Fairy Tale Spotlight: Repetition and Blocking

One of the things I remembered heavily from old fairy tales, especially of the Grimm variety, was the aspect of repetition and blocking. A spell or rite often had to be issued in very specific patterns. Words had to be spoken and re-spoken over and over. Everything was often blocked in such a way that the magical aspect of the scene felt remarkably planned and organized. This is a commonality in these sort of events within fairy lore.

I would like to begin with the caveat that humans are not fairies. They are generally a chaotic bunch who force their way into relevance through blood, sweat, and tears. Fairies approach situations with a set of rules and try to do things as orderly as possible. Often their spells are "blocked." Let me explain what blocking is.

Blocking is the act of arranging items, actions, or words in such a way that they take up the same amount of space, time, or paragraph respectively. It is the cornerstone of fairy magic and it is remarkably inhuman.

This blocking is often backed up with repetition. That which works well is utilized often. Breaking the mold is frightening to a fairy because he already knows what works. This naturally leads to a slow, if not entirely halted, advancement of their culture. They stick with what works and attempt to make it as efficient as possible.

Humans who live their lives by a strict set of rules are religiously on time for everything, over-obsess with efficient room decoration, or write or speak things in a repetitive, blocked format are living inhuman lives, which are closer to the way fairies prefer. This isn't good. It is built of the substance that tears humanity down and ultimately turns them into last week's garbage.

Another way to look at repetition is stagnancy. Imagine if one thing happened for all of eternity. A fairy would look upon it and say, "It works and it lasts. Why change it?" A good-minded human would look upon the same thing and say, "It was good for the first few minutes, but now I'm bored. How can we improve it?" Let's keep this conversation going for a bit.

Fairy: "Why change something that we know already works so well?"

Human: "We may improve it."

Fairy: "Yes, but there is a chance that you may also ruin it. What works should be left alone."

Human: "It may be worth the risk."

Fairy: "A risk, in and of itself, is a bad idea. It applies an unknown variable to an already perfect set of rules. All risk is bad."

Human: "Without risks, we would never get anything new in this world."

Fairy: "We might get new things, but there would also be chaos. People might die. Why not just be happy with what works. I have been doing this for all of my life, and it has worked for me. There is no reason why I should change. Why ruin it for the rest of us?"

At the end, it comes down to humans simply aspiring to more than fairies ever desired. One of the reasons for this is because fairies were not meant to promote anything but the agenda of the humans ordering them around. They are tools.

A hammer does a great job at being a hammer when it isn't being used. It never strays away from being that hammer. In a sense, the hammer does things in a blocked format and backs up this format through repetition. It is what it is and never tries to be anything different. But when a human picks up a hammer, he does whatever he wants with it. The hammer doesn't change. It doesn't want to. It is not about to try putting in screws. It's there for the nails. If it tried putting screws it, it might have a panic attack.

Repetition is very much akin to stagnancy. Fairies are, of themselves, quite stagnant. They have a very difficult time breaking molds. They literally require our assistance to do so. If a fairy walked down a sidewalk for 10 years, and within these ten years, purposely avoided stepping on any of the cracks, imagine how he would feel if you told him to step on all of the cracks. "For what purpose are we even having this conversation?" he would ask.

Human: "Just because. Just do it and see if you can."

Fairy: "I don't even know why it is important to you. What is the difference between stepping on the cracks or not? I've always done it one way, so why change it?"

Human: "You just said that there was no difference in stepping on the cracks or not, so why not change your routine and step on them?"

Fairy: "If there is no difference, then why should I bother changing either way? It's just walking. The whole premise is silly."

Human: "You can't do it. Can you?"

Fairy: "There is no point to. I have always walked this way. I have no reason to change. That is the end of it."

Fairies fear change. Humans who act like fairies fear change too. The fear of change is extremely common with both parties, but the humans are much more likely to take risks in order to effect change. There are, however, many humans who will not. They see their blocked format, repetitive  lives as a matter of survival. They think that even a small sidestep out of their path will spark ruin. Sometimes, out of curiosity, they will make a tiny sidestep. The moment anything negative occurs, they run back in a sweaty panic vowing never to do it again, much like an animal who accidentally walks into an electric fence. (We are not animals by the way.)

A true human will face pitfalls with courage. They will get a running start and leap over them. If they miss their mark, they are injured, but they will continue on all the same. Humans were made to adapt. But falling into lives of repetitiveness and blocking is not adapting. It's giving up. It's going home. It's Bilbo Baggins looking out the window after turning down the dwarves... wondering what it would have been like. He'll never know. He'll never be in pain either. He's safe at home with no troubles for the rest of the story.

Fairies are not humans. They are repetitive, obsessive compulsive machines that will not break their mold for anything. It is how they were designed. We should never be like them. The more we act like them, the less human we become. Humans were designed to be chaotic. This same chaos built up civilization to what it is today. If you think living your life like a fairy is better, however, just look to the primitive peoples of the world. They do the same things every day in the same way every time. And believe it or not, the fairies are telling them exactly how to do those things. How about we not do that.

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