Re: comments on 'The mask of Phantes'
The following is an excerpt from a private exchange with Pablo Parguiña: https://pabloparguina.net/. I asked for permission to share it, offering to anonymise Pablo’s quotes. Pablo told me that it is okay to actually mention the name+website, which I am happy to do.
The discussion is about my publication:
- The mask of Phantes (2026-05-12).
- Reading my ‘The mask of Phantes’ story (2026-05-13).
Part one
Hi Prot,
Hello Pablo,
today I read The Mask Of Phantes and I wanted to comment on it and get your thoughts.
Yes, sure!
I take the mask to represent something like the public persona that in this case brings Phantes fame. Sorry in advance if the interpretation is wrong.
Generally speaking, I do not think there can be a wrong interpretation. What I was thinking at the time is not necessarily what I am thinking now. What I was trying to describe may not be how I will interpret it today. Same for other people.
I find that this is the power of stories, myths, and art in general. They inspire us to think about something based on the specifics of our experience. In the process we may learn something more about ourselves and our place in the world.
To your interpretation, the way I see the mask is as the inalienable, defining quality of the person. It is a strong quality, which can become a blessing and a curse. For example, an exceptionally smart person may always be expected to do much more than average, which prevents them from ever having a normal life (whatever “normal” would be).
I think public personas have two dimensions: a little of the actual person, and some (a lot?) that people add to it or assume. If that’s the case, Phantes was better off in terms of connection. Even if the others didn’t see him fully, they did see some of him. Public personas are not purely masks, they always have some reality to them.
This can be the case. It will depend on the specifics. One may end up being more lonely when they are seen in this very public way. The reason is that they may compare what they seem to have in public to what their private reality is. Think of the high-profile suicides that happen, for instance: we would think that a successful and popular figure would never go down that path.
The contrast is of course the owner of the house, who seems to have given Phantes everything he needed, only that not really. Phantes was dissatisfied with his loneliness, after all, and chose action instead of inaction. It’s sad that it didn’t work out and ended up worse in the end, but he did the right thing by at least trying. It’s a bit unsatisfactory that he didn’t get to benefit from what he learnt.
Here is an interesting facet of the human condition. Even when we receive a warning, we are still keen on exploring the boundaries and testing our luck. For example, the ancient myth of Icarus is about human’s wish to fly and thus to test our limits: Icarus dies but that only teaches us of the limits of a given technology, so we will keep trying. And what are we going to do after that? Well, keep trying.
Phantes may not benefit from the lesson he learnt, but others who hear of the story may understand something to better calibrate their own approach. This is, after all, the fate that awaits those who have the courage to do what has not been done before.
Of course, the ideal would have been to find that mutual recognition / true connection, but I don’t think the mask is necessarily at odds with that goal. In real life people wouldn’t all try to escape from him, some would want to meet the real person to see for themselves how much of the mask is actually true.
Yes, connection is possible as the person behind the persona is not lost. That would be the blessing part.
The curse part is that of objectification combined with the potential of frenzy that reverence creates. Think of someone like the Pope: could he ever give up on his role is and just do something else, assuming he has a change of heart? Can you imagine what would happen if the Pope changed his faith one day to, say, become a pagan? That would probably be among the most controversial things to ever happen. The person, then, who performs the function of the Pope by wearing the hat has effectively been taken over by the hat.
Now the Pope is an example just to point out what the dynamics are. Of course, being the Pope is not “curse” per se.
As a final thought, I further believe that the public persona might be better than the actual person sometimes. We show the best version of ourselves, we don’t show our inadequacies. It all boils down to how much of your public persona is shaped by other people’s expectations as opposed to your ideals. If the public persona is the person you wished you were, it’s an expression of your values and it’s good that it is admired and shared by others. I suppose that the mask is a public persona built for the purpose of being admired by others, but betraying one’s own values?
This can indeed happen. One way to think of this is how we have a powerful motivation to be better so as to become more popular. The public performance also serves as an accountability structure: we are expected to live up to the standard we have set for ourselves. A public person then is a vehicle for doing something that would otherwise not be done.
About betraying values, that depends on the persona. For example, I think the Pope keeps his values intact.
What I didn’t get are the references to beauty, since making yourself more beautiful should always be good? Unless it was bought at some high cost; but all else equal beauty is better than ugliness.
Generally, yes: being good looking is more beneficial than being average looking or outright ugly. I picked beauty in particular because it is a power of attraction. But it could have been anything else, really, such as intelligence, skill, money, power…
Think of money, then, as that might be an easier example. You are a rich man in his 60s. There is this young woman in her 20s who professes to be in love with you. Maybe she loves you or maybe she sees you as a glorified credit card. This is already tricky. Now imagine you have hundreds of those women throwing themselves at you everywhere you go. Not only you will struggle to form a connection, but you also run very real risks of getting in trouble (e.g. a woman will say that you abused her, so that she can get a nice payment from you).
This is not an argument against beauty, power, money, etc. The point is to understand that what is blessing can also be a curse.
As you can see, I liked your story quite a bit! Or my interpretation of it, at any rate
Thank you for taking the time to write this! And, as I noted, all interpretations are fruitful.
Part two
An inalienable, defining quality changes the whole interpretation of your story!
It ultimately is another interpretation. There is no right or wrong here. The way I see it, a story is a discussion starter. A good story just needs to be memorable enough. Then we have something to talk about. And maybe we can learn something deeper in the process.
And it makes Phantes situation much more difficult because it’s unclear what he could have done better. He can’t undo what he becomes, he acquired some relevant trait that is permanent, and probably good, yet he ends in doom. I guess that’s the whole point, that these things paint you to a corner, like in the Pope example.
He could have accepted the outcome. Kind of “I got what I asked for”. This is the other side of people in general: even if we are warned about the dangers of something, we may still want to try it. This is a trait that is neither good nor bad, or both good and bad. We are empowered to expand our boundaries though we sometimes harm ourselves.
In the end, he can’t control the fact that people are just interested in the new trait. I will point out, however, that some of the masks you mentioned are far from inalienable, like money or beauty. But I get your point, and in practice it might be very difficult to rid ourselves from them once we have them.
You are right that most, if not all, masks can be removed. I cannot think of an example that qualifies as a “mask”, kind of a role like being the Pope or somebody famous, which would strictly speaking be inalienable. The Pope can still change his faith, even if that is highly unlikely, extremely difficult, probably very dangerous, and the like. The famous person can renounce their wealth, move to some remote place, and so on.
That granted, Phantes represents the want for authentic connection. He realises that people care about him through the mask, not him as such. He wants to be accepted as-is, but instead he becomes idolised. He is thus not allowed to casually be himself around others. So he decides to leave.
As an aside, a friend told me some time ago about the story of this Korean pop singer. I think it is about a woman. She used to be single when she became famous. One day she announced that she got into a relationship. The response from the fans was toxic: “is not the love of your fans enough to you?”. I cannot find a relevant news article right now… This is how I remember it. It sounds extreme, though some parasocial relationships can be like that.
Also, I think Phantes has another problem: a potential tendency to test others to see if they are interested in the mask or the rest of himself. Testing others is very toxic and it can prevent him from finding connection. Overthinking the mask leads to unhealthy relationships just as much as having the mask in the first place, I believe. A potential moral of the story could be “find connections early and cherish them, because after getting a mask it’s very difficult to be truly seen”
Good point! And this is generally why we learn to live with ambiguity. There are no clear-cut answers to peoples motives. We are complex beings. People may not even know exactly why they do something because it is not necessarily rational or completely conscious. In this regard, Phantes is like Icarus: he is told that his wish is only going to destroy him, he does it anyway, and as a result the rest of us learn (or remember) what the limits are.
Maybe I should re-read it with all of this in mind.
Sure!
Anyway thanks for replying, I won’t further distract you :)
No problem! Thank you for the exchange!