FAIRY-TALES do not give a child his first idea of bogy. What fairy-tales
give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogy.
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an
imagination. What the fairy-tale provides for him is a St. George to
kill the dragon.
Exactly what the fairy-tale does is this: it accustoms him by a
series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors have a
limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies, that these infinite
enemies of man have enemies in the knights of God, that there is
something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than
strong fear. When I was a child I have stared at the darkness until the
whole black bulk of it turned into one negro giant taller than heaven.
If there was one star in the sky it only made him a Cyclops. But
fairy-tales restored my mental health. For next day I read an authentic
account of how a negro giant with one eye, of quite equal dimensions,
had been baffled by a little boy like myself (of similar inexperience
and even lower social status) by means of a sword, some bad riddles, and
a brave heart.
G. K. Chesterton (Tremendous Trifles)
Can you not see that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and
straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is
in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul is
sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means
that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick
and screaming.The problem of the fairy tale is--what will a healthy man
do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel is--what
will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes
mad; but the hero does not go mad. In modern novels the hero is mad
before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel
sanity of the cosmos.
G.K. Chesterton, 'The Dragon's Grandmother.'"
give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogy.
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an
imagination. What the fairy-tale provides for him is a St. George to
kill the dragon.
Exactly what the fairy-tale does is this: it accustoms him by a
series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors have a
limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies, that these infinite
enemies of man have enemies in the knights of God, that there is
something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than
strong fear. When I was a child I have stared at the darkness until the
whole black bulk of it turned into one negro giant taller than heaven.
If there was one star in the sky it only made him a Cyclops. But
fairy-tales restored my mental health. For next day I read an authentic
account of how a negro giant with one eye, of quite equal dimensions,
had been baffled by a little boy like myself (of similar inexperience
and even lower social status) by means of a sword, some bad riddles, and
a brave heart.
G. K. Chesterton (Tremendous Trifles)
Can you not see that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and
straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is
in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul is
sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means
that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick
and screaming.The problem of the fairy tale is--what will a healthy man
do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel is--what
will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes
mad; but the hero does not go mad. In modern novels the hero is mad
before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel
sanity of the cosmos.
G.K. Chesterton, 'The Dragon's Grandmother.'"
