It's time to recognise the value of fairy tales to adults.

Anything that helps us question our opinions and discuss basic values without going off at the deep end is much needed, especially with today's toxic, polarised debates. When researching the origins of fairy tales, I realised that the lessons of fairy tale retellings based on the original and rather sinister versions told hundreds of years ago remain a largely untapped source. The vast majority of movies and TV series that attempt to rework old fairy tales, fantasy in general, seems to focus solely on quick-fix entertainment and not on the messages. Action over thought. The 'what' over the 'why'. And that leaves little time and energy for personal interpretation and reflection (which books are better at). This is a shame and missed opportunity because fairy tale morals can help adults too recalibrate the balance between what they feel, think and do. And few adults are reading fairy tales.

There are many great fantasy stories out there which include elements of fairy tale morals (Gaiman, Pullman, Sapkowski) but, like their ancient fairy tale cousins, disappointingly few of those reach the brains of adults in mass media form (movies and TV) without being given the Netflix treatment. It would be great to have the few gifted, influential visual media visionaries out there turn their sights on fairy tales. Imagine the traumatic fate of an early Rapunzel or gruesome ordeal of an early Little Red Cap being told in Black Mirror style on your screen. Just a thought. If you deem it an interesting one, open the essay in PDF form here .

The essay attempts to explain why our obsession with entertainment is draining fairy tales of their value, particularly the lessons adults can learn from them. Using examples, I'll touch on what's behind this claim; the development of fairy tales over the centuries, the importance of interpretation, specific benefits for adults, indoctrination and other dark sides of storytelling, the media and how children and adults consume fairy tales differently.

Although the thoughts and arguments in this essay are my own, they are undoubtedly not unique and the research they are based on has been done by scholars far cleverer and more dedicated to the genre than myself. Although some books on the analysis of fairy tales are pretty hard going, I can recommend Once upon a Time by Marina Warner and the Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, as highly educational good reads.