Flight happens

Skellig Michael Island

The image of the man/bird/angel is a reoccuring one throughout magical realism. The recent airing of Skellig starring Tim Roth on the ABC brought the powerful ambiguity of magical realism to mind. The winged man is not good or kind or quick to help. In fact he is a decaying mess, waiting for death to take him. Yet, he has divine gifts inherent within and the ability to fly even though it has been an age since he has used this.

Here is a link to an article about the magical realism of the novel of the Skellig, which I have not read. I also have some issues with the article but it does present some intersting points:
Magical realism and Skellig

In regards to the film, it plays out like thesis on the positive transgression of binaries, the cornerstone of magical realism's potency as a discourse of change. Not man, not angel; not good, not bad; not innocence ad experience; fear and joy; human, divine all present in the same place at the same time. It sent me off researching about the image of the Skellig. The film is...

'ambiguous about the nature of "Skellig"^[1] and the implication that the creature is named "Skellig" implies that he is divine, as many angels bear the letters "El" (meaning "of the Lord") in their names - Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Samael and Uriel to name a few.

Although the obvious implication is that he is some kind of angel, his general demeanour and attitude contrasts with traditional ideas about angels, leading the reader to consider ideas of religious imagery and the role of mysteries in life. There are obvious religious references in the text but, like the poet William Blake (who is quoted in the novel), many of them revolve around unconventional religious concepts. Early in the novel there are numerous references to evolution, some in a spiritual context.

The names "Skellig" and "Michael" are derived from the Skellig Islands off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland.^[2] One of them is Skellig Michael Island; St Michael is also the name of an archangel. Mina is most likely a diminutive of Wilhemina, a female form of the name "William", as Mina's parents are devotees of William Blake. The short text brings in so many ideas that readers and critics report widely divergent ideas of "what the book is about". Short speeches on art, love, health, life and death, evolution, nature, Blake, education and family share a common context.'

You can see a trailer for the film here:
Trailer

At the time I saw this film, birds were falling from the sky all over the world and I couldn't help but link the two separate images in my mind.

Why are the birds falling from the sky?

Humans have always been absorbed with the imagery of flight and our ability to obtain it (or not). Even with all our technological genius, the human body does not fly. And now perhaps it is our doing that is killing off those creatures that can? It would be a terrible irony.

Flight happens in magical realism because that solitary image wordlessly articulates so much about the sense of resistance to empirical reality, about transgression, about non-conformance to the 'rules' of reality. It is the blurring of boundaries between humanity and myth (and mystery). Skellig Michael island is a sacred and until recently quite mysterious site:

A fascinating matter about Skellig Michael is that it is the westernmost sacred site along a long line of ancient pilgrimage places running from western Ireland through France, Italy and Greece, and then onto Mt. Carmel in the Palestine. This line, sometimes called the Apollo/St. Michael axis was known thousands of years before the advent of Christianity and linked the venerated holy places of St. Michael’s Mount, Mont St Michel, Bourges, Perugia, Monte Gargano, Delphi, Athens and Delos.