Posted by andyb on October 31, 2005 at 12:53:28 from 81.131.119.227 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Re: Fairy Tales posted by Fred Boynton on October 29, 2005 at 14:40:18:
"The actual adventures that happen are always just achievable rather than impossibly heroic"
That's it in a nutshell. It is interesting to speculate, however, things may have developed otherwise. The interest in story-telling as a craft and especially the technique of setting a story inside a story is evident throughout the books. Think of the children in the cabin in the woods listening to their grandfather's stories as the wolves howl in the long Russian night, the story-telling session during the storm at the end of S&A, the nights in the wherry setting up Peter Duck and so on. Above all, think of the subtle ways in which it is hinted that these are true stories told by the children and reported by an adult.
To repeat Fred's quote of W Trevor: "The resultant mixture of illusion and fact is a sophisticated one, very much to the liking of some"