Magic Realism: Difference between revisions

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Kino's Journey]]'' portrays what seems to be a normal pastoral world, and in fact much of the technology is very similar to its real-world counterpart. But the show also has a talking motorcycle, a possibly {{spoiler|talking dog}}, and {{spoiler|portions of the countryside that move on their own}}. No one seems to find the unusual parts that unusual. May be set [[After the End]], although this isn't made clear.

* ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' might fit into this category better than [[Science Fiction]]. Among other things, it seems that dead people go to (or through) the Wired after they die, computer equipment can grow like vines, and the physical reality is as much "data" as the computer-world and can likewise be programmed by gifted individuals.

** 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.

* ''[[The Time Traveler's Wife]]''. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], folks.

* A big portion of Etgar Keret's stories. Few examples: A winged man pretending to be an angel, several magicians [[Magicians Are Wizards|capable of real magic]], [[And I Must Scream|soldiers who got turned into body targets]], a guy with mind-controlling ability (who uses it to get laid) and a boy who can control ants (and uses them to take the school away).

* Bruce Sterling's ''Zeitgeist'' set in the midst of Y2K hysteria and featuring one [[The Trickster|"Leggy" Starlitz]] and his [[Magical Girl|rather odd daughter]].

 

* [[The Golden Girls]]: Sophia encountered her husband's ghost twice, Blanche may have encountered her grandmother's ghost once, Dorothy may have been cursed by a witch, Sophia may have been a witch, the girls encountered bizarre dreams, and let's not get started about St. Olaf...

** Don't forget, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHBg0pA-2o God likes Rose]

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' was a wonderful, delightful comic about [[A Boy and His X|a six-year-old boy and his stuffed pet tiger]] who go on all sorts of crazy adventures. It's unclear to what extent Calvin is imagining the whole thing or [[Your Mind Makes It Real|believing makes it real]]. In particular, the strip was very cagey about the true nature of Hobbes, with evidence both for and against him actually being a sapient, animate being.

* ''[[Candorville]]'' is usually credible enough, allowing for a pretty serious undercurrent to the punchlines in Lemont's life. But every few months, he'll meet someone like a talking scarecrow, a ghost, or himself from the future.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* The Undertaker. He can apparently control lightning and fire, the arena lights always dim when he makes his entrance and then there's the rolling fog. None of the other wrestlers question this or even seem bothered by the fact that they are sharing a locker room with an apparent supernatural being. Except of course there was that brief time when he went around in a biker costume calling himself the American Badass.

** This was later worked into his gimmick as Taker got older and his body couldn't keep up with a rigorous schedule, working (at best) a few months out of the year. It's now explicitly stagecraft; the "power of the Undertaker" is his ability to awe through his mere presence, and being the most [[Badass Grandpa|long-running performer to still look good by his own merits]].

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. Real world setting, real guns, walking robots, magical floating psychics, autotrophic snipers, bee men, ghosts, and a bisexual, flamenco-dancing vampire. The original title featured a collection of [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] bosses, the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] of which was a floating, fourth-wall breaking psychic. Later games would expand upon this with a steady increase of Magic Realism. ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' dabbled with [[Doing In the Wizard]], but official [[Word of God]] is that Vamp was still immortal in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' and Ocelot {{spoiler|''was'' possessed, but had the arm removed and started faking possession instead}}.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' seems to take place in a fairly dull Californian city. Except for the fact that the protagonist purchases a functioning lightsaber on eBay and proceeds to off progressively more bizarre assassins. At one point {{spoiler|his mentor dies, but afterward the mentor's ghost continues his job working at the gym.}} No one seems to find any of this at all odd.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' is sometimes like this. Notably, the ghost segments, and Stinkmeaner coming back from hell to possess Tom Dubois.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' started out fairly ordinary but around Season 10 more and more ridiculous elements started showing up.

* One episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' had Luanne being visited by the angel of her dead boyfriend Buckley, though they kept it ambiguous whether she was imagining it or not.

 

* The ''[[Everything2]]'' short story, [http://everything2.com/user/Ignis/writeups/How+to+spot+a+powerful+mage?author=Ignis How to spot a powerful mage].

* ''[[The Residents]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki> "Bunny Boy" series is set in what could loosely be construed as "reality", if it weren't for such things as [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]], people who might not exist-but on some level do anyways, warped Bible prophecy, and just enough little additions and subtractions from what's "real".

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fiction]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction]]