I feel like this thread from earlier (and my response) is a good response to this one https://hexbear.net/post/217485/comment/2768512
Well so one big hang-up for me is the blurring of science/technology and magic, both sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and its converse. But I am just being a nerd there so let’s skip that.
This is such a huge thing though. So many people today don’t want Magic to be Magic. They want a setting that is Magic-Punk. Magic as a technology, as a science, and as a resource.
What is the point of magic if not an exploration of a reality that is not our own? Why in the hell would mages be content to slave away under the shackles of capitalism? (speaking here of setting where mages are often just more efficient labors, in some settings replacing able-bodied people as the proletarian class entirely!) If these mages are so powerful and common they can constitute an entire working class, then at least be realistic an interesting; the cities would devolve into gang warfare and lawlessness almost immediately. the average worker has guns for hands!!
I tend to be into fae-wildy, Kind Of Other Dimensions But Incomprehensible To Us, Chaos Magick-y type stuff.
fuck yes, this! if there exists a shimmer of another possible world, why doesn’t it rupture everything in this fantasy? why the fuck would you write a story that takes new possibilities and shackles them to the horizon of our neo-liberal world??
i know that’s the concept, but i think it’s an apt name for the genre known as “magical realism”. except smug liberals would hate to admit to themselves that their ideology has a choke point
on the other hand if Magic is Magic you have to justify why nobody made an attempt at rigorous study of it and how anybody has learned to do anything with it.
Often it’s as simple as magic doesn’t have consistent rules that can be rigorously studied, and you just have to rely on vibes and stuff an old dude told you and hope for the best. Also having to ask nature spirits and gods for help and kind of just hoping they like your offering of cigarettes and whisky enough to help you.
Often it’s as simple as magic doesn’t have consistent rules that can be rigorously studied, and you just have to rely on vibes and stuff an old dude told you and hope for the best
huh i thought we decided deus ex machina sorts of plot contrivances were bad.
It’s big in south american lit. Like 100 days years of Solitude uses it a lot - honestly worth a read even if you hate magical realism, it’s one of the world greats up there with War and Peace and shit. Maybe you don’t like the more modern magical realism like What We Do In The Shadows (or fucking harry potter lol)? Where there’s a masquerade keeping everything secret?
Yeah magical realism has the element where supernatural shit happens and it never gets acknowledged as something crazy. Like in 100 years where a ghost shows up and it’s played as a major annoyance and not horror.
a ghost shows up and it’s played as a major annoyance and not horror.
I feel like treating random ass ghosts as a horror thing is very :lmayo:
Not to nitpick but it’s 100 years of solitude, 100 años de Soledad, not days. The book takes place over about a hundred years and follows seven generations of a family in a fictional rural town in Colombia. It’s one of my all time favorite books and I’m even really excited for the Netflix adaptation (mini series, hopefully they’re still making it as I haven’t heard anything in years and I hope it doesn’t suck when it does finally come out).
100 Years of Solitude
Hell yeah. Seriously loved this book. It’s the only one I can remember finishing and being completely blown away by. I’ve gifted it several times even though I don’t think anyone I’ve gifted it to has actually read it.
It was the first full length book I read in Spanish after learning it as a second language (years into learning Spanish after already being fluent in speaking, I decided to start reading novels to continue improving), and yeah it is absolutely incredible. Definitely can be a bit confusing at parts with how many characters have similar or the same names etc but it’s a hundred percent worth it.
Understandable sentiment, and not sure if Gabo ever would have gone for it himself, but his wife/son who manage his estate did and gave their reasoning.
Basically, they say the reason Garcia Marquez never granted movie rights to his works was two-fold: one, the stories are too long to be squeezed into a feature length film and done justice and two: every time Warner Bros or whoever would come knocking they wanted to make a movie in English.
Netflix was able to show that they could do extended storytelling in Spanish for a global audience with shows like Narcos etc, so the estate agreed. Gabo’s son will be involved with the production, I’m cautiously optimistic that it could be a good adaptation.
Its what keeps the peso from crashing
