The Lay of the Three

A word game and an image game.

A word game of creating portmanteaus of Greek origin words suffixed with phobia. An image game of finding these phobias in imaginary tales.

We live our lives in fear or in search of fear. We look for them in other people and in stories about other people. DSM-5*, the scripture in which these fearfuls find their code of conduct, tells us of these wretched creatures who have a "marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation" and that "the phobic object or situation is actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety."

Let us turn to the first of these - Alice, the one in wonderland. What do we see in Alice? What does she fear?

Coulrophobia - the fear of clowns, or perhaps, Oneirophobia - the fear of dreams.

Our second fearful friend is actually in a group and has a shared phobia. The hobbit party, having been instructed by Gandalf to reach the Prancing Pony, in the sleepy town of Bree. What do these hobbits fear?

Anthropophobia - the fear of other people.

The last of our friends is Joseph Knetch from the Glass Bead Game. Having lived an austere life in the "order of intellectuals" at Waldzell in Castalia, what does our friend come to fear? What does any thinking man fear?

Autophobia, of course.

He fears himself more than anything. The possibilities of other fears open up, engulfing and colouring everything that one encounters.

*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)