Magical Realism Interviews, Part 2

Ryan Heerwagen, another literary maven, leads a book club founded with The Fellowship of Freethought, an umbrella organization with a broad yet discerning matrix of academic groups. These are his stories.
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1. Could you describe your background in literature and education?

I am the organizer for Skeptical Theological Discourse, a group associated with the Fellowship of Freethought. My group has the role of critically examining religion, religious texts, religious philosophy, religious psychology, and related phenomena for the purpose of pushing past knee-jerk reactions to religion for the purpose of better understanding it, finding value in it, and better understanding reality. In my role, I select religious texts or texts discussing religion, many of which are literary classics. I research scholarly views on these texts, then facilitate a discussion involving laymen about the meaning of the text.

2. What does the genre of Magical Realism mean to you?

Magical realism is the genre that likes to play with our simple categories of what is natural (Realism) and what is fantastic (Magical), to fully blend them, using symbolism, in ways that seems authentic to both. This is in opposition to Fantasy, which often contains both, but is not blended through clear symbolism.

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?

My favorite book is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I'd say that the book is special to me because I'm a pretentious jerk, and Danielewski's critique of academia and academics makes me feel like I have special knowledge and am "in on the joke". I also like the horror in it, however, and find the mild perturbation of a house bigger on the inside than the out tying to this Lovecraftian monstrosity fascinating.

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?

I especially like how in the book the message is all couched in this extended academic commentary with entirely mundane messages found within the entire mess. The entire Navidson arc is about love and not magic, which is just fascinating. If the book was all magic, the connection with the reality of a romantic relationship would be obscured with mystical language. If this [book] was all real instead of the fascinating horror of the house playing a symbolic role, [readers] would instead only have the rather mundane disputes of the couple.

5. If you had to recommend a book with Magical Realism to someone new to the genre, which one would you pick?

I would pick Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This may be a matter of bias due to my interests, but I think that starting off with a very popular book can allow for easier engagement with the text. One thing I've noted about the Bible is that it's very long, and much of it is incredibly boring, but it's very easy for people to get into it, to talk about it, to find others to talk with, and to explore simply because [the Bible is] a long-standing cultural touchstone. Life of Pi is also not a bad book by any means.


(R. Heerwagen, personal communication, 2015, April 19)

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Link List:

Mark Z. Danielewski:

The House of Leaves

Yann Martel:

Life of Pi

Please comment if any links are broken!