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Gabriel's magic realism and beyond...

Shahriar Feroze
GABRIEL Garcia Marquez once said, "A person doesn't die when he should but when he can." Had he truly meant it, he would have chosen to die much later.
However, death comes when it comes. Marquez is dead. True, but who will carry the legacy of Marquez's brand of magic realism in the coming days? With Marquez leaving for eternity there sure will be a vacuum in the world of magical realism writing. But, wait! He also taught us one important lesson about the genre of magical realism and that is: develop your own style and technique based on all that has happened in your life rather than imitate.
The three common elements, found across many of his works are the theme of solitude, setting of a village called 'Macondo' and 'La violencia' (refers to a brutal civil war between conservatives and liberals that lasted till the 1960s). No wonder these elements helped him to create stories that would eventually chronicle a nation's life, culture and history. By the time Garcia Marquez and his fellow members of "el boom" in Latin-American fiction came to maturity, the re-emergence of the fantastic heritage in fiction appeared no less revolutionary' than the region's politics. In a number of his works he experimented with a less traditional approach to reality. As a result, an unusual event has been described rather too ordinarily. In his writings there are the ingredients of pure realism too.
But for which one would you compliment him? Realism or magic realism? Of course we compliment him for his thoughts, patterns and techniques, for his type of magical realism. And the fascinating bit is that Marquez's magical realism in many places sprang out of bizarre incidents unfolding in ordinary circumstances. Added to that is his deliberate use of folk tales, myth and history to entertain his readers by giving them the feel of realism which seems more of Marquez realism than magical. The most talked about example in this regard (especially among students) is the physical and spiritual ascension to heaven of a character while she is hanging the laundry out to dry in 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.'
Well, there could be endless hours of debate regarding the characteristics of Marquez's magic reality writings. But I actually found his quotes to be equally realistic as magical. For instance, regarding marriage in his 'Love in the Time of Gholera' he writes: "The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every' morning before breakfast."
Look through the words and you'll find clear elements of humour, satire and magical elements in it. In another place of the same book he says, "Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good". In most cases, wisdom comes at such a time when there is little or no use for it. Probably the funniest among all is about fiction, of which he says, "Fiction was invented the day Jonah arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale"; and the cleverest one is perhaps: "One can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the sorrow with each, and not betray any of them."
The most important Spanish-language author since Miguel de Cervantes, Garcia Marquez's powerful impact on the literary world will never be forgotten for another reason: style. If you go through the books then you're to notice that he is one of those who never stuck to a particular style when it comes to writing. The magic of this is that one way or another he was capable of creating a huge readership.
There is even an important commentary by him that's worth mentioning: One doesn't choose the style. You can investigate and try to discover what the best style would be for a theme. But the style is determined by the subject, by the mood of the times. If you try to use something that is not suitable, it just won't work.
Since they understand how to seduce their readers, maybe that's why writers like him become masters. Take, for instance, the work, 'No One Writes to the Colonel' where the main characters of the novel are not named, adding to the feeling of insignificance in an individual living in Colombia. And the 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold' is a queer combination of journalism, realism and a detective story.
In the end Marquez may be remembered for his rare talent in and contribution to the literature world but that too is very eerily similar to a saying of his on death: "Nothing resembles a person as much as the way he dies."
Well, Garcia died in fame.
SHAHRIAR FEROZE IS CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYST, THE DAILY STAR