The Magic Naturalist Manifesto: A Novel

Greetings True Believers. I thought I'd talk more on Magic Naturalism, since I didn't say all I wanted to say about it in my last post.

As many regular readers may be aware, Magic Naturalism is a highly ambiguous art movement I have been fiddling together in my spare time using various loose bits of Remodernism, Surrealism and Alchemy, and most likely inspired by the Visceral Realists in Bolano's novel The Savage Detectives and the Beat Generation. I first used the term Magic Naturalist as part of the introduction of myself for my first published short story, and I didn't have any idea what a Magic Naturalist was, except a cool sounding name.

Since then I have been toying with writing the Magic Naturalist Manifesto. Through the inspiration of the only other Magic Naturalist in existence, I am going to write it as a piece of fiction. I have a bit of the first bit written, but at the moment I'd like to concentrate on short fiction. I'm also wondering if Magic Naturalism is more of an aesthetic then an actual movement. I think if Magic Naturalism was an aesthetic, then it would be something like a Bolano novel. The Magic wouldn't be visible, but if you read into it you can notice it. Or maybe the Magic Naturalist aesthetic is similar to Bolano's work, but with more noticeable acts of the supernatural. That would probably be just because I like the supernatural.

Still, I think that Magic Naturalism is a bit experimental. I want to experiment with forms. I want to see what happens if you rework the methods of alchemy to a piece of fiction. That is the basis of Magic Naturalist experimentation. I'm also come up with a method I'm calling "Tarot Stories," which is basically taking a Tarot deck, asking it a question like "Who killed the character in my short story," and then using the Tarot to figure out how that happened. I enjoyed it, though I don't know how much I should rely on this method. I think I may use it a bit for The Magic Naturalist Manifesto, but I think Philip K. Dick did something similar with the I Ching in The Man in the High Castle. It's probably where I got the idea actually.

Which brings me to what this post was about. Well, not really but I lost my train of thought. If I'm writing The Magic Naturalist Manifesto as a work of fiction, with a fictional plot and fictional characters, then does Magic Naturalism exist? The more I work over Magic Naturalism, the more it becomes something withing my fictional universe. I think it can be both though, but on the other hand I'm very afraid of becoming famous. I don't want people to know who I am. I don't think I want to be famous. Maybe I'll get a pseudonym like Archimboldi, maybe I'll just disappear into Europe or Asia or somewhere and never be heard from again.

God, I'm to distracted. To be continued...