Magical Realism: Coraline

   I'm just starting to learn a little bit about magical realism. From what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) magical realism is a type of art/literature in which one thing or everything is twisted or sprinkled with a bit of the impossible. A lot of this kind of art seems strange and slightly dark, for example, the short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. But some of it is beautiful like the paintings here. I think Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, could fall under the dark category of magical realism. It's a scary children's book. A review compared it to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as Alice in Wonderland, and there are similarities, but Coraline is a much more nightmarish take on adventures in a different world. I don't like scary movies, I don't like scary stories, and I don't like scary books, but because Coraline is written in the kind of plain, storytelling voice that I like so much, and because I wanted to see the nightmare end and for Coraline to come out victorious, I read to the end. And despite the dark tones, it does have some brighter themes like courage and good winning against evil.

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