Pathetic –the worst hit

Meaning of Pathetic

Pathetic means evoking or expressing pity, sympathy at it’s highest level of empathy. Of all the fallacies which man hugs to his bosom, the one characterized by Ruskin as “the pathetic fallacy” is the most common to romantic poets. As generally applied, “the pathetic fallacy” imputes to Nature the appropriate emotional states of the despairing, joyful or ironic poet. Poe’s croaking ravens and ghastly rushing rivers were clear examples; T. S. Eliot used the same stage effects in more modern terms. Last week a new poet struck his lyre, and to ears that could remember echoes, the minor strains were far. If you delineate a person as pathetic, you express that they are upset and weak or helpless, and they make you feel very sorry for them.

Now, as long as we see that the feeling is accurate, we pardon or are even pleased by, the confessed fallacy of sight.

Literature – use of pathetic :

The phrase pathetic is a term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found.  It is sometimes used as a kind of personification that occurs in poetic descriptions, when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, or when rocks seem indifferent. The well known British cultural critic John Ruskin coined the term in one of his work, Modern Painters (1856).

Science-use of Pathetic

In science, the term “pathetic “is used in a derogatory way to discourage the kind of symbolic speech in descriptions that might not be strictly accurate and clear, and that might communicate a false impression of a natural phenomenon. An example is a metaphorical phrase “Nature abhors a vacuum“, which contains the suggestion that Nature is capable of hating something. 

Another example is the expression, “Air hates to be crowded, and, when compressed, it will try to escape to an area of lower pressure.” It is not accurate to suggest that air “hates” anything or “tries” to do anything. One way to express the ideas that underlie that phrase more scientifically can be found and described in the kinetic theory of gases: effusion or movement towards lower pressure occurs because unobstructed gas molecules will become more evenly distributed between high- and low-pressure zones, by a flow from the former to the latter.

Pathetic situations for Indian cinema

When it comes to Bollywood, beliefs have always been inconsistent.

Indians, for decades, have felt the West closed its eye to Bollywood’s language of expression and chose to look at only a section of regional cinema selectively.

The West, on its part, always thought of Bollywood as Hollywood’s poor cousin and never felt it necessary to acknowledge its existence.

The mainstream Hindi cinema never stood a chance at the Oscars or other prestigious film festivals. Understandably, Government of India never sent them as the official entry.

However, all perceptions changed when Aamir Khan’s Lagaan received an overwhelming  reception across the film capitals of the world.

With increasing Bollywood consciousness across the globe, the Government of India too realized that sending masala stuff was no faux.