Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Creation >

Magic Realism Made Fun!

21:34 / 01.06.03

I have to do a 7 min. talk about Magic realism and I have to make it, um, magickal. I've got the information, I mean, it's pretty easy to explain what Magic Realism is but a lot of the grade depends on the creativity of the presentation. I have to make it fun and I'm at a loss. I don't think 7 min. is enough time to do something really cool. But I'm sure the collective fun power of Barbelith can give me so cool ideas. Help.

And I have to do it on Wed.

03:34 / 02.06.03

you could give the talk whilst acting as if you are peaking on lsd. sort of like that episode of brass eye where the execs are all doing drugs in the boardroom, and it's just completely bizzare and warped.

umm... that probably didn't help. magic realism is such a vauge concept.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

06:28 / 02.06.03

See if you can get hold of a large animal of some kind not usually seen in your area, and have someone walk it through while you are speaking.

Or have some of your friends dress up in tuxedos and spread out through the room, without speaking, giving out tiny chocolate truffles, to the rhythm of maraccas.

Make it a heightened experience.

10:34 / 02.06.03

"A practical example of magic realism. Several people, in the audience with you, are actors. I won't say how many. I have asked them to play roles very different from their normal persona. While I am giving the talk please see if you can tell the difference between them and the genuine audience memebers."

- a bit twee, but requires no preperation. You don't actually need any actors. Just change the perception.

or just tell the audience that there will be something very very subtle, but they'll know it when they see it.

10:58 / 02.06.03

Ask them whether they believe more in science or in love (if they had to choose) and other questions to heighten the distinction between realism and magical realism. You will of course be quoting Borges and Calvino I hope?

I like Elsware's idea. Or prepare the room with dozens of yellow rubber ducks beforehand.

12:09 / 02.06.03

Ideally there should be something utterly normal in the room, which once a way of looking it is pointed out, will be impossible not to see in that new light.

Or my pet superstition:

"Have you ever walked over a bridge, or by a pond or cliff and had the irrational urge to throw something in? I don't mean a stone or something. What I mean is something actually valuable. Valuable to you. Maybe your car keys, or lunch money, or some 99pence/cent jewelry that you've grown fond of. Congratualations you were offered the wishing well - it's not just wells y'know. Did you make the sacrifice? Did you get what you wished for?"

Most people have (in my limited research) felt that tug to destroy or cast away something of value.

13:49 / 02.06.03

Thanks guys, this is really really helping. Any more ideas?

13:51 / 02.06.03

Q, have any good quotes by Borges and Calvino?

14:20 / 02.06.03

How exactly are you defining "Magic Realism"?

14:32 / 02.06.03

as you lecture have people wander around outside the window dressed all in green, performing magic tricks, in formal dress strolling hand in hand. or set off some chemical smoke in some bright color just before. they will see it drifting by.

15:00 / 02.06.03

I don't like the idea of doing anything "staged". From having just done some quick background reading, it's about seeing the magic in the mundane. If your audience are smart, they'll be pretty unimpressed with gimicks.

Another idea... (which can easily be adapted to whatever resources are available) Take 10 sticks about 2 foot long and throw them all on the floor to make a random pattern. Ask the people in the room to memorise it then collect the sticks up again. The significance of the pattern? only the people in the room saw it, nobody will EVER see it again (avoid cameras!), it has created a small but permanent bond between everybody present as they have seen something brief and unique. Sure, it's not very important, but the only importance anything has is what we give it.

15:38 / 02.06.03

I'd bring in quotes from invented sources. Perhaps cite scholars in your own family tree (in a parallel reality).

Better yet, focus your entire presentation on a fictional author (Pierre Menard, perhaps -- from Borges), and discuss how his work was influenced by Marquez, Borges, Kafka & all them. Even trace a path of his voyages through South America and Eastern Europe... maps are fun.

I've been reading The Khazar Dictionary lately, which is pretty durn magically real, and fun. You probably won't have time to get into it, unfortunately. Still, a side reference to your fictional author encountering "Khazar scholars" or "researching Muslim sources on the Khazar question" would be enough to clue in people in the know. The Khazar Dictionary is a "lexicon novel" (a novel written as an old-fashioned encyclopedia, or rather, three old-fashioned encyclopedias) about an ethnic group, the Khazars, who disappeared sometime in the 10th century, after converting to either Christianity, Judaism or Islam (historical sources are unclear -- magically so). Very much in the "Tlon, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius" vein.

15:39 / 02.06.03

As a note, the map should include countries that no longer (or never did) exist.

And the Khazars may or may not have actually taken refuge in people's dreams rather than be converted.