tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post3691808388149228929..comments2024-03-19T02:14:31.704-04:00Comments on <center>OnFiction</center>: Research Bulletin: How Children Make Sense of Impossible Events in FictionKeith Oatleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-73084460584649021722015-09-14T10:56:09.681-04:002015-09-14T10:56:09.681-04:00Quote: "If parents are ever worried that read...Quote: "If parents are ever worried that reading fairy tales may confuse children by exposing them to events or entities that do not exist in reality, this study indicates that children can easily infer general rules about fantasy worlds that help them make sense of fiction."<br /><br />I suspect that parents worry less about their children learning fictional rules to understand a story than about those children carrying those same rules over into real life, perhaps exposing themselves danger. A hero may be able to jump from a rooftop and fly away. Little children cannot.<br /><br />A more common defense of fairy tells is that such tales teach children to have the imagination to cope with life's troubles. G. K. Chesterton express that this way:<br /><br />"Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."<br /><br />J. R. R. Tolkien had this to say about those who prefer so-called realistic literature to fantasy and romance:<br /><br />“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?” <br /><br />--Michael W. Perry, author of Tolkien UntangledInklinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05272203500649628022noreply@blogger.com