Jeff McBride's Magical Lineage: Precursors & Time Theory

Borges described the mirror and the labyrinth as the same thing, explaining that two mirrors facing each other create a labyrinth. According to Greek myth, Dionysus created himself by looking into a mirror, but creation is fulfilled when the mirror is broken and no reflection remains. This represents the philosophical insight that true creation requires the destruction of the mirror, the abandonment of reflection, and the embrace of naked existence. The scattered fragments of his work demonstrate the teaching of completing oneself by falling, by being always other than what others believe one to be. This represents a distinctive approach to literary legacy that values the work over the author, suggesting that true literary immortality comes from the work itself rather than from the writer's personal identity.

Chano/TB's solo music demonstrates a clear literary influence from Jorge Luis Borges, particularly through recurring themes of mirrors, the concept of 'The Other,' and non-linear time; for example, his song 'La despedida al sol' recreates the structure of Borges' story 'El otro' where a character encounters a younger version of himself, and his song 'Sólo un nombre' employs the same rhetorical technique of avoiding direct naming that Borges uses in 'El milagro secreto' to discuss loneliness.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was born in Buenos Aires and died in Geneva, Switzerland. From a young age, he read, wrote, and translated works in multiple languages, publishing in magazines like 'Martín Fierro'. His father's lineage was of erudits who possessed libraries and knew different cultures and languages, while his mother's lineage was of warriors who participated in Argentina's civil wars of the 19th century. The duel is a recurring theme in his stories, featuring gauchos, compadritos, and unusual confrontations. Borges references universal history, writers, and philosophers, sometimes making unverifiable citations. What appears to be biography is often fiction—a construction taking the form of a biography of a character who never existed. Many of his stories belong to the fantastic genre, where the world seems recognizable but is destabilized by something extraordinary. In 'El Aleph', the character named Borges discovers an object from which he can see the entire universe simultaneously. The themes of order and chaos are keys to reading his work, with labyrinths serving as central metaphors. In 'The Garden of Forking Paths', the labyrinth has an entrance and exit, but those inside don't know it without a map. In 'The Library of Babel', the labyrinth takes the form of a library where no one knows where it begins or ends. Borges treats time and destiny as labyrinths where no one has the key to navigate them. In 'The Circular Ruins', a man is dreamed by another man who is in turn dreamed by a God, creating infinite levels of reality like Russian dolls. The reader's role is crucial—Borges wants readers to be Borges, and he wants us to be readers.

Borges' work consistently explores recurring themes: labyrinths (complexity and intellectual pursuit), mirrors (identity and reflection), time (non-linear nature), dreams (alternative realities), and libraries (repositories of knowledge). These are combined with distinctly Argentine elements. His narrative technique involves blending fictional elements with real-world references, then clarifying the fictional nature in notes or prefaces. This creates playful tension where readers must constantly question reality. His 'Library of Babel' anticipated concepts relevant to the internet age, demonstrating remarkable prescience about information systems.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was an Argentine writer who became blind yet developed an extraordinary inner vision to construct complex metaphysical universes. His central metaphor is the labyrinth—not physical but conceptual, trapping us through rules rather than walls. The Library of Babel represents the universe as an infinite library containing every possible book combination, where truth exists but is inaccessible amid overwhelming data. The Garden Forked in the Paths explores temporal labyrinths where every choice creates multiple simultaneous futures. The Mirror challenges reality by creating doubles, raising questions about identity. In 'Funes the Memorious,' total memory becomes a curse because thinking requires forgetting differences and generalizing. The Aleph represents pantheism—a single point containing all points simultaneously. These works reveal the limits of human reason facing infinity.

Magical realism is a literary movement that blends the magical with the real, presenting extraordinary elements as ordinary aspects of daily life. The term was coined by German critic Franz Roh in 1925 but flourished in Latin America due to its unique cultural mix of indigenous, African, and European traditions. Key characteristics include: supernatural elements appearing normal (like flying grandparents or yellow flowers falling from the sky), objective narration without surprise, cyclical time reflecting memory and oral traditions, and social/political critique exploring oppression and identity. This approach transforms how we perceive reality itself.

Magical realism, also called magic realism or marvelous realism, is a literary style painting a realistic view of the modern world while adding magical elements. Matthew Strecher defines it as 'what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.' The term 'magical realism' first appeared in English in 1955, while the German term 'Magischer Realismus' was coined by art critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe a painterly style called Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). Roh identified this style by its accurate detail, smooth photographic clarity, and portrayal of the 'magical' nature of the rational world, distinguishing it from surrealism by focusing on material objects and actual existence rather than psychological reality. Core characteristics include: portraying fantastical events within realistic tones; presenting supernatural realms blending with natural worlds; authorial reticence through withholding explanations; plenitude creating extraordinary abundance; hybridity spanning urban-rural and Western-indigenous contrasts; metafiction exploring reader roles; heightened awareness of mystery; and implicit political critique targeting societal elites.

Magical realism is a post-modern literary genre that combines realistic views of the real world with magical elements. Key characteristics include: (1) Fantastic elements presented in a realistic tone, blending fables and myths into contemporary settings; (2) Supernatural elements appearing in mundane, contemporary settings; (3) Authorial reticence where narrators remain indifferent to extraordinary events; (4) Hybridity combining multiple planes of reality including urban-rural and Western-indigenous contrasts; (5) Metafictional exploration of fiction-reality relationships; (6) Heightened awareness of mystery and life's hidden meanings. Characters accept magical elements as normal without reaction, distinguishing it from fantasy and science fiction.

Magical realism is a literary and cinematic genre that combines the real world with magical elements. Unlike fantasy genres where stories take place entirely in imaginary worlds (like The Lord of the Rings) or separate magical and mundane settings (like Harry Potter), magical realism presents supernatural occurrences as normalized everyday events within our recognizable reality. The genre treats fantastical elements as ordinary, creating narratives that feel like modern or adult fairy tales grounded in familiar settings.

Magical realism is a literary genre where magical or fantastical elements are introduced into an otherwise realistic setting, and the magic is presented as a normal part of everyday life without explanation or surprise by the characters. The magic is commonplace and unexplained, simply existing as part of the world. Examples include '100 Years of Solitude' and works by Gabriel García Márquez. The genre is particularly associated with Latin American literature and creates a unique immersion where readers accept magical elements as mundane as rain or sunshine. The genre works best when the magical elements are so integrated into the world that they don't require explanation, creating a sense of wonder that comes from the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.

The artist has a theory that time changes our perception of our own work. We paint something, don't like it, set it aside, and a year later might find it was actually good. This is because we've changed as artists. He recommends setting paintings aside and returning to them later with fresh eyes.

There is a theory by art historian Michel Foucault that subsequent art influences previous art, not the other way around. This means Bronzino could have influenced early Michelangelo or his teacher Pontormo, and the avant-garde could have influenced Bronzino, and today we influence their art by interpreting them. This is the reverse light of history, where we live in our modern world with our own system of coordinates of time and space, which cannot be different for us. We cannot see the same things in historical art as previous generations did. For example, when we look at Levitan, we see something different from what Fedorov-Davydov saw. We now see that Levitan foreshadowed Fauvism, which is not realism. Similarly, Vermeer's work, with its tiny details like cells on the floor, anticipates post-internet themes that were generated on computers and then returned to craft. The next generation will understand art even more deeply. There is a romantic notion that great art is not understood in its time but will be recognized later. However, art can be understood and accepted in its own time, but it will be understood and accepted from the perspective of the logic of the person living in that spacio-temporal continuum.

Retrocausality challenges our linear perception of time, suggesting effects can precede causes. The human mind is addicted to viewing time forward because causality provides predictability, creating brain chemical reasons for ignoring retrocausal possibilities. Artists create from flow states where they are not consciously aware of depths in their work, and when they look back, they see levels they did not consciously put in. This suggests a future aspect of the artist could be influencing what they were creating then. Creativity and time jumping are more linked than we could imagine, as when we enter the creative state, all time disappears. Trees are the perfect emblem of time rip, representing the tension between continuous time lapse and continual time span. The tree contains all information for its future form and is quantumly entangled to the future of what it is supposed to look like.

Artistic works are not retrospective (looking back at history) but retroactive (continuously creating new meaning in the present). When elements from historical moments are brought into new contexts, they take on new memories and meanings. This means works never have a final retrospective moment but always have an internal economy of retroactive moments - a continuous activism of shifting meanings and translating what is transitional. Surrealism should be understood as a strategy of making things rather than an ontological claim about reality, operating between program and chance.

Henri Bergson's philosophy distinguishes between objective time (measured by clocks and calendars) and lived duration (subjective inner experience), arguing that intellectual analysis alone cannot understand life's vital phenomena; instead, intuition provides direct access to reality's true nature, an idea that profoundly influenced early 20th-century art movements like Cubism, which rejected static single viewpoints to depict objects as constantly changing within temporal and spatial flux.