Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Please help me understand the difference. Cheryl Klein's recent post left me curious.

A simple way to distinguish the differences between paranormal and magic realism is how a cultural setting does. Paranormal phenomena are outside the general belief systems of a culture, magic realism inside. In fiction, a cultural setting that believes some characters can communicate with the dead would be magic realism. A cultural setting that wishfully thinks (also knows as magical thinking) some characters can communicate with the dead would be paranormal.

I'll agree with polymath and add a few extra layers.

The simplest layer (and the one that's most practical and least artistic) is simply a matter of genre. Magical realism is typically the province of literary writers, while paranormals are typically genre stories. Basically, where would the book be shelved in a bookstore? Is it a paranormal romance shelved in the romance section? An urban fantasy in the fantasy section? Or would it be found in the horror section? If so, it would probably file under paranormal more than magical realism. If you'd find it next to Marquez or Murakami, however, you're probably talking magical realism.

On a more specific level, a paranormal tends to be about the paranormal element. That is, the paranormal tends to be the focal point. It is part of the setting, the world, of the story. It is, in a sense, often an alternate reality. What if...? And then the story explores that what if and runs with it. The story is about understanding the fantastic, explicating the impossible.

Magical realism, on the other hand, tends to be the opposite. It is about the unexplainable. Reasons are rarely given. It is not about logic, about what if...? Rather it's about what is, as seen in the light of the magical. Rather than attempting to understand the fantastic, the fantastic is used to attempt an understanding of the ordinary. They often operate on both a literal and a symbolic level.

For example (stealing a premise from Borges, I believe), let us postulate an opening. We have a man, or seemingly a man, found on a farm. But he has broken or sheared off wings. In a paranormal, we might find that this is a fallen angel, and he's been tossed out of heaven because of something he did (perhaps unwittingly) at the behest of his uncle, Lucifer. He must survive on earth, foil his uncle's plans for world domination and earn redemption so he can return to heaven... or perhaps stay with the pretty mortal girl he met along the way. This is a genre story, one that's going to explore these strange beings and the possibility of heaven and angels made real (while going on a questy sort of thing). A magical realist, however, might take that same premise in a very different direction. No explanation is offered, no logical inference of the strange event. It simply is. A man with broken wings, and the story that springs from this occurence is about the ramifications on the faith and beliefs of the people who find him. The magic is a part of the reality, an illuminating light.

Hope that helps a little.

Thanks to both of you! I get it now. :)