Parrots & Magical Realism

[Great Quail]

Robin writes,

> This is not a fight, this is an argument. If you want a fight you
> might try abuse in 2c.

Been there. Many times.

> I'll cop to overinterpreting but it's that sort of reading that keeps
> me in this tourist town. In any case, "the parrots could tell full-
> length stories - of humorless jaguars and mischief-seeking monkeys,
> mating competitions and displays, the coming of humans and the
> disappearance of the trees -" sounds like it was extracted from 100
> Years of Solitude.

Without getting into a lengthy discussion about the legitimacy or merit of
the term "magical realism" and its relationship to postmodern literature...
In general, one of the signifiers of magical realism is a certain deadpan
acceptance of what's being related -- the narrative voice remains stable,
and offers the semblance of reliability. I believe that in Pynchon, we are
faced with an entirely different kind of narrative voice, much more ironic,
unreliable, and prone to shifting gears without warning.

In other words, when Pynchon breaks ranks from so-called reality, whether
through intelligent light bulbs or ball lightning or hollow earths or
characters simply breaking into song, it's not quite the same as Garcia
Marquez' rain of flowers. There's generally a more playful sense to Pynchon,
a more postmodern twinkle -- in fact, one is hard pressed to tell if events
are actually occurring as such, or if someone -- presumably the author,
maybe the narrator, perhaps a character -- is putting us on. I'd offer this
lack of deadpan voice as the primary reason that Pynchon, not to mention
most of the other American pomo writers, should be exempted from the magical
realist umbrella. 

Now, the passage about parrots you quote above certainly does have a very
Latin American feel to it. But I find it more likely to be either a
coincidental mirroring in style, or perhaps even a deliberate borrowing from
the Latin American mode.

> I'd say that your 75% rule applies more to later
> Pynchon than earlier---can't call the stuff that whizzes around in San
> Narcisco magic, more like its threatening opposite.

I confess, I am not sure what you mean here. For one, I actually think that
"Lot 49" bears a closer resemblance to magical realism than any other
Pynchon book except "Vineland," mostly for the reasons I have stated above.
Of course, the existence of a secret post office fits in nicely with
numerous traditions, from science fiction to Kafkaesque parable to American
postmodernism; so I only make this statement with some hesitation. In
general, I do not consider Pynchon to be a MR writer.

Secondly, to address your "earlier" comment, "Gravity's Rainbow" and "V."
are very, very strange books and bear a lot in common with "M&D" and "AtD,"
as far as I can see.

And finally, I do not understand why you posit "magic" as something removed
from "threatening." Even in "traditional" works of magical realism, the
so-called "magic" can be very threatening indeed. For instance, see "Autumn
of the Patriarch."

Best,

--Quail