Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

Garcia Marquez weaves countless varieties of the fantastic into the first forty pages of his novel. Starting from the opening line, we are given both future and past at the same time. “Many years later,” we are told, “as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”  Such an intriguing and captivating line as well as a hint that Garcia Marquez will often change from past, present, and the future as the story unfolds.

The obsession of Jose Arcadio Buendia with the sciences transforms him from a youthful patriarch of the village into a madman. As is told on page nine, “…pulled away by the fever of the magnets, the astronomical calculations, the dreams of transmutation, and the urge to discover the wonders of the world…from a clean and active man…changed into a man lazy in appearance, careless in dress, with a wild beard.” It’s such a drastic, unbelievable change in both appearance and nature that the townspeople think he is under a spell.

The clairvoyance of Aureliano described on page fifteen is another example of the fantastic that adds mystery to the story. As Aureliano says from the kitchen, “It’s going to spill.’ The pot was firmly placed in the center of the table, but just as soon as the child made his announcement, it began an unmistakable movement toward the edge, as if impelled by some inner dynamism, and it fell and broke on the floor.” Did he really predict the future or was it a coincidence? We have no reason to believe it’s not true.

Even inventions can seem fantastic, as Jose Arcadio Buendia thinks when he first sees the block of ice. Prior to the gypsies bringing it, no one in Macondo had ever seen such a thing. It’s not surprising, then, that solid water would have such an impact on Buendia, especially since he believes it is the answer to his dream about a city with mirrors.

Mutations add another ingredient to Marquez’s Buendia family. Ursula’s aunt, who married Buendia’s uncle, gave birth to a son with a pig’s tail. The family viewed this as a curse because of the cousin relationship between the two, and Ursula is constantly afraid that she herself will bear a child with the same deformation because she and her husband are cousins. Now, did the son really have a pig’s tail or was it simply an unknown medical illness? Common sense tells us that it wasn’t, but we have no solid evidence to prove otherwise.

On page twenty-two, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar haunts the house of Buendia and Ursula until both decide to leave so Aguilar could have peace. Was there really an apparition or was it simply guilt and a heavy conscience that made them leave the town?

This last example may not seem fantastic, but it’s almost unbelievable that Ursula would be the one to find the route that Buendia had long searched for but could not find. She’s the one who brings their people to Macondo and essentially puts the town on the map as a valuable resource. She hadn’t even been looking for it, but searching for her son. So a mother’s love is what opens the gates of Macondo.

I may still pause and think, “Did that really happen?”, but this class has drilled into me to simply accept the fantastic and enjoy the story.