Fairy Tales for Children?

     Fairy Tales for Children?

     One of the things we touched on in class but didn't elaborate too much on was fairy tales being children stories. Society tells us that we eventually outgrow fairy tales and if we don't then we haven't matured. Society has put it in our heads that imagination is for children and you have to grow up and accept the real world as it is. We grow up learning that as we get older our imaginary comes irrelevant to our everyday lives. Imagination is fine and good when you are a child but once you get older you're suppose to disregard imagination and live life as an "adult".  

     What Lewis and Tolkien do in their writings (fictional and sometimes non-fictional) is try and remove societies way of thinking. They comment that its okay when we let our imaginations go and become creative again. They remind us that it is healthy to go back to our childhood and put our imaginations to work. Sometimes you need another world to escape into. 

    Tolkien Says in Tales From the Perilous Realm that he had not studied fairy tales professionally but has been a wandering explorer in the fairy land. This was not when he was a young boy, it was while he was in his older years. So why then do we believe what society tells us when one of the most known and respected author and scholars says such things as these?