Last week, Richard Dawkins described fairytales as pernicious. He should use his imagination
"Wonder tales" might be the better term: fairytales inspire both wonder as astonishment and as a form of questioning. They're thought experiments, revolving possibilities. They're close to make-believe play, when children project dramas and outcomes, using what material there is to hand to imagine the script.
In the case of fairytales, the material is super-rich: the stories crystallise the accumulated knowledge of the past into brilliantly coloured, sharply outlined, yet often baffling motifs: the glass slipper; the cannibal ogress and the child-bird she wants to cook; the mermaid who gives up her voice for love; the girl who runs away disguised as a donkey and yes, Dawkins's example, the frog who wants to sleep on a princess's pillow. These are wonders, disturbing and astonishing, yet encoded, oblique renderings of experience.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 hours ago.
"Wonder tales" might be the better term: fairytales inspire both wonder as astonishment and as a form of questioning. They're thought experiments, revolving possibilities. They're close to make-believe play, when children project dramas and outcomes, using what material there is to hand to imagine the script.
In the case of fairytales, the material is super-rich: the stories crystallise the accumulated knowledge of the past into brilliantly coloured, sharply outlined, yet often baffling motifs: the glass slipper; the cannibal ogress and the child-bird she wants to cook; the mermaid who gives up her voice for love; the girl who runs away disguised as a donkey and yes, Dawkins's example, the frog who wants to sleep on a princess's pillow. These are wonders, disturbing and astonishing, yet encoded, oblique renderings of experience.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 hours ago.