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Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill pathos/bathos - 04/07/03 03:15 PM
pathos : pathetic -- bathos : bathetic

I've been seeing the "b" forms a lot more frequently, lately. Is this some new trend? I've always used the "p" form, pathos, unless I was making it a point to indicate a very melodramatic pathos...then I'd use bathos, but rarely.

And I have never used bathetic. Don't really see any reason to.

Posted By: Faldage Re: pathos/bathos - 04/07/03 03:26 PM
I guess it depends on the depth of your suffering. The two words aren't really realated, nor even, in their primary, historical definitions, that near to being synonymous.

Bathos: http://www.bartleby.com/61/28/B0112800.html

Pathos: http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/P0112100.html

Must is they've sort of fallen in to each other through apparent similarity.
Posted By: Jackie Re: pathos/bathos - 04/07/03 04:13 PM
No, they really aren't, are they? I was wondering if the "fall" always has to be unintended, to qualify as being bathos; I suppose it would, or the humorous effect might be lost.

Posted By: Zed Re: pathos/bathos - 04/07/03 11:36 PM
And sandwiched in-between bathophobia and bathrobe we have a word meaning an abrupt transition from the exalted to the commonplace. Well done.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: pathos/bathos - 04/08/03 06:42 AM
When we studied tragedy way back in 1967 in Al Biddle's English class, Mr. Biddle set up a hierarchy of sorts, classically speaking:

tragedy: drama dealing with the fall of a noble figure (Remember: classic sense; not Willie Loman and the modern view)

pathos: drama dealing with the tribulations of an ordinary human being

bathos: drama that is overdone to the point of absurdity

Tragedy and pathos were viewed as genuinely moving the emotions, but bathos was articifial because of degree of unreality. Chewing the scenery, I suppose, would be part and parcel of bathos.

Posted By: belligerentyouth Re: pathos/bathos - 04/08/03 10:50 AM
Very interesting, WW. I've also seen bathos a far bit recently and had wondered about what 'exactly' it meant. I notice that the Greek etymology (depth) doesn't really seem to fit with the prevailing meaning. Clearly the meaning has wandered somewhat.
The description of your English class reminded me of the classical trilogy of 'persuasive appeals' employed in Greek theatre: logos, pathos and ethos. perhaps one form of bathos is to offset all that serious stuff with a bit of comic relief.

Posted By: musick Comic Re-leaf - 04/08/03 03:24 PM
...a far bit recently...

I think you just *ripped a gash into the time-space continueum!

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: pathos/bathos - 04/08/03 04:32 PM
I always associated bathos more with the "black humor" genre such as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., for example: "Why are we born only to suffer and die?" --Slaughterhouse Five

Posted By: belligerentyouth Re: Comic Re-leaf - 04/08/03 06:08 PM
re. space-time continuum

I never believed in that scientific mythology anyway, nor the big bang cosmology. Teaching a divine faith in the value of measurement is just stupid. I mean, they discovered that they could not measure consciousness, and then found consciousness in everything. Around the turn of the 20th century everyone was exclaiming "God is dead!", well now science is dead, if all its dodgy theories and fishy calculations hadn't created pretty toys for the rich to have fun with and oppress others, then it would long have been publicly maligned just like table-turning. So a new mythology takes its place...
The world is an idea
The magician of this world is he who writes the calender.
Everything *is just the way you think it is :-)

Posted By: Faldage Re: Comic Re-leaf - 04/08/03 06:18 PM
never believed in that scientific mythology

You can make SWAGs about, e.g., the Big Bang and then work out what we should be able to see in the universe if those SWAGs were correct. Then you go looking for those observations; if you don't see them you make another SWAG, if you do, you fine tune your original SWAG and go lloking for new stuff. That's the scientific method. You don't just say, "Oh, it all started with a Big Bang." and leave it go at that.

(This has got to be the most minuscule casus flexi for one of our threads.)

Posted By: tsuwm Re: scientific method - 04/08/03 06:52 PM
maybe crispy is one of those people who read Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and thought it was about a paradigm shift in the weltschmerz.


---

pop quiz: is this post bathetic or merely pathetic? show your work.
Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: scientific method - 04/08/03 07:45 PM
show your work.

like some sort of graphical chart?

Posted By: Capfka Re: scientific method - 04/09/03 09:11 AM
pop quiz: is this post bathetic or merely pathetic? show your work.

Workings:

Umm.

Ummmm. Ummmm. Ummmmmmmmmmmm. Ummmmmm.

Mmmmm. Mmmmf. Ummmm.

Oh shit, bathetic!

Well, you asked.

- Pfranz
Posted By: Bean Work/workings - 04/09/03 11:09 AM
Well, what do you guys show? Your work or your workings? On the mainland we'd always used work but here on The Rock, it's workings (just to be contrary, I suppose).

Posted By: Bingley Re: Work/workings - 04/10/03 01:35 AM
work in the UK.

Bingley
Posted By: doc_comfort Re: Work/workings - 04/10/03 01:40 AM
Workings down under. At least in my little part of it.

Posted By: sjm Re: Work/workings - 04/10/03 02:02 AM
Workings here on this fish

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: Work/workings - 04/10/03 09:21 AM
work in the various parts of the US I've occasioned to show.

Posted By: consuelo Re: Work/workings - 04/11/03 03:25 AM
Work where I come from.

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: Work/workings - 04/11/03 03:50 PM
Work where I come from

No, Connie, haven't been able to work out where you "come from"...



Posted By: Faldage Re: Work/workings - 04/11/03 04:02 PM
haven't been able to work out

'S'matter, Juan, won't let you into the health clubs?

Posted By: Coffeebean Re: Work/workings - 04/12/03 04:11 PM
One would hear "show your work" in the Pacific Northwest.
"Workings" to me would mean "mechanisms," such as the workings of a machine.....

[white font alert]
Anybody got change for a pair o' dimes?

Posted By: musick Defeat the trend - 04/12/03 10:19 PM
Seems to be casting a shadow on white lettering by announcing it...

*************

"Workings" most certainly never needs, but usually-always gets "inner" as a adjectifier.

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: Indeed, Musick - 04/12/03 11:23 PM
"Workings" makes me think of inbody plumbing.

Posted By: Coffeebean Re: Totally pathetic - 04/13/03 01:09 AM
"Observe the watch works," Tom said timely.

Posted By: Jackie Re: Work/workings - 04/13/03 01:44 AM
pair o' dimes
Good one, CB!

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: Work/workings - 04/13/03 02:45 AM
working girl

(just another shade of semantics...a double entendre, even...could mean you work retail, ya know! )

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: Work/workings - 04/13/03 10:05 AM
working girl... retail

not going to go there...



Posted By: of troy Re: Work/workings - 04/13/03 11:48 AM
RE: working girl... retail

vs. working girl, wholesale?

Posted By: Capfka Re: Work/workings - 04/13/03 08:33 PM
Only if you can organise mass production ...

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: Work/workings - 04/14/03 01:27 AM
retail=mass production?

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: Work/workings - 04/14/03 01:35 AM
m'ass production?

Posted By: Capfka Re: Work/workings - 04/14/03 06:31 AM
I guess it's all down to the right production techniques.

Posted By: musick The devil made me do it. - 04/14/03 03:25 PM
...vs. working girl, wholesale?

Why the extra w?

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: The devil made me do it. - 04/14/03 04:22 PM
Holy holes! Musick, I finally "gotcha"!

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