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It is said that the world is made of stories. What keeps them going is us.
Daniel’s contributions to the unfolding narrative have been preserved in Gravel, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Clockwise Cat, Crack The Spine, Grey Sparrow, The Gyroscope Review, Fleas on the Dog (issue 4) amount others.
We look for the same things in books as we do in life. We want to laugh, to be enthralled, a little shocked, surprised, maybe even afraid. Why? Because of the possibilities, but most importantly, because of the things we don't yet know.
Most often we seek these things though humour, horror, fantasy, suspense, and a little bit of realism (of the magical kind), to transcend the everyday world and reclaim a little of the mystery, and magic that still exists.
The value in these stories is their ability to make the reader think, laugh and reflect on the endlessly surprising scenarios of the world and the possible worlds beyond. It is the presentation of these possible worlds as possible that is surprising. We find value not in escaping reality, but in realizing the possibilities and potential of what is already here.
As anyone who has tried to escape reality knows (and I have) we can only get so far through fantasy; this is the distinction between fantasy and magical realism. It is only through the felt presence of immediate experience that we recognize the meaning behind the words; their real power and purpose, which is not to defer meaning to a signifier, but to point back to the signified in the best and sometimes only way we can.
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