That theory does explain some things, although the things that it explains are on a structural rather than a plot level -- how it is that the protagonist is able to receive certain phone calls in "Magic for Beginners", but not why those calls are made, or what they mean.
I have read three of her stories, now -- "The Wizards of Perfil", "Magic for Beginners", and "The Girl Detective" -- and been progressively more bewildered by each. "Wizards" made intuitive sense to me all through, and though there were definitely hints of depths I wasn't sure about, these were the pleasant and contained sort that I am used to handling. "Magic" left me asking, "Wait, what just happened?" but I was able to follow the character and thematic arcs. "The Girl Detective" turned me into the second speaker in your story -- and I am rather heartened to encounter this evidence that other people feel that way, since it looks like I did pretty well at keeping my question in this post from being any sort of primal scream. I can't tell if there is more than one character in that story, or who it is, or whether anything that's described actually takes place, or, if it doesn't, what it implies happens instead. I was afraid I was being rather stupid.
I suppose that if I were a different archetype of internet-user, I would announce that she made no sense and that everybody who admires her is a snobbish fraud. But A) the people who admire her, by and large, are people I respect, and trust to confine themselves to clothed emperors ("The Girl Detective" is in coffeeandink's personal canon of SF short fiction!), and B) there clearly is something going on in these stories, and something compelling. The patterns, those recurring images in "Detective", they didn't happen by accident. I keep feeling like if I find just the right way to hold my head it will all be perfectly comprehensible, but actually reading it is like trying to do a 'magic eye' in too many dimensions.
(I actually wonder if I'm maybe missing a magic realism reading protocol. I mean, I liked that Salman Rushdie novel I read a while back, but I might have been reading it as fantasy, interpolating a more mimetic and consistent magic than was actually supported by the text.)
Anyway, I thought that if I could read someone clever who admired her talking more specifically about their experiences with these stories it might help me get a handle on this; I asked for links rather than discussion, though, because I didn't really feel like I had anything to add except being continually plaintive. But with that caveat I'm certainly curious about your experience as much as anyone's (it sounds like it might be closer to mine than I'd thought).
no subject
I have read three of her stories, now -- "The Wizards of Perfil", "Magic for Beginners", and "The Girl Detective" -- and been progressively more bewildered by each. "Wizards" made intuitive sense to me all through, and though there were definitely hints of depths I wasn't sure about, these were the pleasant and contained sort that I am used to handling. "Magic" left me asking, "Wait, what just happened?" but I was able to follow the character and thematic arcs. "The Girl Detective" turned me into the second speaker in your story -- and I am rather heartened to encounter this evidence that other people feel that way, since it looks like I did pretty well at keeping my question in this post from being any sort of primal scream. I can't tell if there is more than one character in that story, or who it is, or whether anything that's described actually takes place, or, if it doesn't, what it implies happens instead. I was afraid I was being rather stupid.
I suppose that if I were a different archetype of internet-user, I would announce that she made no sense and that everybody who admires her is a snobbish fraud. But A) the people who admire her, by and large, are people I respect, and trust to confine themselves to clothed emperors ("The Girl Detective" is in
(I actually wonder if I'm maybe missing a magic realism reading protocol. I mean, I liked that Salman Rushdie novel I read a while back, but I might have been reading it as fantasy, interpolating a more mimetic and consistent magic than was actually supported by the text.)
Anyway, I thought that if I could read someone clever who admired her talking more specifically about their experiences with these stories it might help me get a handle on this; I asked for links rather than discussion, though, because I didn't really feel like I had anything to add except being continually plaintive. But with that caveat I'm certainly curious about your experience as much as anyone's (it sounds like it might be closer to mine than I'd thought).
-Andy H.