If the WGBH forum was intending to bury a great lecture underneath a horrible introduction, they certainly succeeded. Before Susan Cooper takes the stage to deliver an emotionally moving speech, the hosts of this particular series somehow felt it appropriate to spend fifteen minutes assaulting the listener with a guest performance by members of The Revels. Without going into an extensive digression of how much I personally dislike The Revels (I have seen their live Christmas performance before), let it suffice to say that this is like putting hot feces sauce on an ice cream sundae.

As a listener, I felt insulted on the speaker's behalf.

That said, Cooper's lecture was brilliant. As a child, I actually read her Dark is Rising series of books, and remember them fondly, if in little detail. But no familiarity with her work is necessary to enjoy what she had to say, as she focuses primarily on the concept of children's fantasy literature in general.

Cooper rather adeptly brings the listener along through a series of anecdotes, personal and otherwise, to a rather exciting conclusion: that how we perceive the world is driven largely by the story into which we try to place each event in our lives.

I myself am often concerned about the lack of importance that I perceive fiction to have in the world, especially given that I work on creative media as a profession. Are the stories we tell important? Are they simply entertainment? Can they be useful to society, and if so, how?

This lecture went a long way towards reassuring me that fiction is not just important, but perhaps more important than non-fiction, when it comes to what people believe about the actions of man. In that sense, this is above all a motivational lecture, and there are precious few of those on this topic.

I highly recommend listening to this lecture, especially since it is available for free via the WGBH Forum Network. Just remember to skip past the terrible introductory sequence so as to not due Susan Cooper the disservice of having her thoughtful presentation unfairly marred.

Links: http://forum-network.org/lecture/susan-cooper-role-fantasy-childrens-lives

Recommend this page on: Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook