My fall semester is finally finished, and my energies are sufficiently recovered to attempt blogging once more. I took an entire courseload of upper division English classes this semester, which involved hundreds of thousands of pages of reading and wheelbarrows full of writing. This semester I read so many classics and so many interesting things, but what was the point, really? In the end, are these stories just stories? Did I spend a semester being entertained? Earning literary bragging rights? Of course not!
I recently watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and the final scene really made an impact on me, because it described so well what I feel about my role as a lover of language and literature. In the end, Edmond chooses to leave Narnia. When Lucy protests, "But I thought you loved Narnia!" Edmond replies, "I do, but our place is in our world." Aslan confirms this observation by saying, "This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."
Why do we read fantasies (my favorite kind of stories)? Not to merely be entertained, but to learn a lesson in the fantasy world that can make us wiser for our lives in this world. The devoted service and undaunted courage of Reepicheep, the painful sanctification of Eustace, the lessons of leadership learned by Caspian and Edmond, the lessons of identity learned by Lucy, the powerful struggle between good and evil--all these elements of Dawn Treader's fantasy world have an immediate correlation in our world. And this is why good stories are important.
One of my heroes is G.K. Chesterton, and I recently discovered this quote of his: "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
So go, read a fairy tale, rejoice in the story, and don't forget to come down from your peak of inspiration, bringing your revelation to bear on those around you in your everyday life.
