What does fiction have do do with real life? It has
nothing to say about the world outside your door. Perhaps when you were a child
you had the time to hear stories about dragons and magic. Now, though, you can't
see the point.
I have a secret for you.
The real world is alive in those stories, more alive
than in newspapers and textbooks. It's alive because lies are sometimes the
best way to tell the truth. The world is alive and the people who have told
their stories are alive inside of them. Sometimes, lies are the only way to
tell the truth and survive those who do not want to hear the truth spoken.
Nations rise and fall through the minds of their people, and people love
nothing more than a metaphor to give them terrifying, dangerous truth in a
candy wrapper.
Fiction is here to stay because there are few things
longer lasting than the memetic strings of contradictions in a human mind. If a
story is strange, frightening, or wonderful, it lasts.
As special subgenre of fictional literature, Magical
Realism has seen an unusual amount of national upheaval, war, and struggles for
human rights. Despite the genre's intensely political nature, many of its
English-language authors are popular household names, prominently featuring the
prolific Neil Gaiman.
Magical Realism started halfway across the world in
Latin America so that authors could capture the fantastic in the ordinary. When
authors include magic in their stories, assumptions we usually make about words
and reality become meaningless. Here, in
this confusion, is where we can hear things that are hard to hear, see things
that are invisible, and perform the greatest magic of all: actually changing
our minds.
This blog will update weekly to share recommendations
of books with Magical Realism from around the world and discuss the ways they
made history. I hope to find you here.
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