We need new fairy stories and folk tales to guide us out of today’s dark woods | Andrew Simms

In these perilous times, progressives must create narratives that shine a light on crises such as climate change and the plight of refugeeWith natural forces running amok and wolves prowling in the shady woods of our workplaces, reality seems stranger than a folk tale or fairy story. Our daily lives seem to have become as dark and disturbing as anything dreamed up by the brothers Grimm, or written down by Charles Perrault, the great 17th-century chronicler of folk and fairytales.Folk tales emerge in times of upheaval, and from societies’ grimmest moments. They enable us to process and assimilate extreme experience, and deal with our fears. They also, typically, communicate powerful and uncompromising moral narratives. It’s not hard to draw a map of current major global problems with reference to them. Related: Cults, human sacrifice and pagan sex: how folk horror is flowering again in Brexit Britain Related: What Richard Dawkins could learn from Goldilocks and the Three Bears Continue reading...