Larisa-Mirela Giurgiu

An I and II (simultaneously)

En-Lit. Comp

Review on ”Indistinguishable from Magic” by Catherynne M.

Valente

When I discovered this critical book on fairytales and mythology I was so fascinated by
the title and all the recommendations online that I decided to buy the kindle edition. I do not
regret my decision in the slightest! This book is a combination of essays written in a very
Catherine Valente style, that swept me into a cascade of emotions: from giggling to being
compelty shocked or terrified.

I have always been a firm believer that in order to better understand a book, you have
to know more about the life of it’s author. Here are a few words of wisdom taken directly from
miss. Valente's blog: „Catherynne M. Valente is the New York Times bestselling author of over
two dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan's Tales series,
Deathless, Radiance, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated
Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making (and the four books that followed it). She is the winner of
the Andre Norton, Tiptree, Prix Imaginales, Eugie Foster Memorial, Mythopoeic, Rhysling,
Lambda, Locus, Romantic Times' Critics Choice and Hugo awards. She has been a finalist for
the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with a
small but growing menagerie of beasts, some of which are human."*

After reading a little about the author, the part that is more notable is that her writing is
mainly focused on fiction and the art of creating the craziest versions of the classic fairytales.

The first paragraph from this book draw me in and I instantly knew that I will love this
and the journey it will take me to. It starts like this: “(…) I am a geeky postmodern girl, therefore
I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ” Now how could not love this author when she describes
herself the way I would. The way Catherine is drawn to these type of fictional or other
mythological characters is very similar to my own geekiness and my views of the supernatural
world.

She continues by stating that she belongs to the generation of those who identified with
Buffy’s character because she represented the exact opposite of the pretty blond girl. Up until
her, the pretty girl ran from monsters, but with this character, all the girls knew that being pretty
is not an impediment for being smart and courageous too.

There are a few quotes that I love while reading this book and I would like to do a small
review on my favorite parts.

“Here’s the thing about The Ending. It’s a fucking cheat. (…) The Ending breaks
compact with the audience. It says: everything you just watched and cared about and
experienced vicariously didn’t matter. (…) None of the actions of the characters matter, or the
characters themselves.

Everything on the screen was irrelevant and unimportant, because even in the context
of the film, it was not real, and no one could react to it sufficiently to solve their problems
because they weren’t’ real.” As a future director and fellow aspiring writer, I completely agree.
When you write a story, you want to make the reader connect with the characters you bring to
life. How unfair it is to make the reader connect emotionally and relate to that character’s
experiences, when at the end, you say that none of it was real, that the character was in a
simulation or that everything was a product of their own imagination because they’re mentally
ill. Same thing applies to the movie industry as well. That is cruel, but, as Catherine points out
in this book that is what many authors and especially filmmakers do nowadays.

Another quote that struck very close to my heart was: “The newest trend among
vampires seems to be removing any downside at all from actually being a vampire. Gone are
the days of Nosferatu or even Dracula – apparently vampires can walk around in the daylight
now, whether they sparkle or not (Being Human, The Vampire Diaries, Twilight), are
universally hot, functionally cannot be killed and honestly no one even tries anymore, can see
themselves in mirrors most of the time, and can even touch crosses without going up like a
roman candle (True Blood). There is literally no bad in being a vampire except for the blood
drinking thing (…)”. I shall not continue with the quote, but the idea of this chapter that the
portrayal of vampires in today’s Sf genre is quite mild and yet we have these vampires that over
exaggerate their “doomed” fate. As someone who grew up reading Bram Stoker or Anne Rice,

* http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/about/
I do have to agree with Catherine’s statement about the whiny vampires nowadays. The real
struggle of being a vampire, the one that Dracula and Lestat had to go through, is now forgotten
and the reader is showered with the drama of a being that is hundreds of years old, but still
insists on having the maturity of a very hormonal teen.

Moving on to the next quote, which might be my favorite from the whole book:
"Realism says I cannot have a dragon if I have a suburban kitchen. Fantasy whispers, "Put the
dragon in the suburban kitchen if you want, I'll still love you in the morning". Now, this is gold!
Like Catherine, I listened to fantasy and put my three-headed dragon on my kitchen table. I
chose to live in a realistic world, but with fantasy inspired goals. The fact that fantasy usually
helps me cope with the everyday reality should not be viewed as a possible mental problem
(although I do like to say I'm minted). Catherine has a quote that sums this situation quite well:
” You can’t just kill yourself to get to Heaven faster - you have to suffer here to earn it. Fantastic fiction
allows us to escape this world, and that is a mortal sin”. Everyday reality is hard on all of us, but
that is reason enough to fight harder to maintain the line of fantasy floating. Of course that we
should not immerse ourselves in fantasy completely and forget about the real world. That would
be like me refusing to let my roommate eat on the side of the table where my dragon sleeps.

Entering a more realistic plain I did love the dedication this author put into writing her
stories and the very human and humble way of creating her characters. She states: "The best
books serve two masters: they show us what life could be like if everything was different, and
they make us recognize ourselves with a start. They make us say: yes, that's what it's like" and
I do agree that mostly, as a reader you learn about life from books, you educate yourself
thorough other's writing and you make it your own. You draw the conclusions that were not
visible at first and are quite clear towards the end of the book. The fact that a book can also
help us discover ourselves in the process of reading it should be the main goal of a writer and
there are many that succeeded this, whether is in fantasy of scholar work. Yes, I do mean that.
I have to read Plato and Socrates for school this year and it changed my view of spirituality
and society. That should state a lot considering they lived many years ago and the era was
completely different.

As a conclusion, I would recommend this book to everyone and I did recommend it to

all my friends. The author has a way of putting her soul on a plate when writing and although
this book is a collection of essays where one can know her vary candid side, it felt like I was
chatting with a very good friend and geeking about a favorite book or TV shows. Read just

* http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/about/
the first essays and if you are just half of a fantasy fan as Catherine is, you will be hooked
until the end.

Bibliography:

1. http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/about/
2. Valente, Catherine: Indistinguishable from Magic, Published May 6th, 2014 by Mad
Norwegian Press

* http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/about/