The Truth of Fairy World

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The Truth of Fairy World

It has been often heralded by many a parent, usually adolescent their child, that they should “get their head out of the clouds and get back to reality.” This presupposition is solely based on the notion that reality is better. Perhaps there is wisdom in this recurring parental motto as it concerns careers, education, or financial decisions. However, this maxim may be the sole murderer of many potential beautiful ideas, works of art, stories, or inventions. Oscar Wilde, in his “Decay of Lying” argues:

All bad art comes from a returning to Life and Nature… The moment Art surrenders its imaginative medium it surrenders everything… The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us…Life goes faster than Realism, but Romanticism is always in front of Life. ()

This is an argument for an Aesthetic approach in viewing art, but I submit that this point transcends simply paintings of art, and invades all aspects of the humanities. The particular medium I wish to explore Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy in it fairy tale literature. The very best of literature are the pieces, which carry the reader away from our physical dimension, into another world. In the following essay I will demonstrate the superiority of “fairy world” in literature, over realistic fiction. How it is the fairy world that heightens understanding of the world around us, promotes progress, and cultivates hope.

Firstly, the fairy world allows us to understand our world most deeply and to comprehend its truths in a deeper and more complete way than reality would simply allow. They are the purest expression of the human psyche. Bypassing cultural biases, fairy tales become a universal and timeless means of communicatio...

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...n clouds that our heads will find more fulfillment. If the ultimate argument against the fairy world, is that it is all a play-world, that truly returning to life is the through realism, and the ideals therein are simply made-up, it would appear to me that the made-up things are far more important than the real things. (Lewis 182)

Works Cited

Lewis, Clive Staples Of Other Worlds Essays and Stories, Orlando: Harvest Book House, 1975, Print

San Juan, Epifanio The Art of Oscar Wilde, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967, Print

Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel Tree and Leaf, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964, Print

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith Orthodoxy, New York: Barnes and Noble Inc, 2007, Print

Franz, Marie-Louise von The Interpretation of Fairy Tale, Boston: Shambala, 1996, Print

Lewis, Clive Staples Silver Chair, New York: Scholastic Inc, 1995, Print

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