Today's discussion about fairy-tales and the mythical sense reminded me about the essay written by J.R.R. Tolkien, titled "On Fairy Tales." This essay essentially sums up Tolkien's view of the fairy-tale in literature, it's importance to everyone in any age group, and his experience with what he calls "the land of faerie." Faerie - which essentially in this sense means the land of make-believe, the world where our stories take place - is a faraway land where anything is possible, where the logic and rules of our world can be shrugged off if we so please. Tolkien, being the staunch catholic that he was, was no stranger to stories that could seem fantastical and odd. But that didn't stop him from being influenced by his faith; it comes through in his work if you read into the underlying themes. However, he believed that putting any sort of thematic material in front of the readers' face to see plainly was to defeat the purpose of becoming an author, saying that they needed to lift from it what they needed (one of the reasons him and Lewis often argued over their story notes, since Lewis wrote his in a more aware state). Two of the greatest fairy tales ever told are still around today, and both have made their way across multiple mediums of art. And, both are influenced by the religious beliefs of God. I think there's something to say about these two authors seeing the bigger picture, and how we've lost that grand vision today.
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