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Why “Past Watchful Dragons”?
“Sometimes fairy stories may say best what’s to be said.”
So runs the title of C.S. Lewis’ essay on the value of fantasy literature. Everyone can relate to the power of a well-crafted story. From creation through the earliest days of civilization and up to modern culture, story has remained the most effective tool for communicating deep truths. Facts can inform, and arguments may persuade, but nothing reaches the whole being as well as a story. In masterfully-written literature, our heads and hearts don’t hinder each other; instead, our minds are stretched and challenged to accept the truths with which our hearts already resonate.
Facts can inform, and arguments may persuade, but nothing reaches the whole being as well as a story.
In his essay, C.S. Lewis explains his reason for valuing stories as the vehicle for truth.
I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralyzed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings…. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.
This site is dedicated to the love of stories—old, new, and those yet to be written. I hope you’ll join me on my journey to enjoy a wealth of stories and to add my own two cents’ worth to the hoard. Together, let’s smuggle some truth and beauty past our own watchful dragons.
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