Magic Realism

Many young readers have a problem with magic realism. Despite it being an establish genre since the early twentieth century, and one that has received many accolades (such as the Nobel Prize), for some reason many inexperienced readers find it difficult to understand and appreciate. Why do you think that is? Do you have difficulty with magic realism? If so, can you explain it? If not, why do you think others do?

I think young readers (especially teenagers) dislike magic realism on impulse and find it difficult to understand because they tend to think and dream in simpler, narrower terms.

Young people tend to do what is easiest and simplest, and in terms of thinking they tend to have a narrow worldview that usually occupies a personality extremity. They cannot extend their minds and think outside the box to envision magical realism because they are used to reading what they expect to read (fantasy with fantasy, action with action). Because magical realism incorporates magic and fantasy so nonchalantly into our own world, most readers struggle over the idea of the plot. That tinge of discomfort when reading magic realism occurs because of its irony and the lack of clear distinction between what is real and what is fantasy, and because we are not used to thinking in such fashion, it is easier for most people to announce, "I don't get it" and push it out of their minds - completely opposite of the feelings the genre intended to produce.

I personally have little problems with magical realism. I think it's a wonderful, surrealist, mysterious, and very very interesting literary genre that provokes within me conflicting feelings of wonder and discomfort, and challenges me to expand my view of the world. In my old school I read a lot of the Bible, and that challenged me to find connections and imbued within me a similar (different of course, since it's the Bible!) feeling of inspiration.