Maybe Novalis is right, maybe that's what a fairy tale should be, but not every fairy tale really has that
dreamlike quality about it (See my previous post, What is a "fairy tale"?). Most of them
have a magical quality (what Novalis calls the "spirit world") as
part of the fabric of the universe in which the tale takes place. But they are
not uniformly "crowded" with a dreamlike panorama of lawless, magical
beings.
What I find helpful in this quote is the reminder that
"all of nature must be wonderfully mixed with all of the spirit
world." In fairy tales, at least the traditional European kind Novalis has
in mind, the world isn't neatly divided between "nature" and
"super-nature," as if spiritual things are separate from the sober
world in which laws of nature hold infallible sway. The purest kinds of fairy
tales have a magic pervading them, not only because the reader is supposed to
"suspend belief" in the normal laws of things, but because the world
of the storyteller also harbors this element of wonder. Think deep woods--vast,
unexplored woods with lonely cottages--and underground places and caves,
rivers, mountain tunnels. While the natural world has this element of mystery,
so do things that take place within it. You never know, crossing a great
forest, what sorts of being you'll meet, and what kinds of incredible powers
they may have.
For us now, Novalis reminds us that to appreciate the fairy
tale, we must recover this innate wonder of the world, withdrawing the probing
eye of omniscient science, with its "laws," and return to a sense of
lawlessness, anarchy in things natural. Spirit must invade nature, re-infusing
it with wonder.
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