Bam!

So I was reading Ursula Le Guin's "Why Are American's Afraid of Dragons" for class. She is talking about how important imagination and fiction are.

I'm loving this quote:

"So I arrive at my personal defense of the uses of the imagination, especially in fiction, and most especially in fairy tale, legend, fantasy, science fiction, and the rest of the lunatic fringe. I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child, and that if these faculties are encourages in youth they will act well and wisely in the adult, but if they are repressed and denied in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult personality"

This essay can be read on good books preview here.



I really like how she emphasized how important having an imagination as a kid is to our adult lives, and the distinction she made about maturity.

Agree? Disagree?