[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

I have a different dictionary I guess.

Webster's New Collegiate -
Cartharsis: b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension.

I think there are three parts to this process then...

- the eucatastrophe or event brings about the
- catharsis, which brings about the
- spiritual renewal or recognition

I think we're not clearly delineating the event, the eucatastrophe, from the spiritual renewal, which is why there's a question whether we're confusing eucatastrophe with wonder. We're mixing the event with the response/result: catharsis, spiritual renewal, then wonder.

I think Kuru has a good tool to use to decide whether there can be one or more eucatastrophe's in one book.

From the perspective of the reader, it must be that there can be more than one eucatastrophe, because the reader continues for an entire lifetime (however long). In that lifetime there can be many eucatastrophes.

From the perspective of a book, because you are considering the book as a whole, there can only be one defining eucatastrophe, because the structure of a story is such that there is one pre-eminent defining climax.

Before you jump on this, hear me out.

From the perspective of characters in a book, there can be more than one eucatastrophe because their lives continue beyond that one defining moment.

The answer lies in how you define your 'set' under consideration or examination for eucatastrophes. Something in a smaller set, say considering only one chapter of the LotR in isolation can be considered a eucatastrophe (Sam seeing the Oliphaunt likely die; from the perspective of Sam this is a myth turned real and then suddenly lost - if I saw a unicorn I would have a similar response), but in reference to the larger events of Middle Earth not be considered a eucatastrophe at all. From the perspective of Middle Earth in the War of the Ring, only the destruction of the ring would qualify. And so on.

It's like the difference between considering a person in terms of the experience of their lifetime, or in terms of their specific collection of body parts. From the perspective of a collection of body parts, eucatastrophe can only be experienced by mind, so "Al" the collection of body parts Never experiences eucatastrophe. From the perspective of experience, "Al", the lifetime, may have many experiences of eucatastrophe. Or "Al" the child may have only one. Or none.