Grimm and Other Folk Tales from Cory Godbey on Vimeo.
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From the category archives:
Fairy Tales
“I don’t want to analyze a story. I don’t want to find hidden meaning. I just want to escape from the real world for a bit.”
I’m guessing you’ve either heard some variation of those words or said them yourself. Books are for “escaping.” Stories are for entertainment value. A page-turner is all we want – something that will help us to “veg out,” to leave the day behind.
I can’t begrudge someone entertainment. I like entertainment. I watch a few TV shows just for the mindlessness, and I watch others because they make me think. But a line often gets crossed in this type of thinking, which goes something like this: “It’s silly to think J.K. Rowling wrote the whole Harry Potter series on an alchemical framework, utilizing symbols and themes that are meant to transform one’s vision. She was just writing fun, entertaining books.” [click to continue…]
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Discuss:
“The artist…must retain the vision which includes angels and dragons and unicorns and all the lovely creatures which our world put in a box and marked Children Only. ~ Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water
- Why are supernatural beings considered kids’ stuff?
- What benefit does the adult derive from these “lovely creatures”?
- What do you say to people who think you’re nuts for liking “kids’ stories”?
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Warning: The following contains an unpopular theological belief. I don’t want to get into a big theological debate here, so please keep the discussion to Kreeft’s thesis and not his example.
Peter Kreeft:
“Theories lie more readily than stories. That is why our psychologists tell us we are good but our novelists tell us we are evil.” ~ A Turn of the Clock
Warning: The following quotation is by Ursula K. Le Guin. Extended exposure to Le Guin – as with Tolkien, MacDonald, and many others – may result in believing things that could cause you to be labeled a “geek.” Though, if you’re reading and commenting on this site, you’re already there.
Ursula K. Le Guin:
“For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it, too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons because they are afraid of freedom…. Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.” ~ Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, rev. ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1989.
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