any hints of magical realism yet?

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Steig Larsson. Imported from the Uk

magical realism?

it ain't magical realism until the character inexplicably turns into a dove and flies out the window

So that's the deal breaker ah? Good to know. Makes things a helluva lot easier on a consumer level.

Does Labyrinth count as magical realistic cinema, even though it's an owl that David Bowie turns into, and not a dove?

On the nightstand:

The Early Stories: 1953-1975 by John Updike
To Catch a Spy by Stuart M. Kaminsky

By the way, did anyone mourn Updike's passing? I know I did. Way back in high school, his books inspired my interest in writing and literature.

Does it have a Latin American connection? Does it feature a lot of old guys masturbating? is it unreasonably long?

Faulkner was a magic realism writer. Hardly South American.

Not that the discussion was extremely serious.

not really. i don't know there was ever such thing-- yeah, the people of the "boom" took it from carpentier, but garcia marquez for example claims faulkner, virginia woolf and kafka as his literary ancestors.

the other thing is that many elderly South Americans had nothing to do with magical realism-- Vargas Llosa for example, among the most famous, aspired to be the "Latin American Balzac". i'm not saying he achieved this (i don't like him much), but the stereotype plagues the region. Borges on the other hand wrote outright fantastic fiction-- he was into HG Wells and a number of british cunts whose names i can't recall this very moment.

garcia marquez actually says that he simply told stories the way his grandmother used to tell them so "elderly south american" would be correct in this sense-- however elderly south americans aren't the only ones who converse with dead people-- mexicans too (see juan rulfo), but same with the bible-- i mean, people living 900 years and seeing god in a burning bush is nothing new.

Yeah, and yet you go into any literature class and the first two words that leap out whenever a latin american writer is mentioned ... 'magical realism'. A continent reduced to a genre. not cool.

I hate it when people ignore my questions.

Goodbye 20th Centrury.

I found out about Updike through a friend's Facebook status, like a few hours after he died, so I mourned with her through comments. It was sort of weird.

As for magical realism, I think if you're going to reduce a continent to a genre, that's certainly the most respectable genre to be reduced to. I fucking love it.

My girlfriend at the time bought me Rabbit Redux to read. We split up while I was half way through it and I've never finished it. That's my sad story for the day out of the way.

I've actually only read a couple short stories by him, and didn't like them at all. But I do like his nonfiction/criticism stuff, and he had that likable aura about him.

I sort of want to picture these posts being read at his funeral, but I feel bad...

Wasn't he one of those who got into that huge spat with Tom Wolfe, completely attacking his novels? John Irving was one of the others attacking Wolfe, and someone else. It was really out of control (as so far as a debate between middle-aged writers about literary styles can get 'out of control')

Getting way out of hand is what critics do.

Actually, I'm a strong believer in encouraging critics to be severe with literature. In that sense, you can get the most complete benefit from the text's existence. Regardless of whether it's right or not. Authors should be prepared for that, and even hoping for it.

Also, Tom Wolfe is whiny.

that is the truth!