Hoo, boy. Have I ever got a project! Today we begin doing research for our thesis papers in my Brothers Grimm class. I have to come up with a thesis. At first, I thought I was going to do something on comics and fairy tales, or the plot structure commonalities of the fairy tales, etc., but it's increasingly looking like I'll be tackling something to do with religious (specifically Christian) themes arising in fairy tales, and perhaps outlining the theory that the polygenesis of these themes in fairy tales the world over (that is, the same themes cropping up in cultures that are completely alien/unconnected to each other) points toward the existence of the God of the Bible. To my current understanding, this is the viewpoint expressed by Lewis, Tolkien, L'Engle, and most recently, Jim Ware (whose credentials in this area are still unknown to me). My teacher specifically pointed out that another publication has recently appeared from a scholar of fairy tales that examines religious themes inherent in them, which I'm going to have to borrow from her (she says it's unlikely I'll be able to find it in any bookstores in the area).

In his book, God Of the Fairy Tale, Jim Ware makes this argument. I haven't yet finished it, but I think his argument is invalidated because he doesn't seem to take into account that the versions of the fairy tales he's mentioning - the Grimms' versions - were specifically re-edited and in some cases re-written to reflect a Protestant worldview. However, based on other essays I've read for this class which argued that, among other points, fairy tales make for lousy moral advisories, I think a fairly strong case can still be made for Polygenesis-As-Divine-Imprint (Lewis's "Good Dreams"). I have to consider psychological analyses, which includes Freud and Jung, but from what I've seen, these are not necessarily in conflict with the "Good Dreams" theory - I think the conflict comes from Freud's assumption that God does not exist, and is a construct of these psychological patterns rather than being the external inspiration for them.

As you might imagine, I have my work cut out for me. I'm scrambling to find as much of Lewis's writings on the topic as I can find, both at the library and at work, as well as other Christian fantasists - Chesterton, MacDonald, Tolkien. I've also been looking into the writings of non-Christian authors on the topic, such as Ursula K. LeGuin and Guy Gavriel Kay, who also seem to give credence to the idea (though, perhaps predictably, they express incredulity at the idea that God may be the basis of these themes, attributing them instead to pagan sources or Jung's collective unconscious). I'm looking forward to this project nonetheless.

Additionally, I have to present some kind of visual representation based on my findings, so what I'm probably going to do is make a comic that illustrates these themes, either by showing a side-by-side comparison of fairy tale scenes and their corresponding Christian themes, or by presenting a fairy tale with an intentional eye toward highlighting the spiritual symbolism, etc. It has to be based on my findings, so I can't plan too much of it just yet.

It's a good thing that we get to work on this for a while...

On other topics: two things. First, I haven't commented on this since I first started hearing about it a while ago, because I thought it was foolish enough that people wouldn't believe it. Apparently I was too optimistic. There is an e-mail going around about Bush reinstating the draft...have you heard about this? The mainstream media is now speaking about this notion as if it were a fact, Michael Moore is all over it, and students on campuses all over the country are being whipped up in a left-wing fearmongering effort.

Read up on the facts, if you fear this. Note that the only people who have recently pushed for the draft have been Democrats, and it isn't really a realistic concern anyway, since there's no chance it will go into effect.

Second, the Presidential Debates tonight. I'm really looking forward to listening in on the radio at work... My anti-political co-worker Shaun will likely be annoyed. Oh, well. Off to work!