Opening essay of a series that promises to be a crucial commentary on our aberrant times:
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Shows lots of promise, yes. I only ever skimmed Weberās book, but the connection that Max W drew between Protestantism and Capitalism is still very persuasive.
I do like the word āenchantmentā. It is itself magical, I think. Life is an enchantment, a delicious waking dream. EnchantĆ©(e)
Greer speaks of myths, fairy tales, and legends, folktales, and Iām reminded of Bruno Bettelheimās The Uses Of Enchantment. BB is in poor repute for his work with autistic children, for being a very domineering person, for plagiarism, and for faking his credentials in psychoanalysis. And much besides I suspect, the mob is still running as far as I can tell. This doesnāt change the fact that he wrote beautifully and insightfully at times (or stole his ideas with skill, whatever, I donāt actually care).
Uses Of Enchantment is about how fairy tales teach life lessons, allegorically as well as literally, helping kids to work through the emotional conflicts they experience.
The stories are often violent or repellent, witches baked in ovens, grannies eaten by wolves, etc, which may help kids to resolve the ādangerousā feelings that they experience.
Few young children will have failed to tell their mum āI hate you!āā¦ and meant it at that moment. āI wish you were deadā. And so on. I doubt that Greer is going to be exploring this aspect of folklore, but I look forward to the journey.
What led me to the book, btw, was Neil Jordanās film The Company Of Wolves. The film was based on Angela Carterās story (I havenāt read it). It was only when I rewatched this recently, and read the booklet in the DVD case, that I realised the whole thing was filmed in Shepperton studio and on such a tight budget they had to keep arranging the same ten or so trees to create a forest, for example.
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