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...

Solve Et Coagula: The Magic Naturalist Magazine

Today the spectre of Nazism is not as powerful as it was yesterday. I believe that this is because I am now writing it out in a form that can help restore my sanity. I am currently working on a piece of short fiction that I believe will help me deal with the existential stresses of National Socialism. This short story will hopefully express the issues I have, while at the same time tear a hole of complete absurdity into the entire idea of Nazis. I think that's what Mel Brooks did with "The Producers."

Speaking of writing, I have been thinking about my idea of the perfect literary magazine. This would be one that I would help publish and it would be linked to the idea of Magic Naturalism. It probably would be THE Magic Naturalist magazine, "Solve Et Coagula." I came up with this idea last night. It would be a single magazine that would have an issue every three months or so, usually with a theme of some sort that would give a loose theme. The theme wouldn't be to important however, and some issues may not even have a theme. It would also have more or less the same group of artists, all of whom would be in contact with each other, thus we would have a highly regional magazine made up mostly of the Magic Naturalists. Each issue would feature what those particular Magic Naturalists were doing and show examples of Magic Naturalist stories, paintings, poems and articles. It would also have transcripts of discussions made by various members of the Magazines, in retelling form or through copying down MSN chats. There would also be a special "Guest Feature," in each issue where we would get someone who is not from the Magic Naturalist group proper who would act as a guest. If this was a perfect world I'd probably see if I could get Alan Moore to be a "Guest Feature," because I have officially declared him a Grandfather of Magic Naturalism.

I basically got the idea from the Hermann Hesse book I'm reading. It's called "The Glass Bead Game," or "Magister Ludi," but I'm calling it "The Glass Bead Game," because that's the proper name. It's about the life of a guy called Joseph Knecht, and takes place in an unspecified future were the Intelligentsia has evolved into various monastic orders and the highest form of which is a bunch of people who play the Glass Bead Game, which is some kind of multi-disciplinary game that is very complex and only really smart, educated people can play. I was really struck by the idea of the Intelligentsia Monks, because they seem to be doing this right, and not in a way that I'm doing. They're unconcerned with fame or money or any of that stuff. This made me question my own goals, am I writing because of fame and money? I certainly want to get paid for my writing, but I'm not so sure about fame. I don't want fame, yet I would like people to read my work. Is having people read my work the same as being famous? Mind you, I don't want a, say Michael Jackson level of fame, where they wont shut up about me. I don't want paparazzi following me around. But does the paparazzi follow writers around? Are they're really any famous writers anymore? I feel out of touch with the common man, if they're is such a thing? Is the common man the people who watch Entertainment Tonight to see if John and Kate have broke up yet and which one has custody over the plus 8? Do people follow Salman Rushdie around, or that guy who wrote American Psycho? I don't even think I know any famous writers of today. Well, I know Salman Rushdie and Thomas Pynchon, know of them I mean, but they aren't followed by paparazzi. They both have to lie low, or Salman Rushdie does. I think Thomas Pynchon may have CIA connections, but that's just baseless hypothesizing.

I don't think we live in a world were writers are famous, they're just well known. I also think that if I really wanted too, I could probably disappear from Gossip Columnist Radar. But anyways, to tie everything back together, I wanted to make this magazine, which we will call Solve Et Coagula for now, as a way around this. It would be more a way for various artists with similar interests to communicate, and show they're work to each other. "See, this is what I did. Love what you did there. See that guy, man I loved his photography, we should have him in the Zine sometime." That sort of thing. I think it would be a good idea. It could be worked around the whole fame and money thing, and we could all just concentrate on the Art.

Getting Better

Things are looking better for me more and more. I got up at a desent time yesterday (9:3o AM), but not today because I was lazy, but the good news is I found the secret. It's to put my alarm clock at a distance from myself. Along with that I am going to have an interview for a job soon. I'm not going to go into any detail, but I am looking forward to it. If things get any better, I'll be having short stories published in major magazines, having my name reached out to all corners of the literary world.

I've been thinking about the movement I've been working on, and the idea that I'd start a movement is scaring me. A friend of mine is discussing founding a magazine with me about this, and I'm starting to realize I don't want to run a magazine. I don't have the neccisary skills to run a magazine. I don't even want to run a magazine. It will cut into my writing time. The idea is filling me with dread and fear in the long hours of the night, when I have sudden fears of non-existance. I'm going to bring this up to my friend, that I don't want to get involved in this.

To be honest, the whole Magic Naturalism thing was just one of my dellusions of starting a new Beat Generation, which all in all is one of the last things I would want. I don't have the social skills of a Ginsberg, or the abbility to run of and hide in my alchoholism of a Kerouac. The best I could do is pull a Burroughs and leave the country for a good long time and wait until it all blows over. That would probubly be my best move, all things considered. But with the Internet would that even matter? Would they just track me down using, I don't know twitter or something? Can they even track me down with twitter if I'm not on it? You know what I'm saying, can I be tracked down using the internet? If I do it right probubly not. I'll have to do it right then, and not tell you, because Time Magazine will be reading this then.

Oh, who am I kidding. It will probubly be Macleans.

Manifesto and Mystery

Yesterday I meant to talk about my first real attempt to start an art movement. I think that I may have gotten somewhere at Waterloo, but I'm starting to think that my hometown can be a much better place to start because I know more writers and artists here.

Basically, I'm working on a Manifesto, a Magic Naturalist Manifesto. I don't want to get to involved just yet, but I already talked to two friends. Let's call them Roger and Rowan. Roger is a painter I've known for awhile and when I showed him what I have done for the Manifesto he was very impressed. We then ran into Rowan, who's a retired actor and a sort of elder statesmen of the local poets, at least in my opinion. He didn't like the idea of a Manifesto as such, so I doubt he'll sign it. I appreciate that, since in the Beat Generation of my life, Rowan fills a posistion somewhat akin to William S. Burroughs, except without the drugs and the homo-sadism, which is a good thing.

I'm not going to get to much into Magic Naturalism, except that it is my first attempt at a form of Remodernist Literature. In the end it will probubly only apply to myself, but Roger is pretty interested in it and I think I may have set something off. I've been interested in writing a Manifesto ever since I read the Remodernist one, and if I ever get this into a legitimate movement with people in it besides me and Roger, I may try setting up a magazine. I may just end up editting a major magazine as "The Magic Naturalist Issue," which according to a podcast I liseaned to on starting your own poetry movement should have four really good poets or writers, which can (and will) include me, as well as commentary. The commentary may just be my copy of the Magic Naturalist Manifesto. But again, this is only being made as a pattern that I can follow. Remodernism, while a great idea, lakes the neccesary structure that I find neccesary, not that Magic Naturalism is structured, it's just a list of ideas about writing and art and things like that.

I am thinking about writing in the mystery genre, at least as a format, but I'm not sure I want to write murder mysteries. I have a few ideas for murder mysteries, but I'd like to try something more like Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday," which isn't really a murder mystery, no one is murdered, but I would like to do something that is pretty heavy on the metaphysics. To do this I realize I need to read a lot of mysteries. I'm going to try and read as much Chesterton as I can. So far I've only read seven Chesterton stories, one book "The Club of Queer Trades," which was amusing and a Father Brown story called "The Resurrection of Father Brown." I think that Chesterton's prose can be a bit...Edwardian let's say, so I may just try reading other things. I still have two Rex Stout novels I need to read, and I do enjoy Rex Stout's writing style.