Week 4, Post #3

I had to look up the term "magical realism" to actually be able to apply it anywhere. There are a few elements that fall under the literary mode of magical realism. Florentino's undying love for Fermina is one of them. The setting, characters, events are all typical, very real ideas that are easily accepted but the love that Florentino expresses for all those years and his living his life based on the one love is such an over the top almost "magical" thought that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Another is the way the story is written as a whole. It goes in and out of different time periods linking the characters to each other as the story progresses and also gives each character a part of the story to demonstrate their own perpsectives on the happenings of the book.
It allows differences than with science fiction because science fiction takes a world and generally shows extremes or experiments with new ideas like technology run wild or aliens and the like. Magical realism uses the real world and gives it a few fantastic elements. Nothing that is overly unbelievable, just a few exaggerations. Again, Florentino's love is the best example it seems, or maybe even Florentino as a whole (he's a joke). It's not unbelievable to be sick from "love" and even the extreme he takes it to can be believed, though I don't think anyone relates extremely closely to him. When he is so proud of himself because he has kept his love secret and not told Cassiani, he seems more dillusional than sweet.