What Mythic Madness is This?

(This post is from The Monster's Daughter and Company, my public Facebook page.) 

People often ask me what kind of novels I write. I am always stumped by this question because my books don't fit into any one category. Although I've always thought this kind of eclecticism was a strength, publishers and some readers have not been thrilled: Why can’t I pick a category and stick to it? I am a librarian, too, and some librarians categorize work for a living, and the rest of us abide by those categories. It helps us find things more quickly when we need them. But I’m not fond of labels or categories for fiction. They are too confining.

Some critics and readers have called my work mythic fiction. I love this definition that Charles de Lint and/or Terri Windling came up with to describe a certain kind of speculative fiction—and I'm gratified that Coyote Cowgirl makes the list of 100 fine Mythic Novels by 100 fine authors at the Journal of Mythic Arts. Even my "straight" novels (like Swans in Winter, Jewelweed Station, Whackadoodle Times, and Broken Moon) are informed by the mythic. 

When pressed, I will say that my work is mythic fiction or what I call American magical realism. The quintessential magical realist novels are those Latin American tales where the mysterious and unexplained are a part of everyday life. When I wrote The Jigsaw Woman my intention was to write a novel in the genre of American Magical Realism even though such a genre didn’t exist. For me, an American Magical Realist tale would be inherently “American” in a way that wasn’t always explainable, although I suspected technology would often be the linchpin in these tales—even if only ephemerally so, if that’s possible. And the mysterious would come from the ground up, from the flora, fauna, and stories of the people of the Americas.

In The Jigsaw Woman, Keelie is created from pieces of three dead women, à la Frankenstein. She literally embodies the life of the mythic goddess Inanna—and so many other women. Although The Gaia Websters is ostensibly science fiction, Gloria and her abilities remain mysterious throughout. Her awakening—her re-membering—takes place at one of the hearts of the Americas: the Grand Canyon. The Monster—Mr. Em—in The Monster’s Daughter comes to the United States from Europe, but the story of Mr. Em and Emily could only take place in the American West. 

As the years go by, more and more of my stories are deeply rooted in the American West. Butch, Coyote Cowgirl, Church of the Old Mermaids, The Desert Siren, and The Fish Wife all take place in the Southwest. (The Fish Wife begins in Ireland; she travels to New Orleans and then lands in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico.) And that’s just the Southwest. Many of my other novels take place in other parts of the western United States. I find the western United States naturally mythic: The land just reverberates with story in a way I find I cannot articulate except through writing novels.

Does that mean my fiction should be called geography fiction? Geographical fiction. That has absolutely no ring or magic to it! Sacred geography fiction? Naw. Mythic fiction is so lovely, and American magical realism describes who I am and what I write. I am a distinctly American writer (not in a jingoistic way, but in a geographical sense: the land inspires every story I write). My stories are magical, in many senses of that word even if the novels are straight mainstream stories. Realism is what my mythic magical tales are bound up in. 

Too complicated? Am I twisting myself up in knots trying to come up with a category? Probably. That’s why I don’t like categories. Mario says my work is the Kim Antieau genre. That’s enough definition. I suppose it would be if more people knew my work! What does it mean to say it’s a Kim Antieau novel? I don’t know. Those who read my writing could better tell that. Mario says it means the story always has heart, strangeness, and usually food. I can live with that. How about you?

(Definition of Mythic Fiction: Mythic fiction is literature that is rooted in, inspired by, or that in some way draws from the tropes, themes, and symbolism of myth, folklore, and fairy tales. [The Journal of Mythic Arts reading list]

Definition of Magical realism literature: Magic realism or magical realism is a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment. [Fair,s Wendy B. and Lois Parkinson Zamora, Introduction to Magical to Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community])

The painting is "The Magic Circle" (1886) by John William Waterhouse, and it is in the public domain.