A little bit of Chesterton for you, on the rules of fable and fairy. I’m a big fan of story types and tropes and forms, in general. I prefer traditional jazz with its clear phrases and swung rhythms to the freeform mayhem of bebop, too. I tend to think that the strict form actually affords more creative freedom, and creates an internal authenticity. Would a gingerbread house be as impressive if it weren’t made out of candy?
The fable and the fairy tale are things utterly distinct. There are many elements of difference; but the plainest is plain enough. There can be no good fable with human beings in it. There can be no good fairy tale without them.
Aesop, or Babrius (or whatever his name was), understood that, for a fable, all the persons must be impersonal. They must be like abstractions in algebra, or like pieces in chess. The lion must always be stronger than the wolf, just as four is always double of two. The fox in a fable must move crooked, as the knight in chess must move crooked. The sheep in a fable must march on, as the pawn in chess must march on. The fable must not allow for the crooked captures of the pawn; it must not allow for what Balzac called “the revolt of a sheep.” The fairy tale…
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3 thoughts on “Fables and Fairy Tales”
David Russell Mosley
Michelle,
I have to say, I’m quite with you. This is why I’ve never been a huge fan of free-form poetry. The poetry that seems to last is the most structured (Psalm 119 is an acrostic for the Hebrew alphabet for example). This also the reason I’ve come to love liturgy so much. It can make it seem like we impose order on worship and the entire cosmos, but I’m fairly certain that’s not true; it’s an uncovering of the order and structure that is already there. This is basically why I use literature and poetry in my theology. Anyway, just wanted to provide some solidarity on the desire for structure.
Michelle Joelle
I love how you’ve phrased that – uncovering the structure that’s already there. I think that’s why I similarly gravitate towards philosophy that has mythopoetic and literary elements (Plato over Aristotle, Augustine over Aquinas, etc). I thought, for a long time, that I didn’t like poetry. I never seemed to get it, I wasn’t moved, my mind wandered, etc – but then I realized I just didn’t like a good deal of modern poetry!
David Russell Mosley
I don’t believe I’m the originator of that phrase (but I’ll temporarily take the credit). I’ve had the same experience with modern poetry (Lewis seems to have had it with certain Romantic, if my memory serves me, poetry as well).