Pausing For You To Catch Up With Me

I have a lamentable habit of writing posts which would be long even as a book chapter.

Nothing I can do seems to mitigate that habit. Every time I write something really short, I read it over and it gets longer and longer.

I know there are readers here who save these posts intending to read them later, and then just don't have time.

So I'm pausing to let you catch up.

Someone turned up on twitter recently discussing "Magic Realism" and I said that it was basically how magic really works in the real world, instead of the broad, dramatic and melodramatic strokes used in most Fantasy works.

I have said on panels at conventions that Magic is to Fantasy as Science is to Science Fiction, and I think that sums it up. "Magic" as handed down from the dawn of time, the pre-scientific, pre-Aristotelian view of the world is the source material for Fantasy.

Much of what I present here, especially "Love Conquers All" and the HEA ending thesis, is predicated on the assumption that you've read and absorbed the material presented in these very abstract posts that I've done on this Alien Romance blog on the magical view of the universe.

One of the big problems with writing by USA natives is that we have mostly grown up with a mono-lingual tradition, speaking reading and writing only English, and American Standard English (or a dialect of it) at that.

We are mono-cultural and wear blinders so dense that we don't even know what that means. It gives the fiction we write a false note heard only by members of other cultures.

To break through that and build fantasy worlds that ring true, we need to step into a world view that includes but is not limited to or by the scientific view of reality.

So you might want to read or re-read what I've said about the world as viewed through the eyes of that tradition which includes a magical view of the universe and which can be used to generate "Magic Realism" worldbuilding suitable for PNR and other genres:

On Tarot:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/folks-first-i-have-to-say-that-at.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/two-of-swords.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/three-of-swords-commitment.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-of-swords-gestation.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-of-swords-co-dependence.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/six-of-swords-love-conquers-all-as.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/7-of-swords-conflict-avoidance.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/8-swords-yes-but.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/9-swords-nightmares.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/10-swords-your-chickens-come-home-to.html

Read those in order and it can leave your mind stunned and unable to absorb another word of these far-out abstractions.

So to lighten things up, take a forray into some of my reviews and discussions of worlds others have build - not necessarily Magic Realism!

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/02/tv-shows-leverage-and-psych.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/11/doubleblind-by-ann-aquirre.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html


http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/02/happily-ever-after.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/04/dresden-files-interview-with-jim.html

Next week, we'll review the Suit of Pentacles and explore some points of view even more mind-boggling than that.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com (for currently available novels)
http://www.simegen.com/jl/ (for total index of my work)