be explained through science eventually.
Is magical realism a narrative mode only for the purposes of literary exploration, without having its source in the writer’s mythological or cultural background, or will it also contain urban legends and other elements to evolve into a specific entity? This, I believe, time will tell, but in the meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy stories written through the mode of magical realism.
Until next time, may the magic be with you! 
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 Enjoy!
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WdC Members' Articles on Writing
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 This Issue's Tip: Most human conditions are made up of conflict. When you write up a character sketch, don't just say he is an introvert or an aggressive person, but search for the conflict behind that character trait.
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Feedback for "Surprise Endings"
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Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
Excellent Newsletter, Joy. I loved your list of surprise endings, and what to do, as well as what to avoid when ending a story. Good advice!
I am one of those readers who tend to tire of predictable endings if they have been made obvious too early on in the story. Sometimes, burying those "hints" a little longer, builds up the suspense for the reader. This is especially important in mystery stories. Give readers a couple options of suspects for a while before fleshing-out the real suspect by releasing the "hints of evidence" bit by bit. You want your reader to say, "Oh, yeah, it's got to be her!" It makes the reader want to get all the way to the end of the story to see if he was correct.
~WW
Thank you, WW. I like such endings, too. Not to take away from other endings, but especially in mystery and suspense stories some surprise with carefully placed hints is the way to go.
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Quick-Quill 
Submitted item: "Little David"
This story came to me as a prompt. I'm the eldest of 5 siblings who felt like this about my siblings.
Being the eldest must be difficult, but I still feel for the duck.
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