MX Linux Forum

BitJam wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:38 pm This is called magic realism or magical realism in English. I've enjoyed the magic realism of Haruki Murakami more than somewhat.

Murakami is fab...you might also like George Saunders

For me, magical realism has the same problem that fantasy does: it destroys the challenge of plot construction that distinguishes high-quality writing. At any point where s/he does not know what to do, the author can simply invoke a deus ex machina and--bingo, all done!

@Eadwine Rose, I had never heard of Nanwrimo. For others who have not, here's a link to their site: https://nanowrimo.org/

Jerry3904 wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:40 am For me, magical realism has the same problem that fantasy does: it destroys the challenge of plot construction that distinguishes high-quality writing. At any point where s/he does not know what to do, the author can simply invoke a deus ex machina and--bingo, all done!

I don't know exactly what you mean but I think you're wrong or maybe you've only read some authors who do this. Can you give an example of this? I mean name some story/novel by some author who do this. Good writers, the good ones; Salman Rushdie, read "the ground beneath her feet" by him, is such a great story, you'll love it. Rudyard Kipling, read "the phantom rickshaw and other tales by him, you won't regret it. Gabriel G. Marquez, read "On love and other demons (del amor y otros demonios)" my favourite novel by him. Edgar A. Poe, read "the angel of the odd", you'll have a good laugh. None of these authors ever invoked a "deus ex machina" to solve any unsolvable plot. Magical Realism isn't about happy or sad endings since they dont write for the ending but for the plot itself; the reader's journey through their story. Well, at least that's how I see it but you know...there's no accounting for taste.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:51 am

Moltke wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 6:58 pm Oh..you were talking about your writing style. What do write by the way? If I may ask. I write "fantastic reality" (at least this what they call it in spanish, "realidad fantastica") or I try to. This is when you mix real facts with fantasy, adding some absurdity and sarcasm to the most trivial things so they become something more like a fun-sad story. My favourite author is Edgar A. Poe who was one of the first in doing this. In spanish, the late authors Gabriel G. Marquez, Horacio Quiroga and Julio Cortazar were also writers who used this style. Luis B. Garcia uses this style too as well as many others.

This particular one is non fiction. They are things that actually happened to me at work. Of course some events were merged together because one small thing isn't interesting enough to make a chapter out of, and names were obviously changed. But the things I have written are real events.

The last time I wrote a novel was a fantasy novel about a boy who ran away and met a dragon. That one never got finished, and I should have this somewhere but no idea where hahaha.

And then back in the day mostly poetry as it was an easy way to cope with what I was going through in my life.

Writing has always been one of my hobbies, and back when Nanowrimo happened I figured: hey.. you have wanted to for so long, GIT!

I see. More like "chronicles"?

BitJam wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:38 pm

Moltke wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 6:58 pmI write "fantastic reality" (at least this what they call it in spanish, "realidad fantastica") or I try to. This is when you mix real facts with fantasy, adding some absurdity and sarcasm to the most trivial things so they become something more like a fun-sad story. My favourite author is Edgar A. Poe who was one of the first in doing this. In spanish, the late authors Gabriel G. Marquez, Horacio Quiroga and Julio Cortazar were also writers who used this style. Luis B. Garcia uses this style too as well as many others.

This is called magic realism or magical realism in English. I've enjoyed the magic realism of Haruki Murakami more than somewhat.

Thanks for the clarification! I haven't read Murakami but I will :) By the way, here's a link listing and reviewing some good online communities for writers https://nybookeditors.com/2015/11/11-to ... n-and-why/

manyroads wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 9:53 am @Eadwine Rose, I had never heard of Nanwrimo. For others who have not, here's a link to their site: https://nanowrimo.org/

Wow.. really??

Well.. good thing to know then, for the 2019 Nano :)

I don't know exactly what you mean but I think you're wrong or maybe you've only read some authors who do this. Can you give an example of this? I mean name some story/novel by some author who do this. Good writers, the good ones; Salman Rushdie, read "the ground beneath her feet" by him, is such a great story, you'll love it. Rudyard Kipling, read "the phantom rickshaw and other tales by him, you won't regret it. Gabriel G. Marquez, read "On love and other demons (del amor y otros demonios)" my favourite novel by him. Edgar A. Poe, read "the angel of the odd", you'll have a good laugh. None of these authors ever invoked a "deus ex machina" to solve any unsolvable plot. Magical Realism isn't about happy or sad endings since they dont write for the ending but for the plot itself; the reader's journey through their story. Well, at least that's how I see it but you know...there's no accounting for taste.

I love your amazing assumption that I have not read those and, if I would just do it, I would of course agree with you ...

Gordon Cooper wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:38 pm These days use Libre Office or Lyx. Lyx has the advantage of doing the layout for you. Both Lyx and Libre Office provide for chapters to be edited
and moved individually.

+1 used LyX for writing a thesis 15 years ago, was great... It improved a lot since. Used pybliographer for bibliography, works well with LyX (when KDE, I think it was Kbibtex). Advantage of LyX, you don't need to know Latex, or care about formating, just write, you can change format for different publishers easily (maybe a bit not so, when you need to use some special format of footnotes like say European universities would expect, so need to install some extra latex packages and adjust a bit in Latex). Anyway, the job was done easier than OO or LO then, especially when docs get longer, it still doesn't hang...

I heard people who need to use math formulas praising Texmacs too.

Jerry3904 wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 10:24 am

I don't know exactly what you mean but I think you're wrong or maybe you've only read some authors who do this. Can you give an example of this? I mean name some story/novel by some author who do this. Good writers, the good ones; Salman Rushdie, read "the ground beneath her feet" by him, is such a great story, you'll love it. Rudyard Kipling, read "the phantom rickshaw and other tales by him, you won't regret it. Gabriel G. Marquez, read "On love and other demons (del amor y otros demonios)" my favourite novel by him. Edgar A. Poe, read "the angel of the odd", you'll have a good laugh. None of these authors ever invoked a "deus ex machina" to solve any unsolvable plot. Magical Realism isn't about happy or sad endings since they dont write for the ending but for the plot itself; the reader's journey through their story. Well, at least that's how I see it but you know...there's no accounting for taste.

I love your amazing assumption that I have not read those and, if I would just do it, I would of course agree with you ...

Well, I didn't assume you hadn't read them I was simply suggesting that you did but if you have already read them then why do you say that the magical realism abuses of the "deus ex machina"? And just for the record I'm not trying to be controversial or anything of that sort, I'm just curious in knowing your reasons, maybe I'm the one who's not seeing the obvious and I'd like to know thus improving my understanding of this writing style. Besides, that's the great thing about literature; anyone can have their own opinions and everyone can be wrong/right. Like I said, there's no accounting for taste. :)

Cheers!

Jerry3904 wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:40 am For me, magical realism has the same problem that fantasy does: it destroys the challenge of plot construction that distinguishes high-quality writing. At any point where s/he does not know what to do, the author can simply invoke a deus ex machina and--bingo, all done!

That's the thing I liked about Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. He said his barbarian was too dumb to figure things out so he had to fight his way out of bad situations :) Just brute strength, no deus ex machina.

I'm currently reading a novel where they use cows to power their "hyperdrive." A big starship can cross the galaxy in days on the power of 500 cows. They took the cow that jumped over the Moon and, by selective breeding, went from a short hop to much longer trips. This is okay with me because I know it's a farce, but I don't much like stories where they try to do such fantastic things non-farcically.

I understand that fantasy writers and readers have their own kind of "code" for what kind of magic is acceptable in each particular fantastic universe, and that the writers are expected to stay within those rules, so it's not really a case of laziness in that sense that allows them to get the hero out of trouble with the wave of a hand. Still, I prefer to read stories where the author is constrained by the known and physically possible forces of nature. In other words, I like science fiction and resent that it's categorized with fantasy.

I agree with you, Jerry. There is a certain laziness in using magic instead of realism. But if you're in that space where writers and readers agree on the rules, then it's all right. Just, please, keep it in there.-)