Quote:
Originally Posted by Skip_intro
Aren't 'Speculative Fiction' and 'Magical Realism' terms used by writers when they don't want their literary credentials sullied by having written what would normally be called Sci-Fi or Fantasy?
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Ooh! I've been waiting for this moment ever since I got my English degree. I just didn't know it until now.
"Magical Realism" isn't fantasy and shouldn't be used as such. "Magical Realism" is when the book is set in OUR world but then stuff starts going impossibly wrong and no one really bats an eye. An example would be Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" where a character turns into a satyr while in a police van and the police just keep on abusing him as though this is a perfectly normal occurrence.
Generally, "magical realism" is meant to convey something about the nature of humanity and is not really about the fantastical elements so much as it is about the metaphor.
I wouldn't call it a *genre*, though. A book can HAVE magical realism, but I wouldn't classify the book as "fiction (magical realism)". That's just me, though.
