[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 6 KB, 324x500, 351h7cp.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1058676 No.1058676 [Reply] [Original]

"Magic Realism is like a polite way of saying you write fantasy."

Terry Pratchett

>> No.1058679

"I may have Alzheimers, but at least I don't have Alzheimers" - Terry Pratchett

>> No.1058682

...and you post the cover of Labyrinths to accompany that quote because? The term wasn't invented when it was published, and Borges always said he wrote fantasy. Not all fantasy is high fantasy with elfs and orcs.

>> No.1058695

>Not all fantasy is high fantasy with elfs and orcs
This a thousand times.

>> No.1058702

you do know that fantasy just means writing about a world where theres a supernatural element right? Stephen King technicaly wrote fantasy in the same way that Kafka's Metamorphosis was fantasy, same with Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, same with Goethe's Faust. Its just some fantastical supernatural element being used; whether its King's evil presence/object de jour or being turned into a vermin or never ageing because of a portrait or gaining all the knowledge in the world

>> No.1058716

>>1058676

is that a compilation of Borges stories? It's a pity that most of the stories with great argentinian background (the south, A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz) were left out. They are among Borges greatest. You have to read the original books, Ficciones and The Aleph.

>> No.1059138

I think the main distinction is that of the generic and the truly fantastic. There are 'fantasy' novels that I think come very close to 'Magic Realism' (Loosely defined), Mieville springs to mind as a quasi-case. The rise of fantasy in a contemporary setting (or even industrial, etc.) 'Speculative Fiction' seems to be the combination of the two. I think what makes a fantasy novel 'fantasy' to me is the use of cliches and generic standards. Fucking imagination is imagination, I just like books where unusual things happen in places I have never been.

>> No.1059143

oh wow. another attempt at summarizing a genre with a one-liner.

gtfo plz.

>> No.1059144
File: 14 KB, 234x200, 1277807694939.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1059144

>Terry Pratchett

>> No.1059150

>>1059143
Make me! Fantasy is fantasy.

>> No.1059154

Oh god I just had such incredible deja vu.

What the fuck.

>> No.1059157

>>1059150
you don't find fantasy in the literature fiction in your bookstore yet you find magic realism there. stop being retarded. and come back when you have a quote from a better author (and a better quote too). having a quote by a good author will at least give you some cred. coming on here with pratchett will just have you laughed at and most likely reverse trolled.

>> No.1059162

>>1059157
me again.

to add to this i will say i respect borges. now be gone with ye!

>> No.1059164

>>1059157
I'd love to see the empirical evidence that Terry Pratchett is a bad author.

>> No.1059170

>>1059164
>empirical evidence
>art

why do you ask for such things?

>> No.1059176

>>1059170
That's the point. You can't give empirical evidence that an author is good or bad. It's all a matter of tastes.

>> No.1059179

>>1059144
>>1059157

samefag. nobody cares about your pratchett hate boner.

>> No.1059184

>>1059179
actually you're wrong about the samefag. i'll respect your right to enjoy pratchett as long as you respect my right to consider his work useless except as an example on how not to write.

>> No.1059185

>>1058682
>>1058695
>>1058702
>>1059138
>>1059143
>>1059157
>>1059164
Talk about missing the point.

>>1059157
I prefer Wolfe: "Magic Realism is fantasy written in Spanish."

>> No.1059188

Terry Pratchett is a very polite guy, does that mean he writes magical realism?

>> No.1059191
File: 20 KB, 313x330, 1277420455697.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1059191

>>1059184
Sure are doing a good job respecting other people's opinions, the way you openly taunt them like that.

>> No.1059198

>>1059185
i think magic realism is fantasy that can also be considered literary fiction.

literary fiction according to wiki:
>Literary fiction is a term that has come into common usage since around 1960, principally to distinguish serious fiction (that is, work with claims to literary merit) from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character[1][2], the plot may or may not be important. Mainstream commercial fiction focuses more on narrative and plot.

this is why you don't find fantasy in the literature section and why you find magic realism there in my opinion.

>> No.1059201

>>1059191
you're right. that was a dumb thing to say. and to be honest i don't have issues with pratchett. it was mostly trolling to counter the troll in the op.

>> No.1059203

>>1059198
>since around 1960
>implying any ideas of the past 100 years have been of any cultural value

>> No.1059205

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" - Terry Pratchett

>> No.1059213

>>1059203
well, when you're not twelve years old anymore you'll see.

>> No.1059215

>>1059213
>implying anyone with an adult mentality won't notice that the past century has been filled with bad ideas about everything from politics to entertainment

>> No.1059218

>>1059191

what face is this from

>> No.1059228

>>1059215
>implying that only bad ideas have existed

lots of bad ideas, yes. but not all bad. anyways, if modern prose is older than 100 years it couldn't be by much. i'm thinking no farther back than mark twain. although i'm sure he had his influences too no one popularized it like he did.

>> No.1059253

Err, isn't the obvious difference between magical realism and fantasy that magical realism introduces its magical elements into an otherwise ordinary world without explanation or any posited mechanism where fantasy constructs an entire world-postulate in the manner of sci-fi?

>> No.1059267

>>1059218
the iron giant

>> No.1059271

>>1059253
Yes. Terry Pratchett is as unintelligent as he is a terrible writer. OP is a cult-following hipster douche.

>> No.1059290

>>1059253

I would direct you here: >>1058682
>Not all fantasy is high fantasy with elfs and orcs.

High fantasy is essentially any fantasy that does as you describe, where an author imagines a world of fantasy, but that doesn't describe all fantasy.

Magical realism is a type of fantasy just like high fantasy is a type of fantasy. So really Pratchett is right, but probably not in the way OP thinks.

>> No.1059294

>>1059271
>>1059267
Pratchett is funny. Also, bump.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Terry Pratchett

>> No.1059313

>>1059290

Maybe, but the mechanism is also important. Modern 'urban fantasy' still proposes a mechanism for the elements in it - it explains them, contains them, treats them as real things (except that of course its narrative focus is so frequently on explaining how they work, an admission of their unreality...). Some kind of brigands-and-thieves low fantasy (perhaps it's obvious that I know very little about fantasy) would still do the same. Whereas it's different when a bunch of commie true believers dance away into the sky in Milan Kundera's 'Book of Laughter and Forgetting'.

I like Terry Pratchett. Of course he can be wrong sometimes; I wouldn't blame him at all if he had a chip on his shoulder about acceptance of his work.

>> No.1059319

>>1059290

PS: out of curiosity, what does fantasy look like that does not "imagine a world"?

PPS: my impression is that magical realism follows the logic of dreams; fantasy, of schematics. Or maybe just waking life. I haven't thought this through.

>> No.1059324

>>1059313

It's not a central theme of fantasy as a whole to explain the supernatural. It is a common theme in many fantasy sub-genres, but not a requirement.

Magical realism features fantastic elements, therefore it is fantasy. Simple as.

>perhaps it's obvious that I know very little about fantasy

Then you're just out of your element.

>> No.1059329

>>1059319
>out of curiosity, what does fantasy look like that does not "imagine a world"?

Magical realism for one. It can also resemble myth or legend. Beowulf, Lanval, Sir Gawain are all works of fantasy that do not take place in an imagined world, but supernatural events occur.

>> No.1059335

>>1059319
>my impression is that magical realism follows the logic of dreams; fantasy, of schematics. Or maybe just waking life. I haven't thought this through.

That may be, but it's irrelevant if you're trying to argue that magical realism is somehow not fantasy.

Isn't fantasy as a whole the work of dreams? Dreams are a product of imagination, and people already try to explain dreams to give them a grounding value.