I think the best way to consider the difference between fantasy and reality is to consider its impact on the reader. So I have to respectfully disagree with the king.
The amygdala is a crude but lightning fast instrument. The flicker we all get in the peripheral vision, and secrets our parents tried to keep but which we all felt, is where ghosts come from. However, anyone who has heard a woman screaming in the forest and followed the sound into the mouth of a mountain lion will find the origins of fantasy very real. Gabriel García Márquez, the king of magic realism and author of the Nobel Prize winning 100 Years of Solitude, said, “Fantasy has nothing to do with the reality of the world we live in it is purely fantastic invention, an inspiration, and certainly a diversion ill-advised in the arts.”
Native American writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko write about things that most Caucasian Americans would call unreal, but which are very real to her. Roman mythology was at one time considered real now the word myth is synonymous with lie. Orthodox Christians consider God and the Bible real. In magic realism, by contrast, the characters react to the magical as though it is ordinary.Ĭomplicating both these definitions is the fact that the concept of reality is culturally defined. I’ve heard people say that the big difference is that in fantasy, the characters are amazed, stunned, and shocked by the magical events, as when the glass suddenly disappears at the zoo in Harry Potter, and everyone screams. Of course, magical things happen in both fantasy and magic realism, so that doesn’t help us. The most common definition of fantasy is “literature in which magical things occur” or, as the Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms defines it, “literature which creates its own coherently organized worlds and myths.” But if you’re reading about women ascending bodily to heaven, you’re probably reading magic realism.Ĭonfused? You’re not alone. At the same time, in an interview with Jesmyn Ward Coates said that long ago he promised his mother he’d write a romance for her and this book is the result.If you’re reading about dragons, chances are, you’re reading fantasy. The Water Dancer doesn’t shy away from hard truths. True to form, Coates’s fiction debut engages directly with the histories of slavery and racism in the United States. This is how he learns about his ability to Conduct, which eventually connects him to the Underground Railroad. When his white half-brother drowns, Hiram lives because of his gift. Conduction gives him the ability to transport himself (and potentially others) when water is present. Hiram Walker is an enslaved man in antebellum Virginia who has inherited the power of Conduction from his mother. However, if you’re familiar with his work on Black Panther, then The Water Dancer is likely a welcome addition to his fiction. If you’ve only heard of Coates’s nonfiction (such as Between the World and Me or We Were Eight Years in Power), you might initially be surprised that The Water Dancer is by the same author.
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