“Together with Tolkien and Lewis, this group forms
the Oxford School of children’s fantasy literature. . . .
They all celebrate the purported wisdom of old stories,
and follow the central tenet that Tolkien set out
for fairy-stories: ‘one thing must not be made fun of,
the magic itself. That must in the story be taken seriously,
neither laughed at nor explained away.’ “
— A leftist academic’s essay at aeon.co, “Empire of Fantasy,”
on St. Andrew’s Day, 2020.
