From the book
Preface
A story is not a moral lesson or an educational tool in the modern sense of the word. It is music about beauty and truth that we still need to hear.
This little book is not a defense of the past, but an invitation to look at the future with new eyes. To read fairy tales without fear and without judging them.
The more we want to protect children, the more we tend to correct those stories, rewrite them, remove the parts or characters that make us uncomfortable. But stories know nothing of modern educational theories: they speak an older, deeper language. It is a secondary language that goes straight to children’s souls because it is part of their emotional reality.
When a child hears that Little Red Riding Hood goes into the forest, they feel something primal: fear, curiosity, the desire to grow and explore. Stories speak that language, and children understand it without any effort.
I try to explain a little how what lies behind the ogre, the witch or the wolf moves within us and our children, and is different from the story’s rational logic.
We adults have forgotten the meaning of stories. We have lost our ear for symbolic language. We find it hard to accept that evil, pain or death can be part of a story for children.
We have applied ideologies, modern theories and educational approaches to something that has no need of logic to exist.
With this book, I want to help us tune our ears so we can listen to stories again without prejudice.
M. Tanco
