Larisa-Mirela Giurgiu

An I and II (simultanouly)

En-Lit. Comp

Review on Indistinguishable from Magic by Catherynne M.

Valente

When I dicoverd this critical book on fairytales and mythology I was so fascinated by
the title and all the recomandations 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 writen 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 its author. Here are a few words of wisdon taken directly from
miss. Valentes blog: Catherynne M. Valente is the New York Times bestselling author of
over two dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphans 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 clasic fairytales.

The first paragraph from this book dra 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
Buffys 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.

Heres the thing about The Ending. Its a fucking cheat. () The Ending breaks
compact with the audience. It says: everything you just watched and cared about and
experienced vicariously didnt 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 werent 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 characters
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 theyre mentally
ill. Same thing applies for 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 todays 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 Catherines 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 to have the maturity of a very hormonal teen.

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