They come in, clobber you over the head, and then go away

From Once Upon a Time: The lure of the fairy tale by Joan Acocella, a rambling essay with some interesting publishing history and recounting the changing critical assessment over time of the Grimm's Fairy Tales.

A quite interesting story about academia's fraught relationship with children's literature in general and fairy tales in particular. Acocella does not really address the perennial allure of fairy tales. Her article might be better subtitled: Once Upon a Time: The lure of the fairy tale to the febrile imagination of academics.

In sum, the Grimm tales contain almost no psychology—a fact underlined by their brevity. However much detail Wilhelm added, the stories are still extremely short. Jack Zipes’s translation of “Rapunzel” is three pages long, “The Twelve Brothers” five, “Little Red Riding Hood” less than four. They come in, clobber you over the head, and then go away. As with sections of the Bible, the conciseness makes them seem more profound.