To Read & To Write

At first “More Than True: The Wisdom of Fairy Tales” by Robert Bly (2018) may seem like an over-analysis of children’s stories. Even taken as the psychologically dense stories for adults that they really are, Bly’s writing is a bit jarring at first, to the point of one wondering whether his opinions have come out of unreflective musing, or the thin air, being too far-fetched to be graspable. But rest assured – the man knows damn well that he is right in his thoughts on the power and depth of these tales as pieces of cultural history worth the time of true poetic examination. Readers will pick up on this feeling of righteousness presented within the pages. Slowly, Bly no longer is seen as the crazy professor but instead, a sage of interpretation, believable if only because of an honest to goodness obscurity that finally brings a special common sense grounded in critical thought. Simply, it is hard to detect any of Bly’s ideology at work here – which makes this the perfect book for ...