What C.S. Lewis said about children's books

According to Tolkien the appeal of the fairy story lies in the fact that man there most fully exercises his function as a “subcreator”; not, as they love to say now, making a “comment upon life” but making, so far as possible, a subordinate world of his own. Since, in Tolkien’s view, this is one of man’s proper functions, delight naturally arises whenever it is successfully performed. For Jung, fairy tale liberates Archetypes which dwell in the collective unconscious, and when we read a good fairy tale we are obeying the old precept “Know thyself.”

So by going into these created worlds I am learning about myself... Interesting. The imaginative power of fantasy creations reflect the human condition and simultaneously satisfy a deep primal need.

These quotes are from On Three Ways Of Writing For Children by C. S Lewis a talk given in 1952 at the Library Association and later published in his book Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

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This article is shared at Booknificient Thursdays