Preserving the Spell

Fairy tales are supposed to be magical, surprising, and exhilarating, an enchanting counterpoint to everyday life that nonetheless helps us understand and deal with the anxieties of that life. Today, however, fairy tales are far from marvelous—in the hands of Hollywood, they have been stripped of their power, offering little but formulaic narratives and tame surprises.   If we want to rediscover the power of fairy tales—as Armando Maggi thinks we should—we need to discover a new mythic lens