Magicians’ Realism
##################
:date: 2021-01-02
:category: literature
:tags: harryPotter, review, blogComment, realism
(thoughts after listening to the episode “`Victorian Realism`_”
of the BBC’s In Our Time, originally developed as a review of
“`Strangers at Drakeshaugh`_” by Northumbrian and also a possible
commentary on “`Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions`_”
by Purplemist14, which is HIGHLY recommended reading for any
hopeful fanfiction writer or reviewer; beginning used from `the
comment on Reddit`_)
Kingstone_ on Reddit said:
Realism is a quixotic quest when writing fantasy. There can be
no realism in a fic about wizards.
I would slightly dispute that. I understand what he (she?
Kingstone somehow feels masculine, I am sorry, if I am wrong)
means, but I would like to abuse this replay to play a bit with
the word “realism”. For him it seems to mean something like
“story is as close to the objective reality and scientific
conclusions as possible”, right?
Let me point out the literary movement of the nineteenth century
called realism. Henry James is quoted on that BBC show as saying
Realism is what in some shape or form we might encounter,
whereas romanticism is something we will never encounter.
Let us focus more on the story itself and not just on magic,
which seems unimportant to me at this point. Let us not think
about fantasy stories at all, but let’s consider for example
“Ivanhoe_” by Walter Scott on the one side as a romantic story,
and let’s say “Kidnapped_” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Both of
them are adventure stories full of suspension and drama, both
them of course completely Muggle and completely free of any
magic, supernatural or whatever else. I would say that the key
word which differentiates them is “**exceptional**”. Whereas
“Ivanhoe” is the novel about exceptional people (Robin Hood and
his merry men, king Richard the Lion Heart, king John, historic
and thus exotic knights and princesses) doing exceptional things
(saving the kingdom for the rightful king among other things),
“Kidnapped” has the only historic event of any notice (Appin
murder) in three paragraphs and it just an excuse in background
for the rest of the story, which is about two completely
insignificant (*sub specie aeternitatis*) persons doing something
completely historically insignificant: saving their lives and
freedom (and inheritance for David). Realist stories (despite the
bad rap they got from “Middlemarch”, Balzac and similar stuff)
don’t have to be boring, but they have to be non-exceptional
or normal (jury is still out, whether the legendary novel “Mr
Bailey, Grocer” supposedly written by the character Harold
Biffen in the novel “New Grub Street” by George Gissing and just
describing the ordinary life of an ordinary grocer could be a
good idea).
I really like “`History of Mr Polly`_” by H. G. Wells, which is
beautifully written story despite being about pub-owner mixed
with a tramp and history of his unfortunate first marriage. In
the same way similar good realist stories are also most
detective stories (from Hercule Poirot to Law & Order), and
I have also mentioned stories by `Arthur Ransome`_ (probably now
mostly forgotten stories about children and their small
adventures during their holidays) or Kipling’s “`Stalky
& Co.`_”.
If we apply this difference between realist and romantic writing
to the literature written before Romantic era, we can emphasise
that what I call realist literature doesn’t have to be boring at
all. For example, one of the big problems of Jane Austen in the
nineteenth century was that her novels were not romantic at all,
dealing with normal problems of more or less normal people
(mostly lower gentry). It took only realist authors later in the
century (Henry James, I am told in `the Austen’s Wikipedia
article`_) to discover her qualities.
It is not only about characters and main story lines.
Exceptionality is also in the characters of characters. The
realist story deals with normal passions of normal people (for
mzzbee_ it is a story of infidelity, meaning of life, and finding
a life partner). The romantic one is all about extremes: extreme
love, saving the kingdom, the main opponent “[u]nscathed by the
lance of his enemy, […] died a victim to the violence of his own
contending passions” (Brian de Bois-Guilbert from “Ivanhoe”).
All fantasy novels and comics are in this perspective romantic
stories, because all those Supermans, Batmans, Conans, etc., and
the least problem they are willing to care for is saving of the
whole world, nothing less.
It is slightly shocking talking about Harry Potter books with all
magic as the realist ones, moreover when they are all about
saving the world from the potential evil overlord, true, but it
is remarkable how incredibly normal (in good sense of the word)
all characters are (with exception of Tom Riddle and Dumbledore).
JKR managed brilliantly avoid `The Problem of Peter Pevensie`_
and the positive part of the incredibly convoluted resolution of
the story (yes, the thing about the wand ownership is pure *deus
ex machina* pulled out the author’s hat in the last few chapters
of the book) is that in the end Harry is slightly battered,
certainly more experienced, but quite distinctly seventeen year
old young man, drop-out after the sixth year of Hogwarts, not
a superhero.
I probably cannot claim that Harry Potter books are the realist
adventure stories in line with “Farewell to Arms”, “All Quiet on
the Western Front”, “Pride and Prejudice”, or even “The Good
Soldier Švejk”, even considering that they are for
teenagers/young adults. However, I would claim, that they are
surprisingly closer to these than the classical fantasy (“Conan
the Barbarian”, Marvel superheroes, but even perhaps “The
Earthsea Cycle”), and that exactly not noticing this difference
makes most crossovers and all attempts to create super!Harry
doomed from the beginning.
The realist atmosphere of the original books is perfectly kept by
Northumbrian_ or mzzbee_, and it is one of reasons why their
stories are so good. It is also the reason how all Lord Potter
stories fair poorly, because Harry Potter books and its
characters are quite clearly middle class, inhabited by small
businessmen, bureaucrats etc., not lords and ladies.
By the way, when talking about the magicians realism, I don’t
want to have anything to do with `magical realism`_ of authors
like Gabriel García Márquez (e.g., “`One Hundred Years of
Solitude`_”). It seems to me that magical realism is a way how to
make a bit boring story spiced up by random flashes of magic. It
is a long time when I read the book, so I may forgot a lot from
it, and that novel as such is not the point of this essay, the
magic as used in the book is. What I mean, is that the magic
there seemed to me like something external bolted on the top of
the story, not inherent to the universe heroes of the story lived
in.
.. _Northumbrian:
https://archiveofourown.org/series/103340
.. _mzzbee:
https://archiveofourown.org/users/mzzbee/pseuds/mzzbee
.. _`Victorian Realism`:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548ks
.. _`Strangers at Drakeshaugh`:
http://www.siye.co.uk/viewstory.php?sid=129036
.. _`Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions`:
https://www.wattpad.com/555529455-everything-wrong-with-harry-potter-fanfictions
.. _`the comment on Reddit`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/gpzey1/realistic_stories_are_less_real_than_canon/frr5aud
.. _Ivanhoe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanhoe
.. _Kidnapped:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapped_%28novel%29
.. _`the Austen’s Wikipedia article`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen#19th_century
.. _`History of Mr Polly`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Mr_Polly
.. _`Arthur Ransome`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ransome
.. _`Stalky & Co.`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalky_%26_Co.
.. _`The Problem of Peter Pevensie`:
{filename}problem-of-wands.rst
.. _`Operation Wandless by EllianaDunla`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/784221
.. _Spooks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooks_(TV_series)
.. _Kingstone:
https://www.reddit.com/user/Kingsonne/
.. _`magical realism`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
.. _`One Hundred Years of Solitude`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude
