True Story

[stinglikeabee]

A calm, cool night in Southern California. Two women lounge on uncomfortable faux-European chairs, the sort not meant for the plebeian use of zoning out in front of the television. The older of the two flicks the remote up in the air, flipping through several stations before settling on an annoyingly chipper animated show featuring a brown haired girl with a yellow headband.

Mum: Oh, this is a good show. This Haruhi Suzumiya is really funny, let me show you--

Me: *runs screaming out of the room before her mother does the Hare Hare Yukai dance*

Comments

[triestine.livejournal.com]

Your mom sounds great.

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

I'd substitute the word great with strange, but yeah :)

OT I was recently discussing the term magical realism with a friend, puzzling over its definition. Naturally Gabriel Garcia Marquez's works came to mind but we wondered if that's fair to view the genre only by Latin American works. Would you by chance know of any Eastern European novels that might be considered magical realism?

[triestine.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I always considered Bulgakov's Master & Margarita as an example of magical realism. My favourite book of all, Svetislav Basara's 'Rumours About Cyclists' (my translation, I think others might list it as 'The Fuss About Cyclists') definitely qualifies. Then there's Dragan Orlović with his 'Journal on the Minotaur'... In fact, in the ex-Yu we had a whole school of writers taking after Borges in particular, most notably Goran Tribuson.

I think the only possible 'trap' is that Eastern European writers have a thing for the surreal, which in some more nuanced works (more supernatural elements, less absurdity) might get confused with magical realism.

These few names are just off the top of my head since I woke up less than an hour ago, but I'll give it a proper think today since I love this topic, and get back to you.

/edited for grammar

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

I think the only possible 'trap' is that Eastern European writers have a thing for the surreal, which in some more nuanced works (more supernatural elements, less absurdity) might get confused with magical realism.

Yes! That came to mind when we started talking about works during the Communist era that were mentioned as sharing traits with magical realism. Unfortunately neither of us were well acquainted with Eastern European writing, so we were left wanting more.

These few names are just off the top of my head since I woke up less than an hour ago, but I'll give it a proper think today since I love this topic, and get back to you.

Please do! I was going to do a proper post asking for suggestions :) Your help is much appreciated.

[fictionalknight.livejournal.com]

hehehe! Your mom sounds like she's a riot. :D

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

Heh, sometimes!