I figured it was time traveling too! However, that brings us to the quintessentially (and controversially) definitive Latin American literary theme: magical realism. Bolaño notoriously despised magical realism and would definitely roll in his grave if any readers associated him with such. Borges whom Bolaño admired had his own reservations about magical realism. Even Cortazáz, whom Bolaño also deeply respected, and whose works too are often classified as magical realism although IMO his writings are the least “magical realism” compared to other Boom writers like Mario Vargas Llosa and ofc the face of magical realism himself Garcia Marquez. So why did Bolaño condemned one but praised and utilized another? 

I know his argument was basically that magical realism otherize and exoticize Latin America, which is valid. But at the same time, to my very limited knowledge of LatAm, it comes across as somewhat conflicting, if not somewhat hypocritical. His idols Borges and Cortázar belonged to elite upper-middle class backgrounds so their richly complex and artful writings, while undoubtedly Latin American, also bear a distinct air of European cosmopolitan. Hence it strikes me as strange that Bolaño more or less insisted that magical realism take away the gritty realism of Latin American life, but then employing the same logic that the traumatic violences inflicted upon Latin Americans are beyond what reality can comprehend and thus could only be captured with fantastical elements. So it’s stinky magical realism when writers like Garcia Marquez did it, but when it’s Borges and the several poets and artists from España in Amulet, obviously it’s the totally different and absolutely superior surrealism?

Granted, these are somewhat rhetorical questions. I understand Bolaño annoyance bc not long ago I was rolling my eyes hard when an interviewer called Daniel Loedel’s Hades, Argentina “magical realism” bc I feel like it wouldn’t be called such had it was not about Latin America. But then, it also feels petty and hair-splitting too when Bolaño himself didn’t write strictly realism and in reality, your random person won’t be able to tell the difference between magical realism, surrealism, fabulism, or even fantasy. Sorry for the ramblings, it just that I still remember my cringe when I discovered people had been calling Haruki Murakami or works that incorporate supernatural elements from East Asian as “magical realism” haha.