here's a quote from Chris WunderLee's novella, The Loony:

"Albert was back in New England, long since forgetting his plunge into the Pacific, and beginning what was already a controversially castrophenic career..."

this seems to be a nonce-word (or non-word), but I'm guessing it's meant to mean:
1) 'military', as in Albert's (tenuous) connection to the M-I complex, (see castrametation, the making of a military camp; fr. L. castrum, fortified place)
2) possibly to be confused with castrophrenia*, relating to the belief that one's thoughts are being stolen, *itself of some dubiety
3) just another nonce word,
4) none/all of the above.

NB: WunderLee seems to be a tad Joycean with his wordplay.

Maybe something to do with castro? (long shot) castro translations

well, that would seem to be the idea behind castrophrenia,
1. A morbid fear or delusion, occasional in schizophrenic patients, that their thoughts are being sucked out of their brains by enemies. 2. Etymology: castrate plus -phrenia, 'mental disorder'.

but that's not 'r' word.

Hmm maybe it's linked in some way to catasrophic? but incorporating the military forts and castles stuff...you know like slurring it together...CAAASTTTROFFFICC then phenia-ed after he had come to that conclusion?

Aye! Totally off topic for a moment. I suddenly regocnize your avatar picture, Bexter. Smaug under the mountain sitting on his treasures. All this time I thought it was a kind of crashed omelet with tomato. I like The Hobbit.

He mentioned, I believe, that it is a dragon, but I have
a hard time distinguishing it from an egg as well. Glad to
know. Also glad, Bran, to know you are a LOTR fan.

Smaug here he is a bit bigger

she's not the only one!! :¬ )

Terrific!
Thanks for letting me know.
I've read the series about every year since high school,
skipping maybe a few, but not too many. I love the
series. Good to know there are fans of Tolkien out here
Buff, Bex, Bran. Others??

\\



Thanks, Bex, now I can see it. Love Smaug.

Staggering back on topic: Fidel? Is there context in the story that he had a dictator complex?

well, smaug you all very much!! (thanks for trying, J..)

it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to get any satisfaction here, so I went directly to the horse's maw (a bit of a cross-thread just then) and just received this reply from Chris:

Mike,
First, thank you for buying the book [three dollar-bucks via Kindle], thank you for reading the book, and thank you for reading so thoroughly…
If memory serves, which it probably doesn’t, this is an instance of being frankly absurd…
It would be a version of 2 [cf. my OP], with the caveat that this was six or eight years ago and I like to think my intentions are perhaps more tangential; however, I recall discovering the word and grazing on it with some deliberation… mostly, because it is sopping with significance… obscure, but expressively clinical as well…
I happened upon a second spelling – phrenia vs. phenia… ‘phrenia’ - ‘mind’, used for the likes of ‘schizophrenia’, etc. Castro – castrate…
The suffix – phen, a rarity itself, ‘to show’, but hardly used except in the case of uncommon words, and then, applied by neologists like mad… For me, converting a word like this then into an adjective is of course obnoxious, and therefore, truly appealing…
I happened upon apophenia – finding meaning and patterns in randomness; and it as ‘apophenic’ and so, chose this…
This all sounds proper and good, but honestly, probably not an accurate formation of the process (I’m far less systematic and/or scholarly).
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful…
Chris [emPHAsis added]

-joe (what, me annoyed‽) friday

Seems like you happened upon a kindred soul!

Ha definitely! Glad you all enjoyed the large Smaug picture...I think there is definitely something in what Chris said, although I do rather like the CAAASTTTROOFFFENNNNICC myself

To tell you the truth, after looking at that thing for a long time, I finally took a magnifying glass. I saw the arched doorways and it dawned on me I had seen this before. It still looks like catastrophenic eggs, but I'm glad it ìs Old Smaug.

and a little Bilbo in the corner!

and a little Bilbo in the corner! Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty!

I must be missing something here, but Bilbo is in the
lower right corner. At least I presume it is Bilbo,
cannot see the hairy feet too well.

It is indeed...It's the bit where he first goes into the misty mountain to 'burgle' and wears the ring...Smaug doesn't see him and they have an...interesting...conversation

While I've read LOTR dozens of time, Hobbit only merits
a couple. I was told back decades ago that it was only
an intro to LOTR and not necessary. But intend to reread
it before the movie. I think it deserves that. So I really
don't remember the ....interesting....conversation.

It is not just an intro to LOTR but a good story all in its own right...the only "intro" bit I can think of is introducing some of the characters and showing how Bilbo got the ring...it is well worth another read Luke...Mirkwood is especially good with all those giant spiders (yes that is where Rowling stole them from)

I know she stole lots of things. But all good stories
seem to "borrow" lots. I know it is a good read in its
own, that was just what I was told. Am rereading it soon.

But all good stories seem to "borrow" lots.

Yes, Tolkien borrowed lots, too.

Yes but he was very inventive as well he amalgamated the two...he also created his land and language first, then wrote the stories...he is also credited with the "epic fantasy" style...Rowling on the other hand stole practically EVERYTHING from one fantasy novel or another...(Paolini stole his map from The Belgariad and Mallorean (the left hand bit) and the rest is Middle Earth with different trees but he was only 17 so he has a slight excuse (he even stole Belgarion's blue flaming sword)) Rowling had few original ideas...if any

Yes but he was very inventive as well he amalgamated the two...he also created his land and language first, then wrote the stories.

It was not a slam against Tolkien. (I enjoyed his novels as well linguistic/philological materials

Enjoyed the Belgariad and Mallorean, and whatever the
third one of that series is called.

Tolkien's discussions with Lewis probably brought many
ideas to light.

Yes although in later years they fell out quite a bit...I really like Eddings' series but I do have a major issue with Rowling (as you probably guessed!) The clever use of language in those books are interesting especially when rereading them...as with TABA and LOTR...what does annoy me is people who talk about LOTR as being individual books not just as three parts with further divisions and then further chapters within each division...but I have practically no issues with LOTR. It is one of my favourite books...if I ever get round to applying for Mastermind it will be one of my specialist subjects

when I first read LOTR in the 8th grade (age 14), it changed the way I viewed the world. for several years following that I read them every year, and then at least once every other year. I expect I have read them 40 times. the only other books that have affected me in a similar way are Foundation by Isaac Asimov and perhaps Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

oh, and it was my sister that turned me on to LOTR: she bought me The Hobbit after I raved about how much I loved Watership Down. (probably another book that changed my life.)

I can remember taking LOTR into class when I was six and my teacher said that I couldn't possibly be reading it. When I replied that I was indeed partway through reading it, she demanded that I read a bit aloud to the class as punishment for lying...about 30 seconds after I started reading fluidly (I can even remember which bit - the part about the attack on Weathertop where Frodo gets stabbed) she told me to be quiet and sit down at my desk, wrote a letter to my father about it who found it very funny.

Don't ever let school get in the way of your education.

I have to concur, the first reading of LOTR changed my
world view. I wished I lived in ME for a very long time
especially in high school. I lived a long way from school
and had little inter-relations with classmates, so the
characters became more real. For one thing on a very
positive level, LOTR convinced me of a love of reading.

I wish there was a machine which you could use to jump into and out of books...like in Jasper Fforde's novels or like the silvertongues in Cornelia Funke's novels... that would be amazing...I still wish ME was real

And when I went through every choice on the site
Bran posted and looked at all the pictures, they make
me "wile and pine away" for ME. And to know the Elves.
What a pleasure that would be.

And to see the mines of Moria...the forest of Lothlorien...and the Shire...sigh...if only we could visit...

The Shire. ANd the Hobbit Holes. The movie made them
exquisite. Rivendell, Grey Havens.
I have to run an errand, but will dream of them while I
travel this frozen waste.
Speaking of which.....are there any frozen wastes in
LOTR>

Maybe in the land of FORODWAITH... Map ...this one has a starting point and end point for their journey!

Or Near Harad, or Rhun.

Or Mirkwood. I love Elves, so I'd be sure to visit.

I'd love to see Smaug or the Eagles, but at the top of my creatures list would be the Balrog, followed by Gollum and Aragorn at the top of the "people" list

I'd be honored to meet Gandalf or Aragorn. But most
of all I'd want to meet Frodo and Legolas, any elf for that
matter.

if I had a gabillion dollars, I'd build Argonath somewhere.

I second that.

I third(?) that!
And the Prancing Pony, complete with hobbit and human sized rooms...Gondor might be hard to make though...you'd need a massive hill for a start...hmmm

When I purchased one set of the dvd's et.al. it came with
an 8 inch set of the Argonath. I have them on my TV.
Wouldn't it be great if Warner built a "Middle Earth"
like they built the Harry Potter site in Florida???

I have those, too. great bookends! though I will likely install them on my model train layout when I finally have room...

I have Minas Tirith also, but did not get anything with
the first release, so just the two.

I have a good friend who owns a model train store. They
spend more time "training" than selling or buying, he and
all his friends, but he loves it. They have a huge
Model Train show at the local auditorium this weekend.
Thousands expected. I don't know the guage,but his father
has an outdoor model all over the back yard, with all the
trimmings (probably minus Argonats), the train cars are about two feet in length. Great hobby.

wonderful! I always wanted a garden railway, too. likely G gauge. I have boxes full of HO stuff, which someday....

I had a train as a child, Lionel, have no idea of the size.
Smallish 8-10 inch cars. It was on a board on in the basement. But all it did was run around an oval. Had no
houses or things, and never gave a thought to making any.
Just never saw one, I guess, so did not know it could be
done, being only about 8 years old. Could have done so
with cardboard and other stuff, if given the idea. But they
are fun. This friend has a "huge" garage and is converting
the "attic" part of it into a display.

I read LOTR when virtually all of my contemporaries were, and was only mildly impressed; and that was with the skill of the coherence of the series, and not at all with the story itself. Just a nice little fantasy story.

You-all ought to go off somewhere and have your own thread on this...oh wait, you just did! I put this sentence purely in an effort to be funny, not because I was/am aggravated.

Sorry you were not impressed, but, then, different
strokes for different folks.

This makes me wonder Jackie, what would you call a fine castrophenic fantasy story then? I mean, anything else?

>a fine castrophenic fantasy story

heh!

I'm not all that much into fantasy stories, if you're talking about reading I mean. (The Star Trek television series, now, was something else altogether.) Hubby and I both enjoyed a sci-fi series some years ago, and of course I can not now remember a title or the author; I do recall that the heroine fought the evil ones valiantly with her sword. I read Watership Down for the first time just last year, and LOVED it; but isn't that more of an allegory than just a fantasy story? I've enjoyed what I've read of Asimov and Heinlein, and OH! The Footprints of God: A Novel by Greg Iles which I also read thanks to my now-defunct book club: WOW what a great story! I was wide-eyed and page-whipping from start to finish.

Xena Warrior Princess? Also watership down is both an allegory and a fantasy story...

And of course "Alice in Wonderland" and "Wizard of Oz".
They have to fit in somewhere.