Christian Writers' Reading Challenge Day 27

 Hello again, and welcome back to the Christian Writers' Reading Challenge! Sorry for the delay; it's been a crazy weekend here, but maybe you enjoyed the reading break. Today we're looking at "On Fairy Stories," a long essay by JRR Tolkien. No, you didn't accidentally hit yesterday's link--we are reading two similarly-titles essays in a row, written by two contemporaneous authors.

ICYMI, here are the links to the past works we're studied in the Challenge:

Day 1: Short Works by JRR Tolkien

Days 2-8: Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle

Days 9-16: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

Days 17-25: If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland 

Day 26: "On Stories" by CS Lewis

Day 27

Quick Guide

Required Material: "On Fairy Stories" by JRR Tolkien. If you've been with us since Day 1, then it should be in the same book (Tree and Leaf) as "Mythopoeia" and Leaf by Niggle.

Reading Guide: Because we are intellectuals, and because we read a Lewis essay yesterday, today we will read the difficult (but by no means dull) essay "On Fairy Stories," in which Tolkien has some scholarly fun with the idea of fairy tales. It was originally a lecture given to college students, so get ready for a higher reading level than you're used to. (Fun Fact: Tolkien was a terrible lecturer, speaking with a quiet, unsteady voice.)

Notes: Pay attention once again to imagery, but also to language. Tolkien was a philologist, which means he loved words and knew a lot about them. Keep in mind the importance of words, especially the Creative Word, logos, in Christianity (John 1:1-14). Think about the significance of storytelling in human culture. As always, annotate.

Deep Dive

For a brief About the Author refresher, check out Day 1, when we read two other short works by Tolkien.

Hard Words: First of all, "Faerie" is Tolkien's word for "fairyland." He also refers to it as "The Perilous Realm."

Expurgations--removals, exclusions

Significatio--sign, mark, meaning, import

Glutter--in the context of the essay, one who overfeeds

Callow--immature, inexperienced

Vestigiary--forming a small remnant, imperfectly formed

Prophylactic--in the context of the essay, a preventative measure

Quisling--traitor

Panoply--impressive collection, splendid display

Evangelium--Gospel

Fecundity--fertility, ability to produce new ideas

Progenitive--having reproductive power

Conterminous--sharing a boundary, having the same context or meaning

Notes for Christians

Tolkien begins this essay using enchanting language well-suited to his subject matter. This is a good way to write: Match your diction to your topic. An essay about fairy tales should sound fantastical.

"Supernatural" is a curious word. The prefix "super-" literally means "above"--that which is supernatural is above nature (however "nature" may be defined). Man is supernatural because he has been given authority over nature (Genesis 1:26-30), and because he is made in the image of God. Fairies are natural because they are at one with nature, part of nature, living in harmony with nature--think of dryads or elves, for instance.

It's good and evil that makes a fairy story, which is why so often you'll see prohibitions (don't leave the path!) or the ever-popular trope of the old lady/small child who turns out to have great power, but you don't learn this until after you have mistreated her or shown her kindness. Fairy stories are mainly concerned with how we should act--with what is Good, Honorable, and Right.

Fairies often seem to represent the desires of the human heart and body. (Try reading an early "fairy story," such as Lanval by Marie de France, for an example.) If fairies were indeed invented by humans, then we have given ourselves a curious psychological insight: Fairies are depicted as natural creatures, and often amoral*. (How strange that though fairy stories are fraught with morality, the fairies themselves play by their own rules--but they do have rules.)

Elves are not primarily concerned with us. [First, a note on elves. The depiction of elves as tall, blond, pointy-eared tree-dwellers was invented by Tolkien himself. In this essay, when he says "elves," he is not referring to his own creations but to what elves were before he wrote LotR: a mythological humanoid from Germanic mythology, possessing supreme beauty and often associated with craftmanship.] But as I was saying, or rather, as Tolkien said, elves are not primarily concerned with us. Then what are they concerned with? We don't know, but it's certainly not human. When you write non-human characters, they still must be "human" in the sense that they are relatable, since your readers are presumably human. But they also must be otherworldly and possess that strange quality of Faerie, and a good way to show that is by making your non-humans not primarily concerned with humans or human worries. Elves worry about different things than humans, because even if they dwell on this plant, they are creatures of another world.

Pay attention to the classification of stories in the essay. There are fairy stories, travellers' tales, dream stories, beast-fables, folktales, myths, epic, heroic legend, saga, history. There is overlap between these many categories, although Tolkien purposefully excludes some from the realm of Faerie. Then there is Fantasy, which he discusses in-depth.

There is a difference between concision and "undue abbreviation," a line which writers must tread carefully. We shouldn't eliminate nuance in favor of simpler sentences, or elide details and risk oversimplification of an issue.

Mythology is a human thing, as we saw on Day 1 when we read "Mythopoeia." Anything human can be corrupted, and will be corrupted: Indeed, since we are sinful, it is born corrupted, just as we are. The problem for writers, then, is not how to birth something perfect, but how to make what imperfection (be it a moral flaw or hole in the net of Story) as inconsequential as possible. Going back to L'Engle, we only have bad choices, and we must choose the least bad.

In some ways, mythology is the earliest science (though one might argue it was closer to philosophy, but as anyone who has read Frankenstein knows, science was once called "natural philosophy"): We tried to explain what we observed in nature. You'd be surprised the overlap between science, philosophy, mythology, and faith. It's worth researching, at the very least.

Good quote: "Personality can only be derived from a person."

Look at Tolkien's word choice when he mentions the "Cauldron of Story." We're no longer looking at merely at soup: cauldrons contain potions or poisons and are stirred by witches. Once again, fantastic word choice for a fantastical theme. Choose your words as carefully as Tolkien.

A warning for writers: Children enjoy playing in "attics and lumber-rooms" because children are drawn towards whatever is interesting, even if it is dangerous. This applies to any human, really, not just children, but we tend to ignore it in adults because we believe they have the good judgment not to get into something that will harm themselves. (Really, how stupid are we to assume we will willingly avoid danger? Forbidding someone to touch fire does nothing until they have been burned. We must learn everything the hard way.) This applies to writing because your story is the attic or lumber-room you're setting up for your readers, and if you want them to play safely, make sure the most interesting things in that attic are not the most dangerous. This isn't to say "censor your stories." It's to say: Present Truth and Truth, Good as Good, and Evil as Evil, because humans will play with anything, and while the author can't control the reader's impulses, he can to a certain extent guide his interpretations.

Stories help us classify our world from a very young age, into good and bad, hero and villain, child and grown-up. Those of us who write for young people must straddle a difficult fence between presenting Truth and maintaining our audience's innocence. This is the most important task of children's authors.

Tolkien says that children don't want to believe, they want to know. That's part of why I think "storybook Bibles" and Sunday School lessons designed for very small children are well-intentioned failures. Children will give the right answers in Sunday School, but they understand how much they don't understand, and they realize that there are missing pieces. Children have so many questions about God that seem to have no answers, because storybook Bibles and Sunday School lessons only touch on superficial plot and not on underlying meaning. And when they ask these questions, it sounds like they are challenging religion itself. They don't mean to tick anyone off when they ask where the dinosaurs are in the Bible, they're just curious about why two parts of their education seem incompatible. Part of me wishes I hadn't learned any Biblical tales until I was old enough to understand the themes, symbolism, and prophecy. I feel that children who are "raised Christian" are at a disadvantage compared to adult converts: We never feel the wonder of hearing and comprehending the Truth for the first time, for we hear it over and over and over throughout our childhood before we finally have the life experience necessary to comprehend it. Not that I'm against teaching children Biblical truths from an early age--but it's the truths we should be teaching, not just the stories, and we shouldn't shy away from the hard questions.

Stories are how we "speak of the lessons of things that do not lecture." Yet another of their many purposes.

"To be dissolved, or to be degraded, is the likely fate of Fantasy when a dramatist tries to use it, even such a dramatist as Shakespeare." Fun Fact about Tolkien: He put Ents in The Lord of the Rings because he was disappointed that the "walking trees" in Shakespeare were just people holding branches. So there may be some bias in Tolkien's mind against Drama and towards Fantasy...

When your readers read, they are "in a dream that some other mind is weaving." You have immense power, which means that your have two responsibilities: 1. Not to use this power for evil, and 2. To use it for a positive good. The absence of evil in your work is not enough for a Christian writer: Our stories shouldn't be merely "harmless" entertainment, but very dangerous indeed, a force against the evil of the world.

Naming is a concept we've visited in previous posts, but it remains important. Tolkien emphasizes the need for "a word for the elvish craft," that is, the power to weave the reader's dream. Why do we need a word? So we can discuss it and think about it. This is why the shrinkage of language is so damning: When we lose the word, we lose the ability to discuss the idea, and may lose the idea altogether.

A taste for Fantasy preserves our child-like sense of wonder, which is necessary to see the beauty in even the seemingly mundane parts of God's Creation. And if we can see the wonder in the ordinary, then, as we learned from CS Lewis, we can catch the eternal, unseen things in our net of Story.

"Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?" Let's break down this beautiful analogy: Earth is the prison, Heaven is our home, and the man is a Christian. The real question, then is, who are the jailers and what are the prison-walls? And how much of this prison have we constructed for ourselves? (The answer to the latter is, of course, "all of it": the Earth is our prison because of our own sin.)

In this world, many of our institutions and technologies can feel like "improve means to deteriorated end." In the midst of this, Story is an age-old mean to an eternal end, at least when it's used properly.

Why do we tell fairy stories? For the sane reason we believe in the seemingly impossible story of Christian redemption: Because we know there is something eternal out there, and we are aching to reach it. By fairy stories, we can bring a semblance of it a little closer.

I'll leave you with this quote to be a guiding principle in your stories: "God is Lord, of angels, and of men--and of elves."

*Amoral, meaning "not knowing right or wrong, or not adhering to a system of morality," as opposed to immoral, "knowing right from wrong and doing wrong anyway."

Study Questions

Why is it dangerous to ask too many questions in Faerie? In what way does this "shut the gates"?

What is a fairy? What is a fairy story?

What does the nature of fairies tell us about the nature of our desires?

Describe "the realm or state in which fairies have their being." Is it a physical place, or a state of mind? Why should it contain us "when we're enchanted"? And what enchants us?

What is the air that blows in the country of Faerie?

If the magic of Faerie is not an end in itself, then what is its purpose (assuming it is taken seriously)?

What is the "primal desire at the heart of Faerie"?

In what ways are the magic of Faerie and the craft of Story similar? (See the paragraph where Tolkien discusses "seeing the bones of the ox.")

Reading Check: What are the three facets of fairy stories? Hint: Each one is a sort of dichotomy.

Is it easier for you to believe in fairies or in angels? Why?

How can Truth appear in Fantasy?

Are fairy stories only suited for children? Were fairy stories invented with children in mind?

What is the difference between "suspending disbelief" and "believing"?

Why have fairy stories been relegated to the land of childhood?

What is the "heart of the desire of Faerie"? (This is a different question than the one above.)

What is Fantasy? What is the difference between Fantasy and Drama? In what ways is Fantasy "a rational not an irrational activity"?

What does Tolkien mean by "For the heart is hard though the body be soft"?

Consider the Lang quote: "For children are innocent and love justice; while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy." Is this true or not, and what is your reasoning? When you were a child, which did you prefer? Or was there a preference at all?

What does "uncorrupted" Fantasy look like, and how can we as Christian writers keep our fantasy so pure?

Why should Fantasy "languish" in the absence of truth?

Break down Tolkien's metaphor in this quote: "Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence or the 'quisling' to the resistance of the patriot." Who is the patriot, and what is her resisting? Who are "they"? And who is the quisling, and to what does he acquiesce?

Looking at it from a Biblical perspective, why are promises and prohibitions so important in fairy stories?

What is the "highest function" of a fairy story?

Come back tomorrow, when we look at two books on writing by Christian authors: Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson and Beate Not the Poore Desk by Walter Wangerin, Jr.