This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century English author, linguist, and literary critic J.R.R. Tolkien's essay On Fairy Stories

It focuses specifically on his discussion of whether or not Fairy Stories are essentially for children or not. Tolkien engages in some useful criticism of people who think they are, including Andrew Lang, well known for his fairy books.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 2000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get a copy of Poems and Stories, which contains this essay, here -  https://amzn.to/3XF6nKb

J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories - Are Fairy Stories For Children? - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on Aristotle's definition of tragedy, which runs:
"Tragedy, then, is mimesis of an action which is elevated, complete, and of magnitude; in language embellished by distinct forms in its sections; employing the mode of enactment, not nar­rative; and through pity and fear accomplishing the catharsis a of such emotions. I use "embellished'' for lan­guage with rhythm and melody, and "distinct forms" for the fact that some parts are conveyed through metrical speech alone, others again through song."

He also identifies six parts or elements of tragedy, provides definitions of them, and sets out their order of importance:
"Plot, then, is the first principle and, as it were, soul of tragedy, while character is secondary. (A similar principle also holds in painting: if one were to cover a surface ran­domly with the finest colours, one would provide less pleasure than by an outline of a picture.) Tragedy is 
mimesis of action, and it is chiefly for the sake of the
action that it represents the agents. Third in importance is thought: that is, the capacity to say what is pertinent and apt, which in formal speeches is the task of politics and rhetoric. The earliest poets made people speak polit­ically, present day poets make them speak rhetorically. Character is .that which reveals moral choice-that is, when otherwise unclear, what kinds of thing an agent chooses or rejects ( which is why speeches in which there is nothing at all the speaker chooses or rejects contain no character); while thought covers the parts in which they demonstrate that something is or is not so, or declare a general view. Fourth is the diction of the spoken sec­tions: as stated earlier, I define diction as expression through choice of words-something which has the same capacity in both verse and prose. Of the remainder, lyric poetry is the greatest embellishment, while spectacle is emotionally potent but falls quite outside the art and is not integral to poetry: tragedy'  capacity is independent of performance and actors, and, besides, the costumier's art has more scope than the poet's for rendering effects of spectacle."

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO

You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Purchase Aristotle's Poetics - https://amzn.to/3UcswRY

Aristotle, Poetics - Elements And Definitions Of Tragedy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on  the different modes of what Aristotle calls "recognition" (anagnōrisis), one of the key features of good plots in tragedy. He writes:

"The definition of recognition was stated earlier. As for its kinds, first is the least artistic and the one used the most from uninventiveness: recognition through tokens....The second kind are those contrived by the poet, and hence inartistic. ... The third kind is through memory, when the sight of something brings awareness...Fourth is recognition by reasoning ­. . .There is also compound recognition which depends on the audience's mistaken reasoning...
Best of all is recogni­tion ensuing from the events themselves, where the emo­tional impact comes from a probable sequence."

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO

You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Purchase Aristotle's Poetics - amzn.to/3UcswRY

Aristotle, Poetics - Different Modes Of Recognition - Sadler's Lectures

I'm that YouTube Philosophy Guy! Find more than 3,000 videos in my main channel.  Support my video and podcast work!  https://www.patreon.com/sadler or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

Learn more about this podcast channel - https://youtu.be/qRvL0gqlyrw and https://gregorybsadler.substack.com/p/the-sadlers-lectures-podcast

Due to popular demand - and with the work underwritten by my Patreon supporters - I have been converting my videos into MP3 files listeners can listen to anywhere they want!

I have a second podcast, Mind & Desire, publishing original episodes on a variety of topics in philosophy, which you can find here - https://gregorybsadler.substack.com/podcast

New tracks tagged #Literary Theory