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2. In your opinion, does the magical realism of the past resemble the magical realism of the present? Feel free to elaborate.

M. ELIZA HAMILTON ABEGUNDE, Writer/Healing Facilitator, Chicago, IL

No. I think the term has broadened to include elements that one might normally consider sci-fi, horror, etc.

FORREST AGUIRRE, inventory analyst and managing editor for Ministry of Whimsy press, Madison, WI

Resemble, yes, replicate, no. I think that the same oeuvre runs throughout, but since the Latin American school of LMR was culturally bound by constraints of geography and time, the new LMR must be different. I think that the baton, as it were, is being picked up by the American surrealists, some of whom have produced stories or books wherein their surreality was tamed to the point that it might be considered LMR. Rikki Ducornet, for example, has done a wonderful job of restraining her surreality that some of her texts appear to be in the LMR vein. Steven Millhauser, Lance Olsen, Mary Caponegro, and Brian Evenson are others.

DOUG ANDERSON, Editor, KLANG, Seattle, WA

Science has postulated a soul-less universe; for better or worse this is the opoerating model of modern civilization. Poems don't get us to Paris or London. Math and machines do. Magic can be smuggled in -- or barely tolerated -- if it is the result of romantic frenzy or more often of psychological distortion (the wild or 'magical' events have been brought to you from the head of a disturbed soul, etc). To pull off magic/supernatural rips in the natural fabric -- like turning into an insect -- present day MR must lean pretty hard on the Real. García Márquez cites Kafka as an influence. Note how pedantic (though not boring) Kafka's detailing can get.

ANONYMOUS, translator, Spain

No, I think today's magical realism is rather more philosophical than in the past.

JOE BENEVENTO, Professor of English, Truman State University and writer (fiction and poetry), Kirksville, MO
jbeneven@truman.edu

If we think of the Boom writers in Latin America, the ones who first really made magical realism a catch phrase, well, then, no, I don't think contemporary attempts match up. That Boom period writing is so engaged with the most important elements of what Latin American literature and life is about; it feels to me that contemporary, North American attempts are too often marginalized or affected, though I'm no expert on all of what may be out there now.

ELLEN DATLOW, fiction editor, US

No. From the list you've provided on the website, today you are defining every fantasy that is written as Magic Realism. You appear to be using the term for anything containing elements of the fantastic. So what was once known as Magic Realism -- certain literary works emanating from Central and Latin America -- has been diluted to encompass all fantasy.

GLENDA GUEST, writer/academic, Australia
glendaguest@ozemail.com.au

Wrong question. Magic realism has always contained discussion, argument and dissention as to what its constitution is, right from the coining of the phrase by Roh. So to try to define present writing against a nebulous past is a futile exercise. For example, even in Latin America in the early discussions there was disagreement between Carpentier, Leal and Flores as to what made magical realism, and if Borges was a magical realist or a fabulist, or or or...! That said, however, a literary mode is infinitely flexible -- as with the mode of realism, magical realism contains many many forms of writing. The difference I see in much contemporary writing is that the concept of the marvellous is imposed ON something, and as such is false, with writers not understanding that the magical moment must evolve from something absolutely natural and REAL. That is, the marvellous is embedded in the real and is not an extraneous bit of glitter added to try to make an impact. As a form of writing, the type of magical realism that has evolved from the Latin American Carpentier's concept of lo real maravilloso (the marvellous real) is very grounded in place, and as such, is specific to the place being written about/from. My crystal ball tells me that this will still be so, but that the place may well be the landscape of the metropolitan as well as the natural. Indeed, this is not really a prediction as it has been happening in US and European writing for some time.

JAY MISKOWIEC, publisher & professor of English, Mpls. Community and Technical College, Minneapolis, MN
information@aliformgroup.com

As Carlos Fuentes once told me in an interview about magic realism, Gabriel García Márquez owns that real estate and he's not selling. The difference now will be how it incorporates the traditions of beliefs of various peoples and ethnic groups not necessarily of its originators in Latin America.

DON MUCHOW, sales, Dallas, TX
muchow@earthlink.net

A resemblance exists only to the extent that such material, regardless of its historical nature, draws the reader into the fantasy despite its manifest departure from known reality. But as the reality of the present differs from that of the past, the nature of magical realism must change.

DORENE O'BRIEN, writing teacher

I think magical realism will always remain connected to the fundamental tenets of its past, will always accept the inexplicable with aplomb, will always sweep readers off the linear, conventional literary path into a fantastic journey toward meaning, but I see a great expansion in theme, topic and approach that signals a renewed vigor in the genre, a broadening understanding of its versatility as a storytelling tool.

JOHN PROHASKA, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
muchow@earthlink.net

Yes and no. The makeup of MR remains unchanged. However, when overlaid onto a contemporary setting, the character is bound to change. Like folktales, MR is always a better fit when associated with times and places that are less skeptical than our own culture.

SARAH WEBB QUEST, freelance writer, South Yarmouth, MA

Yes. The magical realism of the past appeared in series like Amazing Stories and Twilight Zone. These series are again re-emerging.

KEN RAND, "semi-fulltime writer;" dayjob: part-time library shelver, West Jordan, UT
KRand27577@aol.com

No. Literature reflects the times, and the times are a-changing. Recall Fu Manchu. No Yellow Devil stories can find a current audience except as camp. Recall Tarzan. Such blatant racism was a reflection of the times. Rastus and Aunt Jemima and Bwana are all tropes of yesterday. More: people today see computers and virtual reality as no more interesting (or uncommon) than a pencil was a hundred years ago. We constantly rearrange reality as individuals and as culture.

JUSTINA ROBSON, writer, UK

I'm well out of touch on the pure magic realism front having read nothing since Love in the Time of Cholera. I can see its influences all over the place in speculative fiction and in fantasy, in crime and psychological thrillers, however, so I'd say it was widely adopted as a structural and thematic choice for many writers. I'm guessing its future mostly lies along these lines of crossbreeding.

MARJORIE ROMMEL, Publicist/Media Relations Consultant, City of Auburn, Washington; Teacher, Pacific Lutheran University (Poetry), Pierce College (Fiction/Biography), Highline College (Creative Writing), Auburn, WA
mrommel@qwest.net

Yes, and no. Magic is a very old concept, and while it takes different forms in different places and different times and conditions, it always represents the possibility that humans have power in the world. Magical realism, in all its forms and despite its somewhat misleading name, is much more inclined to point out that humans are inextricably connected to the universe, and that a certain kind of commerce takes place between them and it. During the so-called Age of Reason, which has extended far beyond its historically assigned time, such commerce was regarded as highly suspect by 'reasonable men,' and dismissed pretty much out of hand, though it never lost its currency among the common mass of the uneducated, who tended (and tend) to rely more on the evidence of their senses and the visceral veracity of powerfully told stories than on learned opinion derived from books and were contained within books. We find ourselves in the present day learning anew that the tales have substance, that magic is real, and may be simply another way of expressing connections that occur below the radar screen of the neo-cortex and beyond the ken of the logical positivists. Contemporary mainstream readers are excited by the return of such good sense. Listen: you can hear them turning pages and chortling in delight.

GARRETT ROWLAN, substitute teacher, US
growlan@jps.net

Personally I'm finding out that the magic realism that I was attracted to when I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude was predated by another kind of magic realism. The science fiction I read as a teenager, particularly Ray Bradbury, and TV shows like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits conditioned me to the supernatural. Also, I had been thinking about a collection of short stories I read as a teenager, The Other Place, by J.B. Priestly. These were stories of the supernatural that I had read at the age of 16. I had been searching for the book on the Web when, in a moment that felt almost supernatural itself, I found the book in perfect condition in a used bookstore. Re-reading the book, I'm finding that it pre-conditioned me to a lot of the supernatural and surreal tales -- such as The Unconsoled by Ishiguro -- that I subsequently read, years in the future.

ANDY SAWYER, librarian and lecturer, Liverpool, England
a.p.sawyer@liverpool.ac.uk

Literary genres evolve and mutate, so you would expect differences, even in the work of a specific writer.

TAMARA KAYE SELLMAN, editor and publisher/MARGIN

To me, older magical realism was so exclusively identified with Latin American writing that it's hard to perceive of magical realist work in the past that didn't also fit inside that category, even when it definitely existed.

And I don't imagine older magical realism as having a North American sensibility, though that, too, isn't the case. Look to Poe, Hawthorne, Wolfe, even Steinbeck and Faulkner, for magical realist touches.

Contemporary magical realism is not new to any other particular group or place or time, though; it's just our consciousness welcoming it as a universally honored worldview, rather than one limited only to the Central and South American hemispheres.

Otherwise, I don't see much difference in the writing, when it works. Magical realism is strange, funny, political, clarifying, beautiful and dangerous all at once, no matter when or where it is written.

BARBARA STEINHAUSER, writer, Parker, CO

I believe magic realism presents a less common, often earth-based spirituality and world view outside the culturally dominant perspective. I believe magic realism has expanded across cultures, as disenfranchised peoples discover its benefits, but I think its basic definition is the same.

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