path: root/faith/magicians-realism.rst

Magicians’ Realism
##################

:date: 2021-01-02
:category: faith
: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. 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.`_”.

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_ stories 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 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”, 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

.. _`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