J.R.R. Tolkien, speaking in 1939, named a clarifying power within what he called fairy stories: recovery, the ability to see the world as it actually is rather than through the “drab blur” of familiarity. Seeing the internet as a fairyland — an otherworld with its own logic — isn’t about mystifying technology. It’s about seeing it sharply, as the... See more

To survive an enchanted world, an otherworld like the internet, we need the right kinds of stories to help us move through uncertainty and cross thresholds without losing ourselves. Folklore — the world’s vast tradition of myths, legends and fairy tales — has long offered this kind of guidance in forms that are easy to remember under pressure. Some... See more

The Internet provided an opportunity not only for imaginative play but for personal transformation, a liminal space between fantasy and reality, something betwixt and between. Just as the printing press brought individuality through literacy and the novel helped create the modern sense of self, the Internet fractured this self by enabling multiple... See more