Part XXIII: Carpentier/Collier/Allende/Carter/Gray/Fuentes/Morrison/Rushdie

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Masters of Fantasy: Part XXIII

Once again, we dive into that weird and sensuous world of surrealism and magic realism. Some of them have only written one work in that style, but that one work remains important; others write it continuously. I hope you're all ready for this.



ALEJO CARPENTIER (1904-1980)

Although born in Switzerland, Alejo Carpentier spent his developmental years in Cuba and came to closely identify with the country. Political difficulties forced him to seek refuge in France, where he was introduced to surrealism; eventually he would make a trip to Haiti that would influence his own work greatly before returning to Cuba for a time. He would apply his own theory of lo real maravilloso – the idea that Latin America seems so completely otherworldly to non-natives – to his most famous work, The Kingdom of This World, a historical novel of the first king of Haiti, which is considered one of the earliest examples of Latin American magic realism. His other great work was as a musicologist and a promoter of Afro-Cubanism, exploring the cross-cultural connection between two continents.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejo_Carpentier)
Conceptual Fiction – The Kingdom of This World (http://www.conceptualfiction.com/kingdom_of_this_world.html)
Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alejo-Carpentier-y-Valmont)
Havana Music School – Alejo Carpentier and Music in Cuba (https://havanamusicschool.com/alejo-carpentier-and-music-in-cuba/)



JOHN COLLIER (1901-1980)

Growing up with a keen interest in myth and legend, John Collier was encouraged by his father to pursue his own literary interests by writing book reviews and eventually publishing his own poetry in 1920. His career took a greater turn with his first novel, His Monkey Wife, a comic fantasy in which a chimpanzee brought to England becomes civilized and attempts to save her owner from his "modern" fiancée; his second novel, Tom's A-Cold, was a darker dystopian tale. He is best remembered, however, for his masterfully crafted short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker; the most famous collection is Fancies and Goodnights, a series of fantasies and mysteries in a classification all their own, which won both the Edgar Award and the International Fantasy Award.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collier_(fiction_writer))
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=collier_john)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/collier_john)
The Independent – Forgotten Authors No. 34: John Collier (https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-authors-no-34-john-collier-1689028.html)



ISABEL ALLENDE (1942- )

Chilean-born Isabel Allende served as a magazine editor, journalist, and United Nation employee before noted poet Pablo Neruda encouraged her to become a novelist. The rise of Augusto Pinochet to power forced her to flee to Venezuela, where she continued her journalist career; upon hearing of her ailing grandfather's predicament, she wrote what would become the classic magic realist novel The House of the Spirits, which, after several rejections, would finally become one of the best-selling books in the Spanish language. Further successes would make her one of the most popular Latin American authors of the present day, praised for her vivid storytelling but also criticized by some for a perceived low literary quality.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=allende_isabel)
Official website (https://www.isabelallende.com/)
Conceptual Fiction – The House of the Spirits (http://www.conceptualfiction.com/house_of_spirits.html)
Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isabel-Allende)
The Guardian – Interview with Isabel Allende: "Few Couples Survive the Death of One Child, Let Alone Three" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/02/isabel-allende-interview-marriage-breakup-the-japanese-lover)
The Guardian – Interview with Isabel Allende: "My Family Values" (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/13/isabel-allende-my-family-values)
Books Tell You Why – Six Interesting Facts About Isabel Allende (https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/six-interesting-facts-about-isabel-allende)



ANGELA CARTER (1940-1992)

Angela Olive Stalker was troubled in her youth by bouts with depression and anorexia, and she married Paul Carter rather young in 1960 to escape the constraints of her parents. After some years, having published three novels (including the magical realistic The Magic Toyshop), she moved to Japan for a time and became, in her own words, "radicalized"; her subsequent work following her divorce would be even more experimental in their views of sexuality, feminism, and postmodernism, such as Heroes and Villains, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, and The Passion of New Eve. In 1979, she published her landmark short story collection, The Bloody Chamber, featuring feminist reinterpretations of classic fairy tales that were highly regarded, and her novel Nights at the Circus won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1984. She would publish one more novel, Wise Children, before succumbing to lung cancer in 1992. Angela Carter has been considered one of the best British writers of the postwar generation, her work being critically acclaimed by such luminaries as Salman Rushdie and Kelly Link.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Carter)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=carter_angela)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/carter_angela)
Official website (https://usa.angelacarter.co.uk/)
GradeSaver.com – Angela Carter (https://www.gradesaver.com/author/angela-carter)
The New Yorker – Angela Carter's Feminist Mythology (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/angela-carters-feminist-mythology)
The Guardian – Angela's Influence: What We Owe to Angela (https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/feb/16/from-fifty-shades-to-buffy-what-we-owe-to-angela-carter)
The Telegraph – Obituary of Angela Carter (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/5899665/Angela-Carter.html)



ALASDAIR GRAY (1934- )

Hailed as one of the greatest living Scottish writers of the 20th century, Alasdair Gray was raised on a combination of public school, libraries, and the BBC, first working as a scene and portrait painter after graduation. His first plays were broadcast for radio and television in 1968, and he served as Writer-in-Residence for the University of Glasgow from 1977 to 1979. In 1981, he published his first novel, the highly acclaimed Lanark, a surrealistic postmodern fantasy about a man's journey through a Hell-like mirror of Glasgow; the book was an instant success, a work in progress since Gray's student days. The strange blend of fantasy, realism, and typography would also characterize later works like 1982, Janine and Poor Things, as well as numerous short stories.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=gray_alasdair)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/gray_alasdair)
Official website (http://alasdairgray.info/)
The Guardian – Glasgow Belongs to Us: Rereading Lanark (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/oct/12/fiction.alasdairgray)
The Paris Review – The Art of Fiction, No. 232: Alasdair Gray (https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6904/alasdair-gray-the-art-of-fiction-no-232-alasdair-gray)
The New Yorker – How Alasdair Gray Reimagined Glasgow (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-alasdair-gray-reimagined-glasgow)



CARLOS FUENTES (1928-2012)

Carlos Fuentes was raised in several Latin American capitals, something which contributed to his unique perspective as an author. In 1957, his first novel, Where the Air Is Clear, was an immediate success, making him a national celebrity in his native Mexico, but his impact on the Spanish-speaking world would not be felt until the seminal 1962 novel The Death of Artemio Cruz, a magical realist story of the sordid life of a powerful Mexican man, told in a combination of cross-cuts and flashbacks reminiscent of the films of Orson Welles. The more ambitious Terra Nostra attempts to lay out a mythical history of all Hispanic civilization, Aura is a ghost story, and other titles such as The Old Gringo and Christopher Unborn experiment with fabulism as a means to give an identity to the Mexican people. His work is quite influential to the Latin American Boom, and he has been hailed as the most celebrated novelist in Mexico.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Fuentes)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=fuentes_carlos)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fuentes_carlos)
Conceptual Fiction – Aura (http://www.conceptualfiction.com/aura.html)
Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carlos-Fuentes)
Achievement.org – Carlos Fuentes (http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/)
The New York Times – Obituary of Carlos Fuentes (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/books/carlos-fuentes-mexican-novelist-dies-at-83.html)
The Guardian – Obituary of Carlos Fuentes (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/15/carlos-fuentes)
The Paris Review – The Art of Fiction, No. 68: Carlos Fuentes (https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3195/carlos-fuentes-the-art-of-fiction-no-68-carlos-fuentes)
PBS.org – Carlos Fuentes and His American Life (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/carlos-fuentes)
Los Angeles Times – Carlos Fuentes: The Realist Magician (http://articles.latimes.com/2000/oct/18/news/la-fuentes-2000)



TONI MORRISON (1931-2019)

Raised on Austen, Tolstoy, and African-American folklore, Toni Morrison is credited as one of the chief people responsible for bringing black literature into the mainstream, first as an editor in Random House's fiction department and later as a writer in her own right. Her first two novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, were realistic, but her third novel, Song of Solomon, which follows a young man's search for his identity over three generations of his family, was rooted in the folk stories of slaves who dreamed of literally flying away to Africa. Her greatest success was Beloved, in which an escaped slave is haunted by the ghost of her dead daughter; it won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, although it is not regularly cited by genre enthusiasts. Toni Morrison has won many awards for her fiction, including the Nobel Prize in 1993, and she remains one of the leading voices of the African-American community, inspiring generations.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison)
The Toni Morrison Society (https://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/)
Conceptual Fiction – Beloved (http://www.conceptualfiction.com/beloved.html)
Tor.com – Beloved: The Best Horror Novel the Horror Genre Has Never Claimed (https://www.tor.com/2016/02/18/beloved-the-best-horror-novel-the-horror-genre-has-never-claimed/)
The New York Times – The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/magazine/the-radical-vision-of-toni-morrison.html)
The Guardian – Toni Morrison on Her Novels: "I Think Goodness Is More Interesting" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/04/toni-morrison-god-help-the-child-new-york)
GradeSaver.com – Toni Morrison (https://www.gradesaver.com/author/toni-morrison/)



SALMAN RUSHDIE (1947- )

The work of Salman Rushdie explores the connections between West and East through a magical realist lens and a historian's rigor; born in India to a Muslim family, he has become one of the most prominent British writers of recent years. His first novel, Grimus, a story of space travel based on a Sufi poem, went largely unnoticed upon publication, but his second, Midnight's Children, in which a young Indian boy born on the stoke of midnight on the day of India's independence is granted powers that connect him with similar children, was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981 and made him a celebrity. Shame was also highly regarded, but his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, in which two men undergo mystical transformations, was notorious for offending several Muslim countries, leading Ayatollah Khomeini to infamously issue a fatwā calling for Rushdie's execution; he was forced to live in hiding under protection for several years. Despite repeated threats, he continued to publish novels with his own signature blend of the fantastic with the familiar in adult works such as The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights; he also wrote children's works in the same vein, including Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Luka and the Fire of Life. In honor of his services to literature, Rushdie has been awarded some of the highest honors that both England and America can bestow, such as election to both the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=rushdie_salman)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/rushdie_salman)
Official website (http://www.salmanrushdie.com/)
Conceptual Fiction – Midnight's Children (http://www.conceptualfiction.com/midnights_children.html)
Black Gate – Some Thoughts on Grimus (https://www.blackgate.com/2013/04/27/some-thoughts-on-grimus/)
British Council: Literature – Salman Rushdie (https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/salman-rushdie)
Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salman-Rushdie)
The Guardian – Salman Rushdie: "I Like Black Comedy in Dark Times" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/16/salman-rushdie-the-golden-house-interview)



So now we move back to reality. But never fret – there is more coming on the way. Leave any comments and discussions below, and for further reference, look for the forum topic here: http://www.lostpathway.com/index.php/topic,16.0.html#forum