A Story Within a Story

As the first official fantasy novel, "Phantastes" sets the precedent for the genre. I can see the parallels and how later authors evolved the story into their own creations (i.e. Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia). Yet, what I find most interesting is the story within a story concept. Somehow this ingenuity was able to communicate the epitome of a reader's experience with the fantastic.

When Anodos begins reading this story in the library, he initiates with how a reader connects with a protagonist. It is almost like a talented author is a hypnotist, who counts down slowly form ten, and convinces you that the protagonist is you and you him. It was an ingenious choice to use a mirror for this point. Cosmo's sacrifice to set free his lover is also a metaphor of the reader sacrificing their identity to let loose the character trapped within the book's pages. I would also say that a mirror symbolizes the reflection of the protagonist on the reader. I feel Anodos's (adventurous impulsive) character reflect on my own personality and I see his decisions as mine.

As Anodos sits in the incredible faerie library, he opens the story of Cosmo and delves in. After coming to the end, Anodos makes this statement, which captures a reader's feelings: "And I trust I have carried away in my soul some of the exhalations of their undying leaves. In after hours of deserved or needful sorrow, portions of what I read there have often come to me again, with an unexpected comforting, which was not fruitless, even though the comfort might seem in itself groundless and vain," (MacDonald 105). This quote resonates with me, especially in fantasy literature. Many people view it as a waste of time or childish even, but I agree with Anodos (or MacDonald) here. In fantasy you can be swept away to another world,feeling and sensing it better than your own. If you make yourself vulnerable in this other world, you allow the sorrows of the characters make an imprint on your soul.