Wonderful book, a joy to read. https://tolkienlecture.org/2020/05/24/tolkien-symposium-2020-video-recording-and... ( )

A collection of brief essays addressing the importance of folklore and enchantment in juvenile literature, from the pen of prolific children's author and editor Jane Yolen, Touch Magic was initially published in 1981, and rewritten in 2000. Presenting sixteen essays that touch on everything from the centrality of myth in helping children to organize and understand reality, to the importance of language itself in making us human, Yolen's work takes up the cause of defending folk and fairy tales as legitimate and essential cultural products.

The deep connections between folklore and fantasy literature are evident in every selection of the book, from the opening essay, How Basic Is Shazam?, in which Yolen writes of the power of recognition: "A child who has never met Merlin - how can he or she recognize the wizards of Earthsea? The child who has never heard of Arthur - how can he or she totally appreciate Susan Cooper's The Grey King? The child who has never known dryads or fauns will not recognize them in Narnia, or find their faces on museum walls or in the black silhouettes on Greek vases."

The importance of illustrators in helping to create enchantment in children's literature is discussed in The Eye and the Ear, in which Yolen analyzes three very different versions of the tale of Snow White, as envisioned by Nancy Ekholm Burkert, Trina Schart Hyman, and Walt Disney. In the titular Touch Magic she speaks of a truth deeper and stronger than "actuality," a truth to be found in the tales of Elfland, which speak to the human longing for the Other. And in The Gift of Tongues, Yolen explores the human fascination with feral children, and the necessity of language in making us human.

This is a wonderful collection of essays, quickly read, but not so quickly digested. Twenty years before B.R. Myers was even contemplating the pretentiousness of contemporary adult literature, Yolen was sounding the trumpet, and leading the charge against the decline of story. This is a necessary little book, used in the college class I taught on folklore and children's fantasy literature, and I heartily recommend it to any reader interested in those topics. ( )

This book blew me away. It's a collection of essays about fantasy and humanity and storytelling. It's also exquisitely written, and it reinforces prejudices I didn't even realize I had. Any number of times in this book, Yolen explicated something which immediately resonated with me as something I believe at some unexamined level, the deep heart's core, if you will. She also draws some lines which are blindingly obvious once they've been drawn- for instance any of you who know me know that I revere Kipling's The Jungle Books as well as Ursula K. Le Guin's writing. Here's what Yolen says, "This story-as-societal-metaphor would come to fruition later in the worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin where, like Kipling, the language is elevated alternately sonorous and somber, and filled with light."
One other thing Yolen pointed out that helps me to understand my ability to not be terribly offended by older stories rife with stereotypes is that the best writers make us them, we see with their eyes and think with their brains while immersed in the story.

Highly recommended for readers, especially readers of kid lit or sci fi.

Abigail, I am seriously in your debt for the recommendation. ( )

I first came across this book on the recommendation of Nymeth at Things Mean a Lot a couple of years ago. It’s a collection of essays by fairy tale and fantasy author Jane Yolen. It looks at the place of folklore, mythology and fairy tale in the development of children as well as adults. There were a few quotes that really stood out :

“Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.”

Which continues “While an occasional reader manages to get through those early years without contact with a book, most of us who are afflicted by literitis (that’s the medical term) get it early. Its symptoms are an inability to go by a bookstore without stopping in, a passion for late night reading, wrinkled skin from bathtub books, tendonitis from typing, large bottoms from all that sitting, and squinty eyes.”

Yolen also eludes to the beautiful view from the Manhattan apartment she grew up in, but that she never enjoyed it as she was always curled up with a book in her own fantasy world rather than the one outside. Another part of the book I liked was where Yolen compared the different versions of the same story (for example Snow White and Cinderella) in synopsis with the different variations. You get to see the older, more violent versions and see how they have changed over the years, the readership has changed and the effect of Disney. Shame Yolen doesn’t seem to like Disney at all, I like his versions as well as the blood and guys tales. I think it’s ok for both to exist, as long as people don’t just go down the Disney route.

There were a few great recommendations for novels to read which I am looking forward to seeking out. I also really enjoyed Yolen’s style of writing as I haven’t read any of her non fiction before. It felt at times like a conversation with lots of personal anecdotes and stories. I didn’t agree with everything she said, but it made me think and question my beliefs and why I have them which is always good. ( )

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