What the Heck is Magic Anyways?

The Magic of Lost Objects

Finding an object in the grass, something like a lost camera full of someone’s decade worth of photographs, and using the magic of social media to reunite them with that lost object sparked a thought in my mind about a particular kind of trope that is tied back to lots of fiction and plays a curious sort of role in magical realism fiction in particular. I spent my day thinking about lost things and, being a guy who is primed to think about fiction and story and magic and surrealism, it turns out that I wracked my brain around the idea of the found magical object in realist fiction. In fact I literally sat down and tried to think of an example that was trying to get my point across, the point that was steeping there just at the tip of mind and that I couldn’t quite yet articulate. That point being something of an explanation of this trope. The trope of those magical realist type fiction stories that uses the narrative tool of an average, ordinary, everyday person finding an extraordinary object out in the world. I also thought it was high time to finally spend my $10 and buy a digital copy of The Lost Room and rewatch it. Show notes:Background audio provided by Ovani SoundBrad is online @ http://squwetchy.art2024 by Squwetchy Co This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit surrealismatron.substack.com [https://surrealismatron.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Magical Gateways in Science Fiction

A lot of science fiction or fantasy authors have written stories about found pathways between worlds. Thresholds into alternate universes or alternate dimensions—and sometimes these are stories are meant to be explorations of the actual travel between worlds but often, too these are more stories of allegory that are meant to speak to us about choice, about destiny, about fate, or about the “what ifs” resulting from those same choices and fates that we often take for granted. I started watching this limited run series called Constellation on Apple TV this past weekend, and even though the entire series as I record, this has not been released, and I’m still a couple episodes short of seeing how this all concludes, the premise of the story seems to lie in both something I mentioned in my first episode—which is the genre of the quantum curious—and then how it links to the premise of this episode, which is that of the magical gateway. Show notes:Background audio provided by Ovani SoundBrad is online @ http://squwetchy.art2024 by Squwetchy Co This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit surrealismatron.substack.com [https://surrealismatron.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

In 5-4-3-2-1 Improv!

If you’ve never seen an improv show, it’s simple. The rules vary but generally actors have neither script nor characters. They come to perform but do so at the whims of a theme or a host or a vague set of rules. And that’s where I come in. The other night we were at a show where my daughter was doing High School improv theatre sports, a kind of competitive, point-scoring performance with judges and everything, and there’s me, the guy in the audience who happened to noticed something interesting. I couldn’t help but also notice that the idea put forth by the surrealists around free writing, associative word play, and stream of consciousness creation all bears a striking resemblance to improv theatre. Show notes: Background audio provided by Ovani Sound Brad is online @ http://squwetchy.art 2024 by Squwetchy Co This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit surrealismatron.substack.com [https://surrealismatron.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What the Heck is Magic Anyways?

A thing I wrote in my previous episode got me thinking about the topic for this next one, an episode about trying to wrap my mind around a definition for magic. And to wrap my mind around that definition inside the context of fiction that fits into the category of magical realism—and also adjacent sub-genres like surrealist fiction, science-ish fiction, and paranormal stories. See, in my last episode I said it in a similar context, but I kinda glanced past a quote by Arthur C Clarke, a fairly renowned author of hard science fiction —you know, spaceships, futuristic intergalactic settings—who famously said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —which I think sums up the core of this episode in a very simple and meaningfully precise way. But I’m going to take twenty minutes of your time and unpack it all anyways. Show notes: Background audio provided by Ovani SoundBrad is online @ http://squwetchy.art2024 by Squwetchy Co This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit surrealismatron.substack.com [https://surrealismatron.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Let's Talk About Wes Anderson

I wanted to dip into a pop cultural example of modern surrealism and film and continue that talking by talking about a film that I think embodies some of the characteristics of a modern surrealist fiction. I get into some thoughts on my basic understanding of surrealism and then dig into Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY, a 2023 film starring his usual cast of eccentric character actors -- and also kind of a surrealistic flick worth watching. SPOILERS! Show notes: Background audio provided by Ovani Sound Brad is online @ http://squwetchy.art [http://squwetchy.art] 2024 by Squwetchy Co This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit surrealismatron.substack.com [https://surrealismatron.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]