Didactic

Didactic (pronounced dahy-dak-tik)

(1) Something intended for instruction; instructive:

(2) Inclined to teach or lecture others too much.

(3) In art or literature, containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated.

(4) The art and science of teaching (if used with a singular verb).

(5) In medical education, of or relating to teaching by lectures or textbooks as distinguished from clinical demonstration with patients.

1635-1645: From the French didactique (fitted or intended for instruction; pertaining to instruction), a Latinized adaptation of the Ancient Greek διδακτικός (didaktikós) (skilled in teaching), from διδακτός (didaktós) (taught, learnt), past participle of didaskein (teach), from διδάσκω (didáskō) (I teach, educate), from the primitive Indo-European dens (to learn), source also of the Sanskrit dasra (effecting miracles).  The adjective autodidactic (self-taught) is from 1838, from the Greek autodidaktikos (self-taught) the construct being autos (self) + didaktos (taught).  The adjective didactic (fitted or intended for instruction; pertaining to instruction) has been in use since the 1650s while the noun didactics (the science of teaching) dates from 1836, the noun didacticism (practice of conveying instruction; tendency to be didactic in style) is attested from 1841.

In the original Greek, didacticism was a description of educational technique or content that emphasized instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art.  In the Hellenic tradition, the didactic signified learning in a fascinating and intriguing manner, supposed both to entertain and to instruct.  Didactic plays, of which the Greeks wrote many, were intended to convey a moral theme or other truth to the audience so the word was thus either neutral or positive.  In English, during the nineteenth century, the meaning shifted and didactic came be used as a criticism for work felt to be overburdened with instructive, factual, or other educational information, to the detriment of the enjoyment of the reader.  The use has persisted to this day and the word seems now seldom to appear without an adjective (needlessly didactic, excessively didactic, pedantically didactic, academically didactic etc).

The King's English (1997) by Sir Kingsley Amis (1922–1995), Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780141194318, 272 pp.  Recommended to read, much fun, though not all his prescriptions should be followed.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in his essay The Poetic Principle (1850) called didacticism “the worst of heresies”.  Kingsley Amis in The King’s English wasn’t as emphatic but was inclined to the view an author unable to succeed in their didactic purposes without boring the reader, just wasn’t a good writer.  One does wonder if he had in mind the works of his son and he was more acerbic when commenting on one of Martin Amis's interviews in which he'd said readers should really read his novels twice fully to understand them.  "That means the little shit has failed doesn't it?" observed the father.

Corporal

Corporal (pronounced kawr-per-uhl or kaw-pruhl)

(1) Of the human body; bodily; physical

(2) In zoology, of the body proper, as distinguished from the head and limbs.

(3) As corporeal, belonging to the material world (mostly obsolete except for historic references although still used as a technical term in philosophy).

(4) In ecclesiastical accoutrements, a fine cloth, usually of linen, on which the consecrated elements are placed or with which they are covered during the Eucharist (also called the communion cloth).

(5) In Christian theology, as the seven Corporal Works of Mercy, the practical acts of compassion, as distinct from the seven Spiritual Works (the contemplative acts).

(6) In military use, a non-commissioned officer ranking above lance corporal (private first class (PFC) in US Army) and below a sergeant; in the Royal Navy, a petty officer who assists the master-at-arms; similar use in the armed services of many countries.

1350–1400: From the Middle English corporall, from the Anglo-French corporall, from the Latin corporālis (bodily, of the body) from corpus (body), the construct being corpor- (stem of corpuscorpus) + -ālis (the third-declension two-termination suffix (neuter -āle), used to form adjectives of relationship from nouns or numerals, from the primitive Indo-European -li-, which later dissimilated into an early version of -aris).  The use describing alter cloths was derived from the Medieval Latin corporāle pallium eucharistic (altar cloth) and replaced corporas, itself inherited from Classical Latin under the influence of Old French.  The pronunciation is kaw-pruhl in military use and kawr-per-uhl for all other purposes.  The adoption by the military dates from 1570–1580 but the origin is uncertain.  It may have come from the Old French (via Italian) into Middle French as a variant of caporal, from the Italian caporale, apparently a contraction of phrase capo corporale (corporal head) in the sense of the head of a body (of soldiers).  Source was the Latin caput (head), perhaps influenced also by the Old French corps (body (of men)).  Corporal is a noun & adjective, corporality, corporalcy & corporalship are nouns and corporally is an adverb; the noun plural is corporals.

The strategic corporal

The idea of the “strategic corporal” was first explained in a paper published in 1999 by USMC (US Marine Corps) General Charles Krulak (b 1942).  Based on both practical experience and his analysis of the likely evolution of conflicts into localized, small-scale but intense theatres of operation, he described what he called the “three block war” in which the Marines could be involved in conventional fire-fights, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid, all conduced in a geographical area no bigger than three city blocks and undertaken either sequentially or, more challengingly, simultaneously and in an environment in which hostile, friendly & neutral forces are intermeshed.  The reference to the “three city blocks” was included for didactic purposes to illustrate his point that the training of military personnel needed to be refined better to encompass those required to make independent decisions, including the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) & junior officers actually commanding small numbers of troops on the ground.  Just as the term “three blocks” wasn’t a literal limitation but a way of illustrating a change of mindset from the traditional focus on divisional & brigade level deployment, the phrase “strategic corporal” was chosen because in the military that is the lowest rank at which a soldier is in command of others and thus in a position to make decisions which could have some strategic significance.  Typically, a “strategic corporal” might be a lieutenant who in modern warfare, must be trained to make major decisions without the benefit of direction from the chain of command.

The concept has been influential in many militaries and has been compared with the idea of the “man on the ground” doctrine which emerged in the nineteenth century when the early technologies of long-distance communication meant that for the first time it was practical for military commanders in remote locations to seek and receive instructions from perhaps thousands of miles away.  It would however be decades before those interactions habitually became real-time so the idea of the “strategic corporal” would not then have been unfamiliar and there was an at least tacit acknowledgement that the man on the ground would often be the one making critical decisions rather than anyone in the high command or even the headquarters staff in theatre.  This could of course mean a bad decision could theoretically trigger a war but as "the Fashoda Incident" (1898 and the retrospective re-naming of what was at the time in Paris and London thought of as “the Fashoda Crisis”) illustrated, the man on the ground having the necessary background and training to make a decision based on factors beyond what was militarily possible could have far-reaching consequences.

So the idea of the strategic corporal is that training in such matters needs to extend to the layers of command where such decisions need to be made, not to the point at which formerly they’re delegated or devolved.  In a sense that of course is a mere recognition of reality but the elevation of the concept into a doctrine has been criticized as becoming “mythologized within the military culture [and] forever associated with negative consequences”, the result of the ultimate responsibility for decisions being seen through legal filters, leaders now too “…concerned with the perceived risk..” and as a means to manage that “…senior leaders have elevated decision authorities far away from anyone but themselves”.

Military analysts have noted that military operations conducted in the Gaza Strip provide the perfect example of a “three block war”, one that has the potential to unfold as a series of “three block” theatres.  In these urban environments in which a civilian population co-exists still in high-density with paramilitary forces and irregular combatants, decisions taken by a soldier in direct command of fewer than a dozen troops in the invading army can have a strategic significance well beyond the particular three blocks in which they’re operating.  Complicating this is the suspicion expressed by some that a high civilian death-toll is actually an outcome desired by the Hamas (Hamas the acronym of the Arabic  حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah) (Islamic Resistance Movement); HMS glossed in the Hamas Covenant (1998) by the Arabic word ḥamās (حماس) (which translates variously as “strength”, “zeal” or “bravery”)).  The evidence to support this is strong in that the nature of the attack staged by the Hamas on Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 was of such a nature that retaliation by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would be bound to result in civilian causalities in Gaza; there are not effective alternative military tactics available, the choices being only to retaliate or not.

The idea used by Hamas is not new.  In 1942, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile (which in 1940 had shifted from Paris to London), had become especially disturbed by the success SS-Obergruppenführer (general) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) was enjoying as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, a role in which he was effectively the Nazi’s “governor of Czechoslovak”.  Using the Nazi’s tradition method of governing conquered territories by “carrot & stick” Heydrich had not spared the stick early in his administration (1941-1942) but been remarkably successful with the inducements he offered and had achieved an unexpectedly high degree of cooperation with the local population.  With little signs of an effective resistance movement operating, the government in exile took the decision, in cooperation with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), to send an assassination squad to Prague, knowing full well the retribution against the population would be severe but the object was to use that to stimulate local resistance.  More than a thousand Czechs were killed in revenge for Heydrich’s death.

So in the awful business of war, civilian deaths can be thought of as useful political devices, something which in Islamic theology is regarded as the noble sacrifice of martyrdom.  The Hamas, having concluded (not unreasonably) that 75 years on, the leaders of many Arab states had tired of the Palestinian “problem” and were moving on, regarding the Jewish state as a permanent part of the region’s political geography with the advantages of détente greater than those of conflict, needed to be back on the agenda.  The Hamas understand a resort to diplomacy is unlikely much to influence the Arab rulers but the spilling of Muslim blood at the hands of the IDF will bring protest to the streets in the region and beyond.  This of course makes inevitable that when the strategic corporals proceed, however cautiously, through the rubble of Gaza’s blocks, they’ll be encouraged by their opponents to make decisions and these decisions can have consequences which ripple far and perhaps for a generation.  What one strategic corporal decides to do really does matter.  By comparison, most of the statements and resolutions, issued or passed by politicians, ex-politicians and other worthies around the planet will be noted with equal interest by those in Tel Aviv, the Hamas to the south, the Hezbollah to the north, the ayatollahs to the east and the fish to the west.

Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy

The Bible reduces the New Testament’s conception of mercy to seven practical (corporal) and seven spiritual (contemplative) acts, each said to be a virtue influencing one's will to have compassion for, and, if possible, ameliorate another's misfortune.  Italian Dominican friar & philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) thought that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, it must be thought a special virtue adequately distinguishable from its effects.  Later theologians noted its motive is the misery which one discerns in another, particularly in so far as this condition is deemed to be, in some sense at least, involuntary but even if not, the necessity is to offer succor of either body or soul.

Corporal works of mercy

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To harbor the harborless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

Spiritual works of mercy

To instruct the ignorant
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offences willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead
To counsel the doubtful

The Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 25:34-41) makes clear those who offer mercy “…are righteous and their souls will be granted eternal life…” whereas those who do not “…shall be cursed, cast into everlasting fire and given over to the devil.”

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

***

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2013-2015) visited Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) in prison (a corporal work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) didn't visit Cardinal Pell in prison but did remember him in his prayers (a spiritual work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.  Within the Roman Curia (a place of Masonic-like plotting & intrigue and much low skulduggery), Cardinal Pell's nickname was “Pell Pot”, an allusion to Pol Pot (1925–1998, dictator of communist Cambodia 1976-1979) who announced the start of his regime was “Year Zero” and all existing culture and tradition must completely be destroyed and replaced.

Lindsay Lohan 6126 wool blend military coat in black.

Military uniforms have long influenced fashion and in the 1960s, the counter culture adopted them with some sense of irony.  Camouflage patterns have always been popular but the dress uniforms are also used as a model, the insignia, sometimes in elaborated form added as embellishments.  The insignia of a corporal is a two-bar chevron, depicted variously upwards or downwards, depending on the service.

Deipnosophist

Deipnosophist (pronounced dahyp-nos-uh-fist)

Someone noted for their sparkling dinner-table conversation.

1650–1660: From the Ancient Greek Δειπνοσοφισταί (Deipnosophistaí), the title of a literary work in fifteen volumes (translated usually as something like “philosophers at their dinner table”) by the third century scholar Athenaeus of Naucratis, describing learned discussions at a banquet, the construct being δειπνο- (deipno-) (meal) + σοφιστής (sophistḗs).  The plural of sophistḗs was sophistaí and the sense used by Athenaeus was one of “wise men knowledgeable in matters of art & science”.  The now obsolete alternative spelling was dipnosophist.  Deipnosophist, deipnosophistry & deipnosophy are nouns; the noun plural is diepnosophists.  Tempting though they are, forms such as deipnosophistically and deipnosophising are non-standard.

Deipnosophistry in practice: Lindsay Lohan at the Fox News table, White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner, Washington DC, 2012.  At the annual event, there is much table talk.

Scholars of Antiquity regard the Deipnosophistaí as a conceptual work encompassing the aspects of life most interesting to the elites of society and these included matters of gastronomy, philosophy, music, literature, women and fine points of grammar.  Structurally, the approach of Athenaeus would have been familiar to twentieth century modernists, the fifteen volumes absorbed by an account of the discussions which transpired during a banquet given by a rich man and attended by two-dozen of those he thought possessed knowledge and conversational skills sufficiently sparkling to be worthy of an invitation; “chaps with some background” as it were.  As a literary (and didactic) technique, this approach was known from Plato’s (circa 427-348 BC) Dialogues but the Deipnosophistaí is a sprawling work and the author made no attempt to disguise the use of the format as a device to explore an extraordinary range of ideas and concepts; he did not claim to be writing a transcript.  Because a substantial part of the text was devoted to the cooking and serving of fine food, in the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries, the noun deipnosophist was used also as learned synonym of gourmand and not always in a complimentary way, the English viewing ornate, stylized food as “something continental” and therefore suspicious and the word “sophist” was similarly suspect, used often in the pejorative sense of someone “silver tongued” rather than simple and sincere.

So the Deipnosophistaí was a kind of idealized conversation of the kind only something scripted (and thus artificial) can be.  However, even the most reliable of verbatim transcripts erroneously can convey the impression that what’s been recorded are the words of a deipnosophist because even if annotated, much is missed: the pauses, the volume, the inflections and changes in tone of the voice and perhaps especially the little variations which mean a passage of conversations could have been delivered with confidence of diffidence.  The case study is the distance between conversational reality and the impression which can be left when published in transcript is Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier (Hitler's Table Talk), a series of what were presented as monologues delivered by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) between 1941-1944, mostly over the dinners held in the two Führerhauptquartiere (Führer Headquarters), the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in what was then East Prussia (present-day Poland) and Werwolf (Werewolf) in the Ukraine.  Because of Hitler’s pattern of life (which became more extreme as the military situation deteriorated), the dinners could be held at any hour and not infrequently extended to the early morning.

Published in several languages between 1953-1954, the transcripts have extensively been studied and while the consensus has always been that while there’s no evidence of any great inaccuracy in terms of what was said (except for some of the material about Christianity which does appear to have been somewhat “embellished” by Martin Bormann (1900–1945; Hitler’s secretary 1941-1945) who hated the churches and the Jews with almost equal vehemence), just about all historians have observed that based on the reports of those who were actually at these meals and listened, a casual reader would gain entirely the wrong impression.  For one thing, what is missing is the repetition.  Hitler had a number of what were really set-piece speeches which for some twenty years he returned to on these occasions, the topics including vegetarianism, his dislike of smoking, the making of artificial honey, the relative merits of various styles of architecture and the history of opera.  For occasional visitors or someone new, the experience of listening to these banalities may have been pleasant enough but many of the regulars interviewed after the war recounted their boredom at the repetition, something noted especially by the military and secretarial staff who listened to the “script” dozens or even hundreds of times; many knew the words off by heart.  So a deipnosophist can’t be judged by words alone, even if recorded verbatim and nor is an audio tape of necessity any better because obviously the visual clues which lend so much to meaning are lost.

Parabola

Parabola (pronounced puh-rab-uh-luh)

(1) In geometry, a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point in the same plane or in a parallel plane. Equation: y2 = 2px or x2 = 2py.

(2) In rhetoric, the explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose; a parable.

1570s: From the Modern Latin parabola, from the Late Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ) (a comparison; a setting alongside; parable (literally "a throwing beside" hence "a juxtaposition") so called by Apollonius of Perga circa 210 BC because it is produced by "application" of a given area to a given straight line.  The Greek parabolḗ was derived from παραβάλλω (parabállō) (I set side by side”), from παρά (pará) (beside) + βάλλω (bállō) (I throw); a doublet of parable, parole, and palaver.  It had a different sense in Pythagorean geometry.  The adjectival form parabolic (figurative, allegorical, of or pertaining to a parable) from the Medieval Latin parabolicus from the Late Greek parabolikos (figurative) from parabolē (comparison) is now probably the most widely used.  In geometry, in the sense of “pertaining to a parabola”, it’s been in use since 1702.  A parabola is a curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.  It’s best visualised as a shape consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance.

Monza

On the Monza banking: Maserati 250F (left), Ferrari F555 Supersqualo (centre) & Vanwall VW2 (right).

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (National Automobile Racetrack of Monza) is now the fastest circuit still used in Formula One, the highest recorded speed the 231.5 mph (372.6 km/h) attained during qualifying for the 2005 Italian Grand Prix by a McLaren-Mercedes MP4-20 (in qualifying trim) on the long straight between the Lesmo corners and the Variante del Rettifilo.  Built in 1922, the Italian Grand Prix has been held there every year since 1949 except in 1980 when the track was being modernised and it’s a wonder the track has survived the attention of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation).  Once an admirable body, the FIA has in recent decades degenerated into international sport’s dopiest regulatory body and has for some yers attempted to make motorsport as slow, quiet and processional as possible, issues like DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) now apparently more important than quality of racing.  Set in the Royal Villa of Monza park and surrounded by forest, the complex is configured as three tracks: the 3.6 mile (5.8 kilometre) Grand Prix track, the 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometre) short circuit and the 2.6 mile (4.3 kilometre) high speed oval track with its famous steep bankings which was unused for decades left to fall into disrepair before it was restored in the 2010s.  The major features of the main Grand Prix track include the Curva Grande, the Curva di Lesmo, the Variante Ascari and the famous Curva Parabolica.

On the parabolica: 1966 Italian Grand Prix.

The Curva Parabolica (universally known as “the parabolica”) is the circuit’s signature corner, an increasing radius, long right-hand turn and the final corner before the main straight so the speed one can attain on the straight is determined essentially by the exit speed from the the parabolica; a perfect execution is thus essential for a quick lap.  Although in motorsport it’s common to discuss the lengths of straights, one notable statistic is that even at close to 150 mph (200 km/h) speed with with the fastest cars take the curve, to transit the the parabolica takes just over 7.6 seconds.  Improvements to both the cars and the circuit means it’s now a less dangerous place but many drivers have died in accidents at Monza, some on or approaching the parabolica including Wolfgang (Taffy) von Trips (1928–1961) and Jochen Rindt (1942-1970).  In 2021, the Monza authorities announced the parabolica officially would be renamed “Curva in honor of former Ferrari factory driver Michele Alboreto (1956-2001) who to date remains the last Italian driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari.  It’s likely most will still refer to the curve as “the parabolica”.

The Monza circuit in its configuration for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix (left) and a Mercedes-Benz W196R (streamliner) exiting the parabolica ahead of two W196Rs in conventional open-wheel configuration.  The 1955 Italian Grand Prix was the seventh and final round of the World Championship of Drivers, the French, German, Swiss and Spanish events all cancelled in the aftermath of the disaster at Le Mans.  It was the fourth and last appearance of the Mercedes-Benz W196R streamliners which, after some bad experiences on the relatively tight Silverstone circuit, were restricted to the fast, open tracks.  Mercedes-Benz also withdrew from top-level competition after 1955 and, as a constructor, it would be half a century before they returned to Grand Prix racing.

The parabolic arc: A wheel drops off a Boeing Dreamlifter on take-off, describing a a classic parabolic arc.  The Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighters (LCF) were created using a modified 747-400 airline frame and were most associated with their use carrying Boeing 787 Dreamliner parts between the US, Italy & Japan.  It was an unusual configuration in that it was required to carry components which while large, weren't particularly heavy.

Aesthete

Aesthete (pronounced es-theet or ees-theet (especially British))

(1) A person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.

(2) A person who affects great love of art, music, poetry, etc and indifference to practical matters.

1880–1885: From the Ancient Greek αἰσθητής (aisthētḗs) (one who perceives), the construct being aisthē- (variant stem of aisthánesthai (to perceive)) + -tēs (the Greek noun suffix denoting agent).  It was a Victorian back formation from aesthetics, from either the German Ästhetik or the French esthétique, both from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós) (of sense perception), from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai) (I feel).  There is probably no exact synonym, the closet being connoisseur but it conveys a slightly different implication and the derived noun hyperaesthete is used sometimes as a term of derision directed at the excessively civilized.  The rarely used alternative spellings esthete & æsthete are now used only as literary devices and are otherwise obsolete.  Aesthete is a noun and aesthetic is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is aesthetes.

Aestheticism

View of Amalfi (1844), pencil, ink & water colour by noted aesthete John Ruskin (1819-1900).

Aestheticism was a nineteenth century movement in European art now best remembered for the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, with no need for it to serve any political, didactic or other purpose.  The modern expression most associated with the movement is l’art pour l’art (art for art’s sake).  The movement is held to have been a reaction to the prevailing utilitarian social philosophies and what was said to be the ugliness of the industrial age and the philistinism of the newly prominent mercantile class.   Its philosophical framework was built in the eighteenth century by German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who argued for the autonomy of aesthetic standards, set apart from considerations of morality, utility or pleasure.  The idea attracted many including Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) and it was the French philosopher Victor Cousin (1792–1867) who, in 1818, coined the phrase l’art pour l’art.  It was at the time controversial.  The establishment regarded art and literature as part of the ethical and social construct, something certainly challenged by what seemed a decadent display of sensuality and a flaunting of sexual and political experimentation.  The phrase art for art’s sake became identified with the energy and creativity of aestheticism but was adopted also by those who feared the implications of a decoupling of art and morality: that the dangerous ideas of art could infect politics and challenge the social order.

Aesthete is now rare and the more familiar related form is the noun & adjective aesthetic (1) concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance; appealing to one's sense of beauty or art & (2) the study of art or beauty; that which appeals to the senses; the artistic motifs defining a collection of things.

Pandemonium

Pandemonium (pronounced pan-duh-moh-nee-uhm)

(1) Wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos.

(2) A place or scene of riotous uproar or utter chaos.

(3) Satan’s palace at the centre of Hell in Milton’s Paradise Lost.

(4) Following Milton, the abode of all the demons (often with initial capital letter).

1667: In John Milton’s (1608-1674) epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667-1674), Pandæmonium was the name of the palace in the centre of hell, "the high capital of Satan and all his peers”.  Milton coined the word as a construct of the Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân) (all; every (and equivalent to the English pan-)) + the Late Latin daemonium (evil spirit, demon), from the Ancient Greek δαιμόνιον (daimónion) (a diminutive form of δαίμων (daímōn) (“little deity”, “little spirit”, “little angel” or (as Christians interpreted it) “little daemon”, later modernized as “demon”).  Depending on one’s didactic or literary purpose, Pandæmonium may thus be translated variously as “All Demons” or, following Milton, as Pandemoneios (Παν-δαιμον-ειον) (the place of all demons).  The transferred sense of “a place of uproar” dates from 1779 while the general use meaning “wild, lawless confusion” has been in use since 1865.  The alternative spellings are pandaemonium & pandæmonium, the latter still in literary use.  Pandemonium is a noun, pandemoniacal, pandemonious, pandemonic & pandemonian are adjectives, pandemoniac is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is either pandemoniums or pandemonia.

There are special, technical uses of “pandemonium”.  In physics, a pandemonium describes a problem that leads to inaccurate results from high-resolution gamma ray detectors in cases of beta decay when the decay product has a large Q value because the decay product has too many possible energy excitation levels with too much variation in the amount of energy emitted by different levels.  Those who understand that doubtlessly visualize the phenomenon while the rest of us probably need something like a cartoon.  In cognitive science, a pandemonium is a conception of visual object recognition in the brain as a hierarchical system of detection and association by a metaphorical set of "demons" sending signals to each other.  No cartoons required.

Some who have inspired fandemonium: The anyway statuesque Taylor Swift, adding to the effect in 6 inch (150 mm) heels (2016, right), the mean girls of Mean Girls (2004, centre) and the more diminutive Lady Gaga (2023, right).

By way of portmanteau nouns, pandemonium has been an element in (1) pandemonium (panda + (pande)–monium) (the furor induced by the reaction of people to the sight of pandas) and (2) fandemonium (fan + -(pan)demonium) (in pop-culture, the furor caused by or involving fans).  In the matter fandemonium, Lady Gaga (b 1986) called her fans “little monsters” while devotees of the Taylor Swift (b 1989) cult are known as “Swifties” (apparently always with an initial capital).

Paradise Lost

Written in the epic tradition of starting in medias res (in the midst of things), John Milton’s Paradise Lost was published originally as a poem of some ten-thousand lines in ten books (1667) before the second edition (1674) was re-organized into twelve volumes, possibly a nod to the Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC)) whose epic work the Aeneid (circa 30-19 BC) was thus assembled.  The poem is an account of the biblical tale of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam & Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and was structured in two narrative threads, one following Satan, the other about Adam and Eve, a depiction of the tragedy of human existence which can be transformed only by a pure will for redemption.  The second edition is easier to read because it includes chapter summaries.

Milton coined the name for the capital of Hell, “the High Capital, of Satan and his Peers”, built by the fallen angels at the suggestion of Mammon and it appears at the end of Book I of Paradise Lost (1667), noted as having been designed by the architect Mulciber (In Ancient Rome, Mulciber was another name for the Roman god Vulcan), the designer of palaces in Heaven before his fall.  Book II begins with the debate among the Stygian Council (known also as the Infernal Council and the grand gathering of the demons of the Inferno; apparently something like a Tory Party conference but with better catering) in the council-chamber of Pandæmonium.  In an example of free-market efficiency, the demons built the structure in little more than an hour though by far it surpassed in grandeur all human palaces and, being made from solid gold, it never tarnished.  Interestingly, it was Tardis-like, being both small yet with a vast and spacious hall which thronged with swarms of shape-shifting demons, a quality which may account for the spatial ambiguity in the account of the dimensions.

The Shepherd’s Dream (1793), from Paradise Lost, oil on canvas by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825).

One mid-century critique was Milton's God (1965) by Sir William Empson (1906–1984), among the earliest published examples of the techniques of literary deconstructionism being applied to poetic text.   Milton noted his work was a way of “…justifying the ways of God to men” and Empson deconstructed those means, mapping them onto a framework of theological paradox.  While Milton’s God had a mixed reception, it was briefly influential as an early post-modern text although one of the problems inherent in deconstruction is it tempts others to reconstruct and there was a critic who deduced Empson had claimed “the poet felt an active hatred for the God of Christianity.”  That was a challenging notion given the book for so long sat on shelves next to the King James Bible (KJV 1611) and it seemed Epson’s subconscious was being probed.  Although in Milton’s God there was the observation Milton’s social judgment had told him that the Heaven he was imagining before the fall of the angels was already a horrible place, “against his overall intention”, it seems a quite a leap from that to a hatred of the God of the New Testament.

Empson explained what needed better to be understood (because, as he put it, modern Christianity has gone to extreme lengths “to hush it up”) was the moral character of God had become very hard to defend and that this was widely known by the time John Calvin (1509–1564) and Martin Luther (1483–1546) had trod the path of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274).  Milton was struggling to defend God, noting that in the De doctrina Christiana (On Christian Teaching (397-426)), Aquinas himself had written there were many who believed God caused evil, practically making God the Devil and Milton would assert the relevant Bible texts must not be interpreted literally.  Milton certainly presents God at his worst but the Almighty is a agreeable figure by Book III although it remains clear his path for man will long and painful with many casualties but the poet's theme remained that there would be awful consequences if “the widespread hatred of God could no longer be contained” and this Empson understood.

Epistle

Epistle (pronounced ih-pis-uhl)

(1) Text in the form of a letter (written classically in verse), especially a formal or didactic one; written communication.

(2) One of the New Testament’s apostolic letters of the Saints Paul, Peter, James, Jude, or John (usually with initial capital letter).

(3) An extract, usually from one of the Epistles of the New Testament, forming part of the Eucharistic service in certain churches (usually with initial capital letter).

(4) A literary work in letter form, especially a dedicatory verse letter of a type originated by the Roman lyric poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC).

(5) A letter, especially one which is formal or issued publicly (now usually literary or ironic).

(6) A letter of dedication addressed to a patron, inspiration or reader, published as a preface to a literary work (associated with a qualifying word, as in epistle dedicatory); now usually a historic reference. 

Pre 900: From the Middle English epistel, epistole & pistel (letter; literary work in letter form; written legend or story; spoken communication), from the Old English epistol, epistola & pistol (letter, epistle), from the Latin epistola (letter, epistle; literary work in letter form) (from the came the Late Latin epistola (one of the letters by an apostle in the New Testament)), from the Ancient Greek ἐπῐστολή (epistolḗ) (letter; message), from ἐπῐστέλλω (epistéllō) (to inform by, or to send, a letter or message), the construct being ἐπῐ- (epi-) (the prefix meaning "on, upon" and ultimately from the primitive Indo-European hepi (at; near; on)) + στέλλω (stéllō) (to dispatch, send (ultimately from the primitive Indo-European stel- (to locate; to place, put))) + -η (-ē) (the suffix forming action nouns).  The familiar and specific sense of "letter from an apostle forming part of canonical scripture" dates from circa 1200.  It was in use as the Anglo-Norman epistle and the Middle French epistle, epistele & epistole (letter; (Christianity)).  As well as one of the letters by an apostle in the New Testament, it referred to also an extract from (or something inspired by) such a letter read as part of the Mass.  The verb was derived from the noun.  The synonym pistle has been extinct since the eighteenth century (and even then it seems mostly to have been used as ecclesiastical shorthand).  Epistle is a noun & verb, epistolary is a noun & adjective, epistoler, epistolarian, epistolographist, epistolography & epistler are nouns, epistolical is an adjective; the noun plural is epistles.  

Although the use in Biblical translation long ago created the general impression an "epistle" was something associated exclusively with scripture, long goa (and still in the technical language of literature), an epistle was a poem addressed to a friend or patron; a letter in the form of verse and the classic distinction was between (1) the moral & philosophically thematic such as  Horace's Epistles and (2) the romantic (the sentimental according to sterner critics) (such as Ovid's (43 BC–17 AD) Heroides).  Throughout the Middle Ages, it was the romantic which was the more popular form and historians link the form with the evolution of the theories of courtly love which would remain influential in fiction for centuries.  During the Renaissance and thereafter however it was the Horatian tradition which began to prevail, the Italian poets Petrarch (1304–1374) and Italian Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533) both working in this vein although the latter also wrote romantic tracts.  Historians usually attribute to Ben Jonson (circa 1572-circa 1637) the first use in English of the Horatian mode in The Forest (1616) although elements can be identified in works by earlier authors.  The Forest, a collection of fifteen verses is actually a quite pragmatic work, typical of what emerged from the quills of many compelled to please those who supported them in than most of the poems were addressed to the gentry who were Jonson's patrons aristocratic supporters, but there's also the more personal To Celia.  Content providers having to respond to algorithms sounds like something which belongs to the TikTok era but the effect has long been exerted.  John Dryden (1631–1700), William Congreve (1670–1729), Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) refined the form in English and not uncritically, Congreve especially scathing about some of Jonson's metaphysical meanderings but it was Alexander Pope (1688-1744) in Moral Essays (1731-1735) and the memorable satire An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot which modern critics tend to regard as the finest; readers can draw their own conclusions about that but there would be few who would deny Pope is the most fun.  After the rise of the novel, the tradition fell from favor although poets would continue to find it useful and WH Auden's (1907-1973) Letter to Lord Byron (1936) illustrates why; the mix of light and dark in the piece reminding one the Biblical translators use the word has infused that something of that into the meaning.        

Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1)

Many of the books of the New Testament are actually letters and Biblical scholars describe them both as letters and epistles, apparently usually with an eye to their audience rather than the content or implied meaning; they’re often a curious mixture of Christian teaching and other matters specific to those to whom they were addressed.  Paul's second letter is thought to have been written circa 56 AD, shortly after he penned the first and was addressed to the Christian community in city of Corinth, a major trading centre which, although by then noted for its rich artistic and philosophic traditions, was notorious also as a place also of vice and depravity.  It was this last aspect that compelled Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church and in it, sharply he rebuked them for permitting immoral practices in their community; in response, the Corinthians had cracked-down on some of the worst excesses and Paul wrote his second letter to congratulate them on their reforms and even commended forgiving sinners and welcoming them back to the flock.  Harsh though his words could be, Paul’s preference tends always towards restoration, not punishment.  The letter then discusses some sometimes neglected characteristics of the Christian church such as generosity to others and devotes time to defending himself against attacks on his ministry, reminding the Corinthians both of his own poverty and the harsh reality of what it meant to be a minister of Christ in the Roman empire: beatings, imprisonment, hunger, and the constant threat of death.  Because of the discursive range of topics and the changes in tone throughout this letter, some Biblical scholars have suggested that this is a compilation of several different letters or even the work of a number of authors.

The First & Second Epistles to the Corinthians are among the most quoted parts of the Bible.  In the design of one of her tattoos, Lindsay Lohan was drawn to 1 Corinthians 13:4. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (King James Version (KJV, 1611)):

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

More contemporary English is used in the New International Version (NIV, (1978)):

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Dogmatic

Dogmatic (pronounced dawg-mat-ik or dog- mat-ik)

(1) Relating to or of the nature of a dogma or dogmas or any strong set of principles concerning faith, morals, etc., as those laid down by a church; doctrinal.

(2) Asserting opinions in a doctrinaire or arrogant manner; opinionated; forcibly asserted as if authoritative and unchallengeable

(3) In science (historically, especially medicine) the practice of pursuing the profession based on assumptions rather than empirical observation.

(4) Of a person, one prone to dogmatic statements.

1595-1605; From the French dogmatique, from the Late Latin dogmaticus and the Hellenistic Ancient Greek δογματικός (dogmatikós) (didactic), from δόγμα (dógma) (dogma), the construct being dogmat (stem of dógma) + ikos or ic.  In the 1680s, it came to be applied to persons, writings etc, "disposed to make positive assertions without presenting arguments or evidence" the use by 1706 extending to matters "pertaining to or of the nature of dogma".  The use of variations of the derived form antidogmatic (antidogmatical, antidogmatically etc) have apparently been in decline since the nineteenth century; "dogmatical" was attested from circa 1600.  The most frequently used related word is dogma (opinion, tenet (literally "that which one thinks is true"), from the Latin dogma (philosophical tenet), from the Ancient Greek δόγμα (dógma) (opinion, tenet), from δοκέω (dokéō or dokein) (I seem good, think); in the seventeenth & eighteenth century it was treated as Greek, with the plural dogmata; the ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European root dek- (to take, accept).  Dogmatic is a noun & adjective, dogmaticalness, dogmatism & dogmatician are nouns, dogmatical is an adjective, dogmatize is a verb and dogmatically is an adverb; the noun plural is dogmatics but the more commonly used is dogmatisms.

The suffix -ic was from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European -kos & -ḱos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i- and the adjectival suffix -kos & -ḱos.  The form existed also in the Ancient Greek as -ικός (-ikós), in Sanskrit as -इक (-ika) and the Old Church Slavonic as -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); A doublet of -y.  In European languages, adding -kos to noun stems carried the meaning "characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to" while on adjectival stems it acted emphatically; in English it's always been used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.  A precise technical use exists in physical chemistry where it's used to denote certain chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a higher oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ous; (eg sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).

Karl Barth, Kirchliche Dogmatik

Bedside table reading.

Those not content with a discursive existence and who think it might help to keep the same train of thought for a decade odd might care to read Kirchliche Dogmatik (Church Dogmatics) by Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth (1882-1968).  In English translation a fourteen-volume work of some six-million words and published between 1932 and 1967, Barth's purpose was to recover the proclamation of the word of God as the place where God's message of salvation meets sinful man.  Pope Pius XII (1879-1958; pope 1939-1958), a fair judge of such things, is said to have thought Barth the most important theologian since Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274).

Kirchliche Dogmatik explored four themes: revelation, God, creation, and atonement (or reconciliation) although Barth’s intention had been to complete the work by addressing the doctrines of redemption and eschatology.  That he died before being able to finish the project led to something of a theological cult in the 1970s as others speculated how Barth might have discussed such things and structuralists, from a number of disciplines, differed on whether the Dogmatics should be considered an unfinished work.  Perhaps wisely, nobody has ever attempted to write these final volumes.  Nine-thousand pages in German, a pleasing thousand fewer in English, Dogmatics is probably more readable in the digital age, hypertext links assisting those new to the densely referenced and highly technical language in which it’s written.

Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945), who claimed to have read all the volumes, noted both the conceptual and textual difficulties; sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) which in 1945-1946 sat at Nuremberg to try the leading Nazis in the first and best-known of thirteen such trials, more than most he had time to devote to the task.  In 1959, by the time he'd finished a sixth volume, he noted: “There is much that I still cannot comprehend, chiefly because of the terminology and the subject.  But I have had a curious experience.  The uncomprehended passages exert a tranquilizing effect.  With Barth's help I feel in balance and actually, in spite of all that's oppressive, as if liberated.”  Speer continued: “I owe to Barth the insight that man’s responsibility is not relieved just because evil is part of his nature. Man is by nature evil and nevertheless responsible.  It seems to me there is a kind of complement to that idea in Plato’s statement that for a man who has committed a wrong ‘there is only one salvation: punishment.’  Plato continues: ‘Therefore it is better for him to suffer this punishment than to escape it; for it sustains man’s inward being.’”

Guilty as sin: Speer in the dock at Nuremberg, 1946.

Those passages didn't appear until the publication of Speer's Spandauer Tagebücher (Spandau: The Secret Diaries) (1975), some eight years after Barth's death so he was never able to comment on the idea of his work lending a sense of liberation to someone who would have been hanged had the concealed evidence of the extent of his complicity in the war crimes and crimes against humanity been brought before the court.  Speer's rationalization that an authority as venerated as Plato could be interpreted as saying in serving his sentence he "paid his debt to society" is wholly consistent with both the approach he took at the trial (admitting the "collective guilt" of the regime of which he was a part while denying personal responsibility for any indictable offence) and his successful and lucrative post-war career as an author and celebrity.  Some six months before his observations on Barth, in another context he had noted: “Some time ago I noted that we always read such sentences too late.  That was wrong. What I meant was: We understand them too late.”  By the time he died it does seem likely he understood his guilt but the evasions and denials never ceased.