Real-izing Fantasy: The Double-Sided Mirror of Magical Realism and "the other side of reality" in Robin McKinley's Spindle's End

In this first part of an extended study of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End, the relationship between fantasy (in literature) and a reader's personal reality is highlighted. Perry argues that McKinley's novel does more than just mirror our experience of fairy tales and the fantastic. By showing us both sides of the mirror, our inner and outer phenomenal settings, the novel argues that how we function within the landscapes of Literature and how Literature encourages us to build, experience, and reshape our world(s) is the ultimate--and ultimately, the only significant--reality. (This article is continued in The Looking Glass, vol. 9, iss. 1, 2005)