Watching the Soldiers and Magic Realism
I find it a little incomprehensible that fantasy is rarely, if ever, considered to be literature, yet magic realism is one of the most highly praised forms of writing lauded by literary critics. What's the difference between fantasy and magic realism? According to Wikipedia, "magic realism is a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment." Mmm... smells like fantasy to me.
While within the fantasy genre there are obviously many sub-genres, the generally accepted two main types of fantasy are primary world fantasy and secondary world fantasy. In primary world fantasy the magical or fantastic elements appear in the real world. The Twilight trilogy is clearly in this category. Secondary world fantasy, on the other hand, takes place in a world other than our own real world. The Lord of the Rings is the classic secondary world fantasy (although Tolkien himself claimed he saw Middle Earth as being in our world's past). Of course, once you start trying to pontificate on clear cut distinctions, someone pops up and says, what about this or what about that. So what about Harry Potter, I hear you say? Harry definitely lives in the real world at the start of the series, so although Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic etc could be seen as a secondary world, because it's embedded in the real world, Harry Potter is a primary world fantasy.
It's all about the relationship the fantasy has to the real world.
So how does magic realism fit in, I hear you ask? Well, the magical elements appear in the real world, so it's definitely a primary world fantasy. However, there is a difference to the normal primary world fantasy. In magical realism, the characters within the world react to the magic as if were perfectly normal. In other words, they react to it the way characters would react to magic in a secondary world fantasy. The magic is seen as simply a normal part of the real world. So magic realism is a primary world fantasy where the magic functions as if it were a secondary world fantasy. Anyway, even if you don't agree with that distinction, it's obvious to me that magic realism is a sub-category of fantasy. There is no reason why it should be valued any more highly in a literary sense than any other sub-category of fantasy.
"Watching the Soldiers" is my deliberate attempt to write magic realism. The central image of the soldiers marching in the sky is impossible, yet the characters in the story don't see it as such. They see it as a normal part of their lives. It's set in what is obviously an Eastern European country, the sort of country that has been the battleground for Europe over many centuries. Interestingly, I must have gone some way towards capturing a sense of a real world place because it's been the only story of mine translated and published in Polish.
While within the fantasy genre there are obviously many sub-genres, the generally accepted two main types of fantasy are primary world fantasy and secondary world fantasy. In primary world fantasy the magical or fantastic elements appear in the real world. The Twilight trilogy is clearly in this category. Secondary world fantasy, on the other hand, takes place in a world other than our own real world. The Lord of the Rings is the classic secondary world fantasy (although Tolkien himself claimed he saw Middle Earth as being in our world's past). Of course, once you start trying to pontificate on clear cut distinctions, someone pops up and says, what about this or what about that. So what about Harry Potter, I hear you say? Harry definitely lives in the real world at the start of the series, so although Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic etc could be seen as a secondary world, because it's embedded in the real world, Harry Potter is a primary world fantasy.
It's all about the relationship the fantasy has to the real world.
So how does magic realism fit in, I hear you ask? Well, the magical elements appear in the real world, so it's definitely a primary world fantasy. However, there is a difference to the normal primary world fantasy. In magical realism, the characters within the world react to the magic as if were perfectly normal. In other words, they react to it the way characters would react to magic in a secondary world fantasy. The magic is seen as simply a normal part of the real world. So magic realism is a primary world fantasy where the magic functions as if it were a secondary world fantasy. Anyway, even if you don't agree with that distinction, it's obvious to me that magic realism is a sub-category of fantasy. There is no reason why it should be valued any more highly in a literary sense than any other sub-category of fantasy.
"Watching the Soldiers" is my deliberate attempt to write magic realism. The central image of the soldiers marching in the sky is impossible, yet the characters in the story don't see it as such. They see it as a normal part of their lives. It's set in what is obviously an Eastern European country, the sort of country that has been the battleground for Europe over many centuries. Interestingly, I must have gone some way towards capturing a sense of a real world place because it's been the only story of mine translated and published in Polish.