Gulag

Gulag (pronounced goo-lahg)

(1) The system of forced-labor camps in the Soviet Union (with initial capital).

(2) Individually, a Soviet forced-labor camp (usually with initial capital).

(3) By association, any prison or detention camp, especially one used for political prisoners (usually not with initial capital).

(4) Figuratively, any place regarded as undesirable or one perceived as being a “punishment-post” (not with initial capital).

(5) Figuratively, any system used to silence dissent (not with initial capital).

1930-1931: From the Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG, GULag or Gulág), the acronym (Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj) translated usually as “Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps” but also, inter alia, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”, “Main Directorate for Places of Detention”, “Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps” etc.).  The noun plural was Gulags.

An example of the way in which a bland acronym (like the 1933 Gestapo (an abbreviated form of the German Geheime Staatspolizei (the construct being Ge(heime) Sta(ats)po(lizei), literally “secret state police”) can become a byword for something awful, although technically, the acronym GULag (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj (Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps)) didn’t come into use until 1930, the origin of what quickly would evolve into a vast, nation-wide network of concentration camps lies in the legal device created almost immediately after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917.  This was the concept of the “class enemy”, a logical crime to gazette under Marxist-Leninist theory and one that could be applied literally to anybody, regardless of their conduct; it was essentially the same idea as the crime of “unspecified offences” which appears in the judicial sentences of some authoritarian states.  Russia, as many of the Bolsheviks knew from personal experience, had a long tradition of “internal exile” and the new regime extended this concept, creating concentration camps for class enemies where convicts were required to perform useful manual labor (forestry, mining, quarrying etc).

The early camps, authorized by decree in April 1919, were the prisoner of war (POW) facilities which had become redundant after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918) which concluded hostilities between Russia and the Central Powers although the first model camp was in the White Sea region, in what were once the Orthodox Church's monastery buildings on the Solovetsky Islands and the first prisoners were anti-Bolsheviks, mostly left-wing intellectuals and members of the White Army.  The Cheka, the Russian secret police (the first in the alphabet soup of the names adopted (Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD, SMERSH, MGB, (most famously) KGB & FSB), was allocated the role of administration.  Reflecting the love secret police everywhere have for mysterious acronyms, the Cheka created SLON (Northern Camps of Special Significance) as an administrative template for the Solovetsky Islands which, briefly, was the only camp complex in the Soviet state.  The number of concentration (usually described as “correctional labor”) camps grew sufficiently during the 1920s to outgrow the bureaucratic structures initially formed by the Cheka and in 1930 the GULag was created as a separate division of the secret police which worked in conjunction with the Soviet Ministry of the Interior overseeing the use of the physical labor of prisoners.  Although the camps were sometimes used for those guilty of “normal” criminal offences, the great majority of inmates were political prisoners who were sometimes genuine political dissidents but could be there for entirely arbitrary reasons or even as victims of personal vendettas.  In these aspects there are parallels with the Nazi's concentration camps which also worked as systems of coercion, punishment & repression although the GULag never had a programme industrially to exterminate an entire race.  There was another striking similarity in the camp architecture of the two dictatorships which were nominally ideological opponents.  The German equivalent of the GULag, the Konzentrationlager is remembered for the words Arbeit macht frei (work makes you free) rendered in wrought iron above the gates of Auschwitz I; the inscription через труд (through labor (ie get back home through working)) was the message at the prisoners' entrance to the Magaden camp in Siberia.      

What is sometime neglected in the history of the GULag (and other systems of concentration camps) is that while it is well-understood as part of a system of repression, there were genuine attempts to locate the camps in places where the labor extracted from the inmates could be applied to the maximum benefit for the state, something of great significance because in 1929 comrade Stalin (1878–1953; Soviet leader 1922–1953) announced a programme of rapid industrialization and the first of a succession of five-year plans. In support of this, the Politburo abolished any distinction between political and other crimes and intruded a unified network of camps to replace the hitherto dual prison system.  From this point, accelerating from the mid-1930s, archipelagos of camps were built (substantially by the prisoners) close to sites of huge economic projects such as a canal from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea, gold mining in Kolyma and lines of communications such as the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

The GULag’s second great growth spurt happened during Stalin’s “Great Terror” in 1936-1938 when the upper echelons of the Communist Party, the armed forces, the civil service and even the GULag management were subject to purges and while there were many executions, most were sent to the camps which, never designed for such numbers, were unable to handle the mass influx and the already high death rate increased sometimes threefold.  During comrade Stalin's great purges, the (whispered) joke was that the Russian population consisted of (1) those in the gulag, (2) those just released and (3) those about to go back.  On a somewhat smaller scale, rapid inflows also happened in the early years of World War II because of the need to imprison those deported from territory just occupied by the Soviet Union (Eastern Poland, the Baltics, Bessarabia) but this pressure on capacity was more than off-set by the sudden release of many prisoners to meet the needs of the Red Army which had suffered massive losses in the Nazi invasion.  Needing troops, all was suddenly forgiven and it wouldn’t be until 1945 that the numbers in the camps began again to trend upwards, reflecting the waves of arrests among the ranks of the Red Army, former German POWs and ethnic minorities, including Soviet Jews.  The Cold War also fed the GULag.  In 1948-1949, Stalin launched the construction of new megalomaniacal projects, including the Volga-Don Canal, new power stations, dams, and communications, among them the Dead Road and a tunnel and railway to Sakhalin Island, both of which, despite a horrific death-toll, proved impossible to build and were cancelled when Stalin died in 1953.

After Stalin’s death, an amnesty was announced for many of those serving sentences for criminal offences and almost all of those deemed to have committed “minor offences” were released although political prisoners remained imprisoned and it wasn’t until “the thaw” under Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964) that widespread releases were ordered after almost four million political crime cases were reviewed and in 1957, as one of a number of reforms, the GULag was abolished and most of the camps shut down.  Khrushchev himself announced that the Soviet economy would no longer based on the slave labor of prisoners which, as a piece of economic analysis was true but while the numbers of political prisoners fell, they did not disappear although they tended now to be only imprisoned for genuine opposition to the regime, dispatched most frequently to labor camps in Mordovia or in camps clustered around the Urals. The conditions remained grim but the death rates were tiny compared to those suffered in Stalin’s time but what also disguised the extent of post-Stalinist repression was than many dissidents were technically not imprisoned but instead declared insane and incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals, many of which closely resembled prisons.  There, the “insane” were often subject to cruel & unusual “medical” procedures.

The number of people who passed through the GULag can never exactly be known but, using archival material which became accessible after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, historians have estimated between 15-18 million were imprisoned and the death-toll may have been almost 10%, the overwhelming majority of whom were from Russia or the constituent republics of the USSR but others were foreigners, mostly Czechoslovaks, Poles, Hungarians & Frenchmen.  The network of camps dotted around the USSR consisted of almost 500 administrative centres, each running as few as dozens or as many as hundreds of individual camps, historians having documented just under 30,000.  In the West the term GULag became widely known only after the publication in 1973 Russian of novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's (1918–2008) three-volume The Gulag Archipelago, described by the author as "An Experiment in Literary Investigation" which he wrote between 1958-1968, using documentary sources including legal papers, interviews, diaries, statements and his personal experience as a GULag prisoner.

Map of the GULag camp distribution, Plain Talk magazine, 1950.

However, both the system of slavery and the word “GULag” had, during comrade Stalin’s time, been publicized in the West, remarkably accurate maps published in 1950 in the US in Plain Talk (A US anti-communist monthly magazine, 1946–1950) magazine but, despite it being the high Cold War, the revelations didn’t resonate in public consciousness as they would a generation later when Solzhenitsyn released The Gulag Archipelago.

Enormous & Enormity

Enormous (pronounced ih-nawr-muhs)

(1) Greatly exceeding the common size, extent; huge; immense.

(2) Outrageous or atrocious; extremely wicked; heinous (archaic).

1525-1535: From the Latin ēnormis (irregular, unusual, enormous, immense out of rule, shapeless, extraordinary, very large), an assimilated form of ex- (out of, away) + norma (rule, norm, pattern) + the English –ous substituted for the Latin -is.  The modern meaning (extraordinary in size; very big) is attested from 1540s, the original sense was "outrageous" and more obviously preserved in enormity.  The earlier spelling from the mid-fifteenth century was enormyous (exceedingly great, monstrous).  The –ous suffix is from the Middle English -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux, from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of); A doublet of -ose in an unstressed position.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance.  In chemistry, it has a specific technical application, used in the nomenclature to name chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a lower oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ic.  For example sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  Synonyms include colossal, excessive, gargantuan, gigantic, huge, humongous, immense, mammoth, massive, monstrous, prodigious, vast, astronomic, gross & jumbo.  Enormous is an adjective, enormously is the adverb and enormousness the noun.

Enormity (pronounced ih-nawr-mi-tee)

(1) Outrageous or heinous character; atrociousness; as an offense; extreme wickedness.

(2) Greatness of size, scope, extent, or influence; immensity (archaic).

1425–1475: From the Late Middle English enormite & ēnorme (monstrous or unnatural act; enormity), from the Old French énormité (extravagance, atrocity, heinous sin), from the Latin enormitatem, nominative ēnormitās (irregularity, enormity, hughness), the construct being ēnōrmis (irregular, unusual, enormous, immense out of rule, shapeless, extraordinary, very large) + -itās (the suffix forming nouns indicating states of being).  The –ity suffix was from the French -ité, from the Middle French -ité, from the Old French –ete & -eteit (-ity), from the Latin -itātem, from -itās, from the primitive Indo-European suffix –it.  It was cognate with the Gothic –iþa (-th), the Old High German -ida (-th) and the Old English -þo, -þu & -þ (-th).  It was used to form nouns from adjectives (especially abstract nouns), thus most often associated with nouns referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.  Synonyms include depravity, horror, magnitude, abomination, atrociousness, atrocity, crime, disgrace, evil, evilness, grossness, heinousness, monstrosity, nefariousness, outrage, outrageousness & rankness.  The noun plural is enormities.

Lindsay Lohan with enormous inflatable toy zebra, V Magazine's Black and White Ball, Standard Hotel, New York, September 2011.

Enormity is a classic case study in (1) meaning adoption in English and (2) why such changes should be accepted where, whatever the etymological tradition, the new meaning makes more sense than the old and good replacement words exist to service the previous meaning.  The modern convention is that enormous means “extreme” in the sense of a pure, neutral measure of dimension and enormity means “extremely heinous or wicked; most awful”.  Enormity being often used as a synonym for "enormousness," rather than "great wickedness" means the potential exists to confuse readers where the intended meaning may not be otherwise derived from context.  There are pedants on both sides (1) those who point to the different roots in French, and radically different accepted meanings and (2) those who note the same source in Latin and the long pattern of use in English.  While it’s true enormity has continuously and frequently been used in the sense of “physical or dimensional immensity” since the eighteenth century, it’s really not helpful given that “enormous” exists and meaning will always be clear.  It’s true that examples do exist where enormity can, without apparently being misleading, serve to describe both the scale and atrociousness of the holocaust or the gulag but it’s true also that there are examples where it might provoke misunderstanding: given the troubled history, one should not speak of the enormity of the Congo were one intending to allude to it being a vast land mass.

Thematic consistancy: Lindsay Lohan at home, Venice Beach, California, June, 2011.  On the wall is one of two enormous images of Lindsay Lohan which decorate the triplex.  

Disappear

Disappear (pronounced dis-uh-peer)

(1) To cease to be seen; vanish from sight.

(2) To cease to exist or be known; gradually or suddenly to end.

(3) Of a person, to vanish under suspicious circumstances.

(4) Secretly to kidnap or arrest and then imprison or kill someone without due process of law; used especially to describe the practice in South and Central American republics but the practice is widespread.

1520–1530: The construct was dis- + appear.  The early form was disaperen and earlier still was disparish, from the French disparaiss, stem of disparaître.  The dis prefix is from the Middle English did-, borrowed from Old French des from the Latin dis, ultimately from the primitive Indo-European dwís.  In Modern English, the rules applying to the dis prefix vary and when attached to a verbal root, prefixes often change the first vowel (whether initial or preceded by a consonant/consonant cluster) of that verb. These phonological changes took place in Latin and usually do not apply to words created (as in Modern Latin) from Latin components since the language was classified as “dead”.  The combination of prefix and following vowel did not always yield the same change and these changes in vowels are not necessarily particular to being prefixed with dis (ie other prefixes sometimes cause the same vowel change (con; ex)).  Appear is from the late thirteenth century Middle English apperen & aperen, from the twelfth century Old French aparoir & aperer (appear, come to light, come forth (in Modern French apparoir & apparaître)), from the Latin appāreō (I appear), the construct being ad- (to) + pāreō (I come forth, I become visible), from the Latin apparere (to appear, come in sight, make an appearance), the construct being ad- "to" + parere (to come forth, be visible; submit, obey), probably from the primitive Indo-European pehzs- (watch, see), the simple present tense of pehz- (protect).  The figurative sense of "getting away" appeared only in 1913, the meaning "seem, have a certain appearance" having been in use since the fourteenth century.  The use to describe the secret disposal of political opponents is late twentieth century although technique had long been practiced, presumably even pre-dating modern civilization.  The spelling appeare is obsolete.  There are many synonyms including vanish, depart, wane, retire, escape, go, melt, dissipate, fade, perish, evaporate, expire, sink, flee, retreat, fly, die, recede, leave, withdraw and abandon.  The use of the synonyms is dictated by the process of departure.  Fade suggest something where disappearance has been gradual whereas vanish implies something sudden, often with a hint of something suspicious or mysterious.

Disappear is an intransitive verb.  The phrase “they disappeared him” appeared in Joseph Heller’s (1923-1999) 1961 novel Catch 22, as a darkly humorous reference to the way the military would dispose of those whose continuing existence they found inconvenient; an example of extrajudicial execution, unofficially state-sanctioned murder without any formal process.  In English, “to disappear someone", although an unnatural construction, has by usage become correct because it’s accepted as a mock euphemism.  To be “disappeared” didn’t of necessity mean murdered.  The missing could have been imprisoned or internally exiled but, because they disappeared without a trace, there was no way of knowing and the worst tended often to be assumed.  Some regimes seemed also to understand the uncertainty could be an advantage such as the way in the Soviet Union it wasn’t unknown for those sent to the Gulag remaining there sometimes for months before it was confirmed either they were imprisoned or even dead.  Historically the practice is most associated with the military dictatorships in Central & South America between the during the 1970s and 1990s, most infamously the so-called Guerra sucia (Dirty War) conducted by the military junta which ran Argentina between 1976-1983, a period marked by a kind of state terrorism although, in an interesting example of a private-public partnership, it acted also as the state-sponsor of the activates of a number of far-right papa-military groups.  During the junta’s rule, as many as 25,000 were killed or disappeared.

Despite the practice of political opponents being “disappeared” being for decades widespread, it wasn’t until the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty which created the International Criminal Court that technically it entered international law as a crime and, at least in some circumstances, one with a wide vista.  Under the terms of the statute, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a "forced disappearance" is classified as a crime against humanity and is thus not subject to a statute of limitations.  In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Before & after, Love Is in the Bin (ex Girl with Balloon (2006)) (2018) by Banksy.

Disappearance can be integrated into art.  A playful (or exploitative, depending on one’s view) take on the idea was the transmogrification of Girl with Balloon by the artist Banksy into Love Is in the Bin.

In what was described by the auction house Sotheby's as an “art intervention by the artist”, what was claimed to be a remote-controlled and “unexpected” self-destruction took place during the auction at which the work was offered.  Immediately upon the drop of the gavel (at a then record of just over Stg£1m (circa US$1.4m)), a shredder built into the frame was triggered, intended (it was said by the artist) entirely to shred the work.  However, the device malfunctioned and stopped with its work (conveniently) exactly half-done; what was planned to disappear, instead became half-transformed, half remaining.  It was either part of the plan or something serendipitous but anyway Sotheby’s claimed this was the first piece of art created mid-auction and the stunt had the desired effect, Love Is in the Bin in October 2021 realizing at auction Stg£18.5m (US$25.1m).  But that wasn’t a work disappearing.  Even if fully-shredded, it would have been but a transformation, the residue in the bin becoming part of the art and, within the construct of pop-art, that’s exactly right.  Whether the fully-shredded installation would have brought more at auction will never be known.

In March 2016, Lindsay Lohan posted on Instagram (an apparently photoshopped photograph) with her head covered by a brown paper-bag on which was written "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE", reprising the effort a couple of years earlier by another Hollywood celebrity with a troubled past who said it was to convey the message he was disappearing from public life.  Despite initial speculation, it was apparently never Lindsay Lohan's intension to disappear from anything except the tabloids, her message being she was no longer an  enfant terrible.  The barcode (upper right) was not of significance. 

The act of disappearance has however been used, the not entirely original but most pure interpretation of which was the ephemeral art movement of the Cold War years which went beyond the idea of gradual degradation many artists had explored and used instead a technique of almost instant destruction.  The proponents of auto-destructive art claimed their work was political, a reaction to the devastation of two world wars and the threat of nuclear conflagration.

Pixelate

Pixelate (pronounced pik-suh-leyt)

(1) In digital graphics and photography, to cause (an image) to break up (in whole or in part) into pixels, by complete or selective over-enlargement, resulting in blocky blurs.

(2) To blur parts of a digital image by creating unclear, pixel-like patches, for purposes of censorship or to maintain the anonymity of the subject (informal use of the word; technically need not be done by means of pixelation):

1965:  The construct was pixel + -ate.  Pix was a casual form of the abbreviation “pics”, the plural of “pictures”, the spelling with the x in use (initially in magazines and periodicals) since the 1880s.  Pixel dates from 1965 and was a portmanteau word, the blend being pix + el(ement).  It seems first to have been used by taking advantage of advances in the technology of magnification which enabled artists to manipulate images down to the levels of the individual, identifiable, two-dimensional (dots) components.  As the technology moved to screens and the dots became square, single-colored display elements, the word pixel continued to be used.  The noun pixelation (also as pixellation) in the sense of “creation of the effect of animation in live actors" was used first in motion-picture post-production and editing in 1947 and it appears not to have entered general use until the 1990s.  Prior to then, when pixelation was used (typically in newspapers to conceal identities or to obscure body parts or acts thought offensive), the effect was usually described a “blurred” or “blurred-out”.  The suffix -ate was a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee.  Pixelate, pixelize & pixelating are verbs, pixelization & pixelation are nouns, pixelated is a verb & adjective and pixelized is an adjective; the noun plural is pixelizations.

Lindsay Lohan, pixelated.

It shouldn’t be confused with the similar but completely unrelated (and usually whimsical) term pixilated, the construct of that being pixi(e) + (titill)ated, the blend of pixie and titillated suggesting an individual behaving in an eccentric manner, as though led by pixies (although it was used for a while by the news media as a euphemism for “drunk” until “tired and emotional” became preferred.  It’s always been rare but in the sense of the eccentric the synonyms include abnormal & eccentric while whimsically it implies the idiosyncratic, outlandish, peculiar, playful, quirky or unconventional.  It dates, as a dialectical form of US English, from the New England region in 1848 but entered general use in 1936 when used in a popular movie.  A pixie in this context was a figure from mythology, fantasy literature & fairy tales and was a playful sprite, elf-like or fairy-like creature.  In slang, it referred to a young, petite girl with a certain short-cut hair-style (or the style itself as “the pixie-cut).  In the technical language of astronomy & meteorology, pixie is the name of an upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.  Titillate was from the Latin tītillātus, from tītillō & tītillāre (to tickle) and was used usually to suggest acts which stimulated desire or excited sensually.

Loewe’s “pixelated glitches”, Paris Fashion Week, October 2022.

In a more conventional vein, Loewe also list a crew neck sweater in wool with pixel intarsia in multi-tone brown with ribbed collar, cuffs and hem at Stg£750 (US$905).

Displayed at Paris Fashion Week in October 2022, Loewe's Metaverse Fashion Works IRL (an initialism of “in real life”, borrowed from literary criticism which, in internet slang imparts, “as opposed to online”) was the latest take on the pixelated look and the most obvious attempt yet to emulate IRL the look as it appears on screens.  Although catwalks are noted as a place designers can show pieces which generate much publicity without being likely to attract many buyers, Loewe confirmed the pixelized clothing items (a hoodie, dress, and pair of pants) will be part-numbers and appear in the Spring 2023 collection.  The show notes described the look as "a pixelated glitch" and, photographed sympathetically, the effect was well-executed although there are limitations in the extent to which an inherently 2D look can translate into 3D (IRL).  Whether many of the Minecraft generation are used to paying the prices Loewe’s customer base can afford is unlikely but the way the industry works is that when a thing trends, the sweatshops east of Suez quickly are commissioned to do runs of cheap knock-offs and Meta might actually be grateful the look has generated so many clicks, Loewe’s toe in the metaverse’s stylistic water one of the few supportive gestures which suggests there might be people interested in digital-style clothes.

Pixelation by Anrealage at Japan Fashion Week, 2011 

Shoes (by Kunihiko Morinaga san, out of Picasso).

The idea has though been around for a while.  Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga san’s (b 1980) fall/winter 2011/2012 collection for Anrealage at Japan Fashion Week included some pixelated fabrics in what was a deliberately nostalgic showcase for those who remembered, with a fondness inexplicable except as a memory of a dissolute youth, 8-bit graphics.  The look extended to the heels on shoes but that did display the limitations imposed IRL when a 2D effect is seen in 3D, morphed into cubism circa 1908.

Loewe's Spring 2023 collection on the catwalk.  Catwalk models are famously the most gloomy-looking souls on the planet (they're trained that way) but one who must have looked at one of the more bizarre pieces couldn't suppress a smile.  She may have been sent to the fashion gulag.

Moving parts like the eyes and lips are most challenging to execute but can produce the most dramatic effects.

When 8-bit games were actually being played and the harsher critics were looking forward to better graphics, it’s doubtful there were many who predicted there would one day be the aesthetic of “pixelated makeup”.  One of the simpler looks to describe, the pixelated look is achieved with the use of squares or other edged geometric shapes, the object being to get a “low-resolution” or “glitch” vibe.  Now most associated with cosplay or fancy dress parties, the origins lie in the designs seen as catwalk novelties but although the results look simple, the construction demands some thought for the effect to work, the interplay of shapes and colors critical and the most successful are those cognizant of anticipated movement; what’s done with the lips should differ from the treatment of the nose.

There's an active Pinterest community.

The concept is to envisage the face as a grid which (a la how a screen is built from pixels) and use the squares to form geometric shapes to be filled in with the desired color mix.  The layers used are essentially the same as any makeup with a foundation applied as a base, brushes & sponges then used to render the shapes, familiar techniques adaptable to create highlights, shadows & outlines.  Depending on the effect desired, that might mean using severe edging or more conventional blending, the choice often dictated by the color contrast.  However, it’s well-known “nature abhors a straight line” (the quote attributed English landscape architect William Kent (1685-1748)) and the principle usually is followed by makeup artists but pixilation intrinsically is about straight lines and sharp angles which is why stencils are sometimes used.  Like many results which look simple, the creation can be an intricate business and practice is recommended; it’s not something first to be attempted a hour before an event.  Fortunately, it’s the social media age so YouTubers & TikTokers are here to help.

Actor Anya Taylor-Joy (b 1996) in a custom baby blue dress by Jonathan Anderson (b 1984; creative director of Christian Dior since 2025), Toronto Film Festival, September 2025 (left) and a pixelated skirt (right).

Elements of the "pixelated look" do occasionally show up on catwalks and red carpets and designers like to play with the motif because, being inherently "blockly", the rectilinear shapes can make a striking juxtaposition with the inherent curves of the female body and as a purely pragmatic device in tailoring, it's a remarkably easy way to create bulk without demanding symmetrical precision: should it not be thought enough, just add more blocks.  Because it can be hard to tell (and it hardly matters) where one block ends and another begins, especially when in motion, the technique can lend a dress a delightfully chaotic sense.   

Fate

Fate (pronounced feyt)

(1) That which unavoidably befalls a person; their fortune or “lot in life”.

(2) The universal principle or ultimate agency by which the order of things is presumably prescribed; the decreed cause of events; time.

(3) That which is inevitably predetermined; the inevitable fortune that befalls a person or thing; destiny; the ultimate agency which predetermines the course of events.

(4) A prophetic declaration of what must be.

(5) A common term for death, destruction, downfall or ruin; a calamitous or unfavorable outcome or result.

(6) The end or final result (usually in the form “the fate of”).

(7) In Classical Mythology, as “the Fates”, the three goddesses of destiny (Clotho, Lachesis & Atropos), known to the Greeks as the Moerae and to the Romans as the Parcae.

(8) To predetermine, as by the decree of fate; destine (used in the passive and usually in the form “fated to”).

(9) In biochemistry, the products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.

(10) In biology, as fate map, a diagram of an embryo of some organism showing the structures that will develop from each part.

(11) In embryology, the mature endpoint of a region, group of cells or individual cell in an embryo, including all changes leading to that mature endpoint (the developmental pathway).

1325–1375: From the Middle English fate (“one's lot or destiny; predetermined course of life” or “one's guiding spirit”), from the Old French fate, from the Latin fātum (oracular utterance; what has been spoken, utterance, decree of fate, destiny), originally the neuter of fātus (spoken), past participle of fārī (to speak), from the primitive Indo-European root bha- (to speak, tell, say).  The Latin fata (prediction (and the source of the Spanish hado, the Portuguese fado and the Italian fato)) was the plural of fatum (prophetic declaration of what must be; oracle; prediction), from fātus (“spoken”), from for (to speak) and in this sense it displaced the native Old English wyrd (ultimate source of the modern English weird).  When a Roman Emperor said “I have spoken” it meant his words had become law, subject only to the dictates of the gods, a notion in 1943 formalized in law in Nazi Germany when a decree of the Führer was declared to be beyond any legal challenge.

In Latin, the usual sense was “that which is ordained, destiny, fate”, literally “that which was spoken (by the gods) and often was used in some bad or negative way, (typically as some kind of harbinger of doom) and this association with “bad luck, ill fortune; mishap, ruin; pestilence or plague” carried over into Medieval Latin and from there to many European languages including English.  From the early fifteenth century it became more nuanced, picking up the sense of “the power or guiding force which rules destinies, agency which predetermines events” (often expressed to mean a “supernatural predetermination” and presented sometimes as “destiny personified”.  The meaning “that which must be” was first documented in the 1660s and that led (inevitability as it were) to the modern sense of “final event”, dating from 1768.   The Latin sense evolution came from “sentence of the Gods” (theosphaton in the Greek) to “lot, portion” (moira in the Greek, personified as a goddess in Homer; moirai from a verb meaning “to receive one's share”).  The Latin Parca (one of the three Fates or goddesses of fate) was the source of the French parque (a fate) and the Spanish parca (Death personified; the Grim Reaper) and may be from parcere (act sparingly, refrain from; have mercy upon, forbear to injure or punish (which etymologists suspect was a euphemism) or plectere (to weave, plait).  The Moerae (the Greek plural) or the Parcre (the Roman plural) were the three goddesses who determined the course of a human life (sometimes poetically put as “the three ladies of destiny”) and were part of English literature by the 1580s).  Clotho held the distaff or spindle; Lachesis drew out the thread and Atropos snipped it off, the three goddesses controlling the destinies of all.

The verb in the sense of “to preordain as if by fate; to be destined by fate” was first used in the late sixteenth century and was from the noun; two centuries earlier the verb had meant “to destroy”.  The adjective fateful dates from the 1710s and was from the noun, the meaning “of momentous consequences” noted early in the nineteenth century and both “fateful & “fatefully” were used by poets of the Romantic era with the meaning “having the power to kill” which belong usually to “fatal”, the attraction being the words better suited the cadence of the verse.  Just as the noun fate enjoyed some broadening and divergences in its meanings, other adjectival use emerged including fated from the 1720s which meant “doomed” (and “destined to follows a certain course” & “set aside by fate”), fatiferous (deadly, mortal) from the 1650s (from the Latin fatifer (death-bringing) and the early seventeenth century fatific & fatifical (having the power to foretell) from the Latin fatidicus (prophetic).  Fate is a noun & verb; fatalism, fatefulness & fatalist are nouns, fated & fating are verbs, fatalistic & fateful are adjectives and fatalistically & fatefully are adverbs, the noun plural is fates.

Fate has in English evolved to enjoy specific meanings and there’s really no exact synonym but the words destiny, karma, kismet; chance, luck, doom, fortune, lot, foreordain, preordain & predestination are related in sense while the antonyms (with a similarly vague relationship) include choice, free will, freedom & chance.  The idiomatic phrases using “fate” includes “as fate would have it” (the same meaning as “as luck would have it”, an allusion to the randomness of events and how so much good fortune in life is a matter of chance”; fate-fraught or fatefraught (fateful), quirk of fate (same as “quirk of fate”, a usually unfortunate (often ironic) change of circumstances or turn of events; seal someone's fate (to prevent (a decision, event, etc.) from being influenced or changed by a wilful act; to pre-empt someone's future actions by deciding the course of events ahead of time); sure as fate (with certainty); tempt fate (to court disaster; to take an extreme list); fate worse than death (which can be used literally (eg being sent to the Gulag in comrade Stalin’s time was often described thus on the basis a quick death was better than a slow one or the phrase “the living will envy the dead”, used often of those imagined to have survived a nuclear war) or figuratively (eg “going to a country & western concert is a fate worse than death” although that one may not be too far from literal.  The words “fate”, “destiny” & “doom” all relate to the hand of fortune (usually in the adverse) that is predetermined and inescapable and although they’re often used interchangeably, there are nuances: Fate stresses the irrationality and impersonal character of events; the randomness of what happens in the universe.  Destiny emphasizes the idea of an unalterable course of events, and is used of outcomes good and bad but rarely of the indifferent.  Doom is unambiguously always something bad, especially if final and terrible.  Doom may be brought about by fate or destiny or it may be something all our own fault.

Fatalist Lindsay Lohan and her determinist lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Many notable political and military leaders like to damn the hand of fate when it doesn’t favour them but the word is often invoked when things look good.  In July 1939, the vice-chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Army (Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada (1887–1980)), impressed by the dynamism of the fascist states in Europe declared : “We should resolve to share our fate with Germany and Italy”.  In that he was of course prophetic although the fate of the three Axis powers a few years on wasn’t what he had in mind.  By 1939 however, things in Tokyo had assumed a momentum which was hard for anyone in the Japanese military or political establishment to resist although there were statesmen aware they were juggling in their hands the fate of the nation.  Yōsuke Matsuoka (1880–1946; Japanese foreign minister 1940-1941), almost as soon as the signatures has been added to the Japanese-German Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) observed: “It is characteristic of the Japanese race that, once we have promised to cooperate, we never look back or enter into an alliance with others.  It is for us only to march side by side, resolved to go forward together, even if it means committing double suicide”.  Even by the standards of oriental fatalism that was uncompromising and Matsuoka san probably reflected on his words in the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941) when he lamented: “Entering into the Tripartite Pact was the mistake of my life.  Even now I still keenly feel it. Even my death won't take away this feeling.”

In the Western philosophical tradition, the difference between fatalism and determinism is sometimes misunderstood.  In essence, what fatalism says is that one does not act as one wills but only in the pre-ordained way because everything is pre-ordained.  Determinism says one can act as one wills but that will is not of one’s own will; it is determined by an interplay of antecedents, their interaction meaning there is no choice available to one but the determine course.  So, fatalism decrees there is an external power which irresistibly dictates all while determinism is less assertive; while there are sequences of cause and effect which act upon everything, they would be ascertainable only to someone omniscient.  That’s something to explore in lecture halls but not obviously of much use in other places but the more important distinction is probably that determinism is an intellection position that can be mapped onto specific situations (technological determinism; political determinism; structural determinism etc) where as fatalism, ultimately, is the world view that would should abandon all hope of influencing events and thus repudiate any responsibility for one’s actions.  Determinism is a philosophy, fatalism a faith.

Referendum

Referendum (pronounced ref-uh-ren-duhm)

(1) The principle or practice of referring measures proposed or passed by a legislature or executive authority to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection; the submission of an issue of public importance to the direct vote of the electorate.

(2) A measure thus referred.

(3) The vote on such a measure.

(4) A poll of the members of a club, union, or other group to determine their views on some matter.

(5) In historic diplomatic use, a diplomat’s official's note to their government requesting instructions.

(6) In legal & diplomatic use (as ad referendum (To reference)), an indication that although the substantive issues have been agreed, some differences on matters of detail need still to be resolved.

1847: From the Latin referendum (something to be referred; that which ought to be announced), neuter future passive participle (gerundive) of referre (to bring back), the construct being the verb ferre (to bear, bring, carry) + re- (here used to mean “back”).  It was an inflection of referendus, gerundive of referō (I announce).  Modern use appears to have begun in 1847 to describe the voting process used by the Swiss cantons (provinces) to validate certain laws passed by a legislature and use extended to the English-speaking world in 1882.

The re- prefix was from the Middle English re-, from the circa 1200 Old French re-, from the Latin re- & red- (back; anew; again; against), from the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (again), a metathetic alteration of wert- (to turn).  It displaced the native English ed- & eft-.  A hyphen is not normally included in words formed using this prefix, except when the absence of a hyphen would (1) make the meaning unclear, (2) when the word with which the prefix is combined begins with a capital letter, (3) when the word with which the is combined with begins with another “re”, (4) when the word with which the prefix is combined with begins with “e”, (5) when the word formed is identical in form to another word in which re- does not have any of the senses listed above.  As late as the early twentieth century, the dieresis was sometimes used instead of a hyphen (eg reemerge) but this is now rare except when demanded for historic authenticity or if there’s an attempt deliberately to affect the archaic.  Re- may (and has) been applied to almost any verb and previously irregular constructions appear regularly in informal use; the exception is all forms of “be” and the modal verbs (can, should etc).  Although it seems certain the origin of the Latin re- is the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (which has a parallel in Umbrian re-), beyond that it’s uncertain and while it seems always to have conveyed the general sense of "back" or "backwards", there were instances where the precise was unclear and the prolific productivity in Classical Latin tended make things obscure.  The Latin prefix rĕ- was from the Proto-Italic wre (again) and had a parallel in the Umbrian re- but the etymology was always murky.   In use, there was usually at least the hint of the sense "back" or "backwards" but so widely was in used in Classical Latin and beyond that the exact meaning is sometimes not clear.  Etymologists suggest the origin lies either in (1) a metathesis (the transposition of sounds or letters in a word) of the primitive Indo-European wert- (to turn) or (2) the primitive Indo-European ure- (back), which was related to the Proto-Slavic rakъ (in the sense of “looking backwards”).

The "Brexit" referendum in June 2016 in which citizens in the UK voted (narrowly) to leave the EU (European Union) was one of history's more bizarre self-inflicted political injuries.  Then in the country, Lindsay Lohan revealed herself to be a "remainer" and on X (then known as Twitter) provided a real-time commentary on the count.  She did try to help and may have concluded "forgive them for they known not what they do".

The word referendum illustrates the difference between the Latin constructs known as gerunds & gerundives and their English equivalents.  In Latin, gerunds are neuter singular nouns formed from verbs by appending -ndum to the stem whereas in English, gerunds are verbal nouns formed by adding an -ing.  The Latin legendum (reading) is for example formed from the verb legere (to read) while the English gerund is reading (read + -ing).  Because English gerunds are nouns, the preceding pronouns should take the possessive form (“we noticed him reading” (present participle)) but “we enjoyed his reading of that passage” (gerund).  By contrast, the Latin gerundive has the same form as a gerund but is used as an adjective and can take any number (singular or plural) and gender.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), there exists in English some sixty words which are unchanged from the original Latin (gerundives & gerunds) in a ratio of about two to one.  Some two-dozen are Latin phrases, noted from their continued use in legal jargon (such as capias ad respondendum (to enforce attendance at court) while the remainder are often from Medieval or Church Latin, unknown to Classical Latin.  Curiously, the OED was (at least earlier) ambivalent about whether referendum comes from a gerund or a gerundive but most agree a gerund it is and thus would have no plural in Latin so the rules of English plural construction would apply, creating referendums.  Were it a gerundive, the alternative plural in English could be referenda and that has attained some popularity but most authorities think this usually a misunderstanding based on the treatment of nouns (eg stadium & stadia). 

The meaning has of course shifted.  In Latin, a referendum was “a question to be referred to the people” but in modern European political discourse it was appropriated to describe the mechanics of the vote itself.  Had the original conventions of Latin be adhered to by those who followed. Such a thing would have been “a reference” but referendum is well understood and the original sense is now covered by the ubiquitous “terms of reference” and the preferred plural form is doubtlessly referendums although referenda is heard so often it may well have become an alternative unique to English.  Variations do exist: a neverendum is political slang for something which a government is never likely to submit to a vote and technically, a preferendum is a referendum in which more than two items or persons are being voted upon.

In modern use, plebiscite has a similar meaning in modern use and by many is used interchangeably.  It was from the Latin plebiscita, which originally meant “decree of the Concilium Plebis (Plebeian Council)”, the popular assembly of the Roman Republic.  English gained the word from the Middle French plébiscite, from the Latin plebiscita from plebs & plebis (the common people) and the construct of the Latin plēbīscītum (decree of the plebs) was plēbī (for plēbis & plēbēī genitive singular of plēbs & plēbēs) + scītum (“resolution, decree”, the noun use of neuter of scītus, the past participle of scīscere (to enact, decree) (originally, to seek to know, learn)), inchoative of scīre (to know).  Despite some imprecision in modern use, there are places where some distinction is (at least to some extent) maintained, usually with a referendum being a vote binding upon a government whereas a plebiscite is merely indicative.  The initiative (usually in the form ballot initiative) is related in that it refers to a process (usually signatures on a form of petition) by which a matter may be submitted to a referendum.

Watched by an approving comrade Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986; Soviet foreign minister 1939-1949 & 1953-1956), comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) casts his vote in the 1937 election for the Supreme Soviet.  To the left, Comrade Marshal Kliment Voroshilov (1881–1969) watches Comrade Nikolai Yezhov (1895–1940, head of the NKVD 1936-1938).

Those voting in 1937 may have had high hopes for the future because, read literally, the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union (adopted 5 December 1936) described a democratic utopia.  Unfortunately, within months, comrade Stalin embarked on his Great Purge and turned his country into a kind of combination of prison camp and abattoir, many of those involved in drafting the constitution either sent to the Gulag or shot.  In 1937 the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) was declared to have won 99% of the vote so it was not an exceptional result but the photograph is unusual in that it’s one of the few in which the usually dour comrade Molotov is smiling.  It was comrade Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924; head of government of Russia or Soviet Union 1917-1924) who dubbed Molotov “stone ass” because of his famous capacity (rare among the Bolsheviks) to sit for hours at his desk and process the flow of paperwork the CPSU’s bureaucracy generated.  Precise in every way, Molotov would correct those who suggested Lenin’s moniker had been “iron ass” but, disapproving of “shameful bureaucratism”, he may have used several variants in the same vein and in another nod to Molotov’s centrality in the administrative machinery of government, he was known also as “comrade paper-clip”.

On paper, between 1936-1991, the Supreme Soviet was the highest institution of state authority in the Soviet Union (1922-1991) but was in reality a “rubber stamp parliament” which existed only to ratify, adding a veneer of legality to laws sent down by the executive, controlled exclusively by the CPSU although it was valued for photo-opportunities, enthralled delegates always seen attentively listening to comrade Stalin’s speeches.  On election night comrade Stalin was quoted in the Soviet press as saying: “Never in the history of the world have there been such really free and really democratic elections -- never!  History knows no other example like it...our universal elections will be carried out as the freest elections and the most democratic compared with elections in any other country in the world.  Universal elections exist and are also held in some capitalist countries, so-called democratic countries.  But in what atmosphere are elections held there?… In an atmosphere of class conflicts, in an atmosphere of class enmity.”  The statement often attributed to comrade Stalin: “It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes” probably was apocryphal but indicative of how he did things and his psephological model has been an inspiration to figures such as Saddam Hussein (1937–2006; president of Iraq 1979-2003) and Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (North Korea) since 2011).

Mr Putin’s (Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; b 1952; president or prime minister of Russia since 1999) use of referendums as an attempt to add a legal gloss to Moscow’s annexation of parts of the Ukraine are an example of the way dictators often are most concerned with the appearance of lawfulness in what they do.  As a general principle, for an annexation to be valid under international law it requires (1) that the borders be exactly defined, (2) that the nation asserting control be capable of defending the territory, (3) that the population is substantially in accord with the change and (4) that recognition is granted by the international community (these days through the mechanism of the United Nations (UN)).  Given the military situation on the ground, it seems unlikely any of these pre-conditions had been met at the time Mr Putin conducted his triumphal ceremonies in the Kremlin.  The substantial majorities reported as being in favor of annexation in referendums conducted in September 2022 were an echo of the result of the 2014 Crimean status referendum which (according to the Kremlin) validated the earlier Russian occupation.

In this, Moscow’s referendums were to some extent similar to the infamous referendum conducted by the Nazis in 1938 to validate the Anschluss (joining) with Germany.  Although the reported result had some 99% voting in favor, it was not a vote which could be considered in any way free or fair although it may be a majority might have been achieved, based on the response of the population when the occupation was executed.  In some ways, the exaggeration of the yes vote by the Nazis worked to Austria’s long-term advantage, the improbability of the published result allowing the creation of the post-war narrative of Austria as the first of the Nazi’s victims rather than a nation which welcomed the incorporation.  The voting papers were headed Referendum and Greater German Parliament and the question was: Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Reich that took place on 13 March 1938 and do you vote for the list of our Leader Adolf Hitler?  The choice was Yes or No.

When the political cartoonist David Low (1891-1963) drew his take on the Anschluss referendum, he called it a plebiscite (a word which better describes how things were done by the Nazis) and suggested (rightly) the Duce was as complicit as the Western democracies.  Depicted marching unwillingly to cast their "Ja" ballots are (left to right) Édouard Daladier (1884–1970; prime minister of France in 1933, 1934 & 1938-1940), then UK foreign secretary Lord Halifax (Edward Wood, 1881–1959), Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940; prime minister of the UK 1937-1940) and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943).  Under a smiling (complete with halo) portrait of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) sits the corpulent and bemedaled Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) while behind the ballot box stands the diminutive Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945).  The military figures are used by Low as symbols of German militarism and Göring's contented smirk was well-deserved because, more even than Hitler, he was the driving force in the Anschluss.

Much has changed since 1945 but the recommendations for the best way for the West to handle the Kremlin today are exactly the same as those included in a paper called Facts and Tendencies in Wartime, 1944, written by Ronald Matthews (1904-1963), while Moscow correspondent (1942-1944) for the Daily Herald :

"It is of absolutely paramount importance that the Western powers should be able to give Russia at the end of the war... a sense of security.  Though I think it is just as important from all points of view that they should be able to do so without making concessions to her which they feel to be unjustified.  Such concessions would make only for further rankling ill-feeling; nor do I think the Russians will ever really trust us till we show firmness as well as conciliation in our dealings with them.  I may be wrong but I cannot help feeling that the effects of our giving in to them on points on which we feel we are right is doubly unfortunate.  First, it loses us their respect (the Russians respect and respond to tough bargaining).  And, secondly, it may well give them not confidence in us, but a sense that we are temporarily buying them off, just as the Germans and they bought each other off in August 1939 (ie the Nazi-Soviet Pact)".