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1.
Could you describe your background in literature and education?
I
graduated high school but have no college education. I'm a substitute
teacher and I love teaching history and literature. The school is
familiar with my habit of bringing my Kindle with me wherever I go.
2.
What does the genre of Magical Realism mean to you?
Magical
Realism is sort of a cross between literary fiction and urban
fantasy. There's nothing as fantastical as biker gang wizards, but
there is an undercurrent of magic and miracle beneath the main
storyline.
3.
Please name one of your favorite books that uses Magical Realism, or
one of your favorite authors. Why is this book or author special to
you? What do they do exceptionally well?
The
Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman. The author combines
the fairy-tale feeling of memories with the realism of adult
retrospective on a terrible, abusive episode from the protagonist's
childhood. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite fantasy authors because
of how well he evokes the mystical and the collective unconscious
across a wide range of fantasy genres. This book in particular became
very personal to me when it triggered my own flashbacks of abuse that
I witnessed and was a victim of.
4.
What part of the message from the literature in question 3 was
important to you? What do you like about the way the message was
stated?
The
Ocean at the End of the Lane is an important book to me because
of how it breaks open old mental and emotional wounds to help heal
them. Many people, especially people for whom fantasy has often been
an escape, have lived through abuse, and this book both illustrates
and heals it.
5.
If you had to recommend a book with Magical Realism to someone new to
the genre, which one would you pick?
The
Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker. [The novel is] primarily
literary fiction, but the main characters are the titular fantasy
beings, stuck in historical New York with all the baggage, positive
and negative, of their cultural mythos. The author is a Jew married
to a Muslim-- the story is one that addresses, in the safer setting
of Magical Realism, the cultural barriers between the two worlds.
(E. Carter, personal communication, 2015, April 18)
(E. Carter, personal communication, 2015, April 18)
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