eucatastrophe: piercing joy that brings tears

[littlemanpoet]

HelenMark:

There I get confused; why is this not a sudden reversal?

Good point. Perhaps this is the real eucatastrophe for Sam, or at least one of them, depending on which Sam-story we're talking about. One eucatastrophe per story. Your good point leads me to a further extrapolation to the definition, and maybe this is only me realizing what's already there:

1) sudden reversal
2) never to recur
3) powerful ramifications for Good

I don't know quite how to say the last one, but that's my best try. According to these three elements of the definition, the Sam/star event does seem to function as a eucatastrophe in regard to the story of Sam's (not loyalty but) determination. It's really about Sam's ability to see the big picture despite his own circumstances.

Which brings me to something else that I have to take exception to: some of us have said that the Eagles saving Frodo and Sam from the doom of Mordor is a eucatastrophe (which it may be) because if they had died there, it would have been a terrible ironic ending. I take exception to that. Some of the most moving stories I've ever read are those where someone is willing to die for someone else, with NOTHING in it for the one whose life is to end. Just as an off-hand example, I think of the John Q. Archibald character in the recent movie, [SPOILER ALERT] who is willing to die and give up his heart for his son. Now THAT is moving.

Nah.

[img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

He's proposing it as an alternative to an ending, of which there can't be more than one.

[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] A lightbulb just went on with that one. Thanks, Belin! This definitely fills out my understanding of the function of eucatastrophe in anybody's story.