5 Comments
Apr 29Liked by Henry Oliver, Anna McCullough

I loved reading this. Fascinating to read about Lang. I’d never heard of him until now. His ideas on romance and fairytales ring true. Deep in the weeds if the archetypes, there’s a A feminist view I subscribe to that fairytales are often survival manuals for girls. “What big teeth you have, Grandma!”

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May 3Liked by Henry Oliver, Anna McCullough

OK so I can keep reading comic books? Awesome

If this post is a shot, this a pretty good chaser

https://open.substack.com/pub/ribbonfarmstudio/p/we-are-all-dennettians-now

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May 2Liked by Henry Oliver, Anna McCullough

How interesting! I read a number of Andrew Lang’s collected fairy tale books as a child, but knew nothing of him. All of this tracks with what his books tell children, which is to look for and behold ‘the strangeness and the beauty of life’. It became clear entering adulthood that the stories had been meant, as @Abigail Bosanko pointed out in her comment above, as survival manuals which I took to heart. What an intriguing path to have now been sent down in order to learn more. Thank you for this, Anna McCullough!

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Lang was one of the most influential authors of his time, and he understood that fantasy and reality needed to co-exist to be effective. Later authors such as G.K. Chesterton would draw on his ideas to shape their own views on fantasy and romance.

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Darwin and Wallace created the mechanism for evolution to happen.

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