Magic Realism: Difference between revisions

== Literature ==

* [[Gabriel Garcia Marquez]]' book ''[[One Hundred Years of Solitude]]'' popularized the term and is often considered to be the master work of the genre, and one of the most important pieces of universal literature written in the 20th century. A few years of rain, a gypsy who keeps coming back to life, a man who just sits in the basement and doesn't speak, and a couple dozen civil wars are some of the more normal aspects of the book. Marquez' other works also tend to feature this to a greater or lesser degree, such as ''A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings''.

* ''[[The Tiger's Wife]]'' features a lot of fantastical elements (most obviously 'the deathless man', who is exactly what he sounds like), which are being related at second- or third-hand and may or may not have happened.

* [[Diana Wynne Jones]] likes to play with this trope in most of her short stories. ''Plague of Peacocks'', ''Little Dot'', and ''Carruthurs'' are good examples. Even ''[[Dogsbody]]'' has this from Kathleen's point of view.

** Mexican Laura Esquivel's ''[[Like Water for Chocolate]]'', wherein the protagonist's feelings for her beloved are transferred into the food she is preparing, which her sister then eats, which causes her to literally burn up in passion—she goes to use the outdoor shower and ends up ''setting it on fire'' before a soldier of the revolution rides by on horseback, scoops her up, and they have passionate sex while riding away on the horse.

*** Magical cooking is a popular concept for magical realism and "straight" fantasy both within and without Latin America. See also ''[[Chocolat]]'', for instance.

*** And don't forget Rudolfo Anaya.

* ''And The Ass Saw the Angel'', by [[Nick Cave]], is either the paragon of [[Magical Realism]] or [[Unreliable Narrator|the narrator is even crazier than he seems]]. Or both.

* Walter M. Miller's ''[[A Canticle for Leibowitz]]'' seems to be straight post-apocalyptic [[Science Fiction]]—except for the recurrent appearance, over intervals separated by centuries, of a character who is clearly the [[Wandering Jew]].

** Not to mention ''[[Tear Jerker|Rachel]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Grales]]''...

** Much of Salman Rushdie's ''[[Midnight's Children]]'' is considered Magic Realism, as the children in the title have various powers and abilities ranging from beauty capable of blinding people to an ability to physically hurt people with words.

* ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'' is a normal life story and period piece, except the title character was born as an old man and ages backward.

* In ''[[Skellig]]'', ''a la'' the page quote, the eponymous character is a man with wings who might be an angel and who lives in the young protagonist's garage.

* Jonathan Carroll's novels, especially his earlier work.

* Pretty much the entire output of both Kelley Link and her husband Gavin J. Grant. In almost all of the stories the two have written, really weird stuff happens (ghosts, zombie apocalypse, a handbag that holds an entire town, a stream-of-consciousness television show that appears on random stations at random times) but no one reacts as if it was at all strange.

* Anything written by Alice Hoffman. A good example is ''[[Practical Magic]]''.

* Sarah Addison Allen's books.

* Flemish writers Johan Daisne and especially Hubert Lampo.

* Amos Tutuola's books depict magic realism in an African setting. The protagonists live in a world where they often come in contact with spirits of the Bush. A good example is ''[[The Palm-Wine Drinkard]]''.

* There's a whole sub-genre of historical fiction that fits this. Generally the earlier the era and/or the more non-western the culture dealt with, the more likely this is. Common features are prophetic dreams/visions, an individual or group of individuals with mystic knowledge and something like the Australian Dream Time.

** Steven Barnes' ''Ibandi'' novels set in Late Paleolithic Africa.

* Sharyn McCrumb's ''Ballad'' novels, sliceoflife/mysteries set in rural North Carolina featuring Nora Bonesteel an old woman who has "The Sight".

* Happens in two of [[Jodi Picoult]]'s books. In ''Change of Heart'', Shay Bourne is somehow able to cure one of his cellmates of AIDS and cause water to turn into wine. In fact, a priest specifically sees him as [[Messianic Archetype|a Jesus-analogue]]. The main focus of the book, however, is on the ramifications of the death penalty. The trope is in fact double-subverted because some of his miraculous acts have mundane explanations, but then the little girl who he donated his heart to miraculously brings her dog back to life. In ''Harvesting the Heart'', Paige has the ability to draw pictures of people and weave some of their hidden memories or desires into the drawing. The focus of that book is mainly on Paige's problems with being a mother.

* [[Ray Bradbury]] relies on this fairly often when not writing straightforward science fiction. The most obvious example is "Uncle Einar", possibly an homage to the Marquez story mentioned above.

* While Janet Evanovich's ''[[Stephanie Plum]]'' series mostly avoids this (except for Morelli's Great Aunt Bella whose curses are a case of [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]) the holiday oriented subseries feture Diesel (now with his own series), a magical bounty hunter who specializes in chasing "specials" (people with mutant powers) gone bad.

* Jo Walton's ''Among Others'' about a Welsh girl in an English boarding school trying, with the occasional help of the faerie to cope with life and the psychic attacks of her mother, an evil witch.

* [[Michael Chabon]]'s ''[[Summerland]]'' starts out as this. It revolves around a quirky little island community where it always rains (but always has inexplicably perfect weather at the local baseball field), and includes a [[Bungling Inventor]] who builds miniature airships, a teenage boy who's convinced that he's an android, and a 109 year-old retired baseball player. Then the [[Save the World]] plot starts, and it makes a [[Genre Shift]] into full-on [[High Fantasy]].

 

== Live Action TV ==