Magical realism is used by writers to mix reality and fantasy creating a world of mystery, doubt, and unexplained possibilities. In the “Definition and Locations: Magical Realism between Modern and Post-Modern Fiction” Wendy Faris draws a connection between real life and fiction, merging two worlds into one, arising doubt, wonder, and a bridge between fantasy and people’s actions and attitudes. Martin Amis is a writer who uses Magical realism in his fabulous story “The Immortal”. He exemplifies the standard of Magical Realism by forcing his reader to experience severe doubt throughout the piece combining several realms into one experience, as well as the “disturbed ideas about time, space, and identity” (Faris 7).
In the short story “The Immortal” there is a lingering, partly because the story takes place in such an abstract way. It is being told as real and the timeline is kept in accordance with the true history of the world and the events described can be seen as being absolutely plausible. But the fact that the author talks about himself as being there for a long time is unreal. He says that he has seen events that took many hundreds, thousands, even millions of years, which makes the reader wonder if he really is immortal, while the events in his story are not and are seen passing through in time. By describing two incomparable worlds—one being his world where he is immortal and time does not matter and the other world, which is constantly ending and dying.
The writer psychologically tries to influence the mind of the reader creating an unstable image of the place that he is describing and leaving some parts to the imagination. It is a great tactic because instead of using particular words that describe this conflict of realities, he leaves the reader’s imagination an option of thinking up something that they themselves feel and think.
This way the writer connects with the reader submerging them into the story and leaving them to wonder what he really meant.
There are techniques that Martin Amis uses in his story to leave a person guessing. “…I was born, or I appeared or materialized or beamed down, near the city of Kampala, Uganda, in Africa” (Amis 1). In this quote the narrator creates doubt from the very beginning, suggesting other possibilities of him appearing in the world. Emotion is also being used by the author to show how tired the narrator is of his life. He has seen it all and by constantly saying that he will stay alone after everyone dies he is almost admitting that even though he says he doesn’t need anybody, there is still pity in the way he repeats that everyone will be gone and he will be left alone. The fact that he repeatedly talks about his loneliness and at the same time criticizes the people that they don’t understand anything and their lives are pointless, seems almost as if he is trying to convince himself that he does not need anybody that he is well off by himself, but immediately he states that there is nothing else left for him to do since he tried everything and has grown extremely tired of it all. The narrator mentions that possibly he is a delusional school teacher who is seen as traveling through time and he gives a brief explanation of events that he has experienced along his “immortal” journey. He almost unnoticeably links together his immortality, all he went through and the slight possibility that he might be delusional and is imagining all of this just as other people. In this style of writing and the story itself there is a connection between Martin Amis who uses the play of words along with truthful recollection of episodes and the schoolteacher—both having a mystical and very intriguing character.
By using magic and mixing it with the real world the writer wants to create other possibilities of interpretation for the reader.
He sets out an idea that there is another world—a phenomenal one that spreads its influence and unreal nature on the world where people are temporary inhabitants and are fragile (Faris 14).
There is an illusion of the two realms of reality becoming one where the strength of time, nature and immortality is compared to the fragile bodies of humans, which are filled with illness.
It describes an everlasting fight for survival with nature and time, and a human insignificant imprint that will be very temporary, while everything eventually will return to a state of peace and quiet.
Martin Amis delusional schoolmaster has thoughts and actions directly comparable to that of actual humanity. Some of the magical elements portrayed in “The Immortal” may indeed be based on events that are written down in the history books, and it may very well forecast the apocalyptic doom of humanity. Until then, humans will not know how we meet our maker, but the attitude toward reality is the same in either case. The multifaceted fiction that incorporates unsettling doubts, the merging of multiple realms and alternative thoughts about time and space, are all an effort to understand the relationship between man and his doom.
References
Amis, Martin. Einstein’s Monster, London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. Print.
Contemporary Authors Online, Detroit: Gale, 2010. Print.
Faris, Wendy. Definition and Locations: Magical Realism between Modern and Post-Modern Fiction, Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004. Print.