i’m changing my mind (a little)

A while back, I made a post bitching about pandering in films (it’s here). My take was that it was dumb that people were pumped up about Black Panther or any other Marvel superhero movie that stars a woman or visible minority, because garbage films are not barometer of where society is at. They’re just an indicator of what braindead people will pay money to see — it’s just marketing.

Well, I want to change that take a bit. After giving this some more thought recently, I decided that marketing itself is somewhat of a barometer of where society is at. Like, if people are pumped up about minority superheroes and eager to spend their entire social assistance cheques on those kinds of films, then that says people are at least superficially interested in equality. That’s still just lip service, it’s not actually doing anything concrete to fix the problems society faces, but it’s a baby step in the right direction, and it’s better than nothing, and much better than the opposite.

To be clear though, yes I still believe those films are utter fucking shite and you won’t catch me dead watching one them.

Oh yeah, I think I remember how I got to thinking about this the other day. I was thinking about how I generally feel that words are utterly meaningless, that actions are the only thing that really matter — you know, like quit talking big about racism and the establishment and actually look at how you are personally, actively a part of the racist establishment, and then take real, tangible, measurable, concrete steps to change that — and how, while I do still think actions are like 98% of all that matters, I now think that words matter like 2%, because they shape the thoughts, ideas, and emotions of even unaware dummies, and they will eventually manifest, one day, as real actions.

That’s all.

violence should (almost) always be a vehicle for something bigger

I just loaned dear little Benjamin Buttons my copy of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I read it recently and loved it. But he said that a relative of his noticed he was digging into it and made a comment that he shouldn’t read it, that it was the most violent and disturbing book they had ever read. I thought that was interesting because yeah, the book is really violent (although by modern standards it’s not as shocking as it was when it came out in 1991) but I feel like it’s clear the book does not condone violence. It’s in there to illustrate an aspect of society, of humanity, to hold a mirror up to the reader’s face so we go, “gee whiz, humans can be so awful. Why is this guy doing this stuff?” And then you dig in to understand characters and situations you may have never considered before.

And I feel like that is what most good art that is violent, gory, or otherwise disturbing is doing. If it’s just a book or a flick that is trying to shock you with over-the-top, “what shocking stuff hasn’t been done yet?” visuals, I don’t find it disturbing (usually) because it’s weightless — I need believable characters or motives attached to the violent imagery so it can cut to my core like I want it to. I mean, if I’m going to feel awful after a film, I need to have cared about what’s going on in it in the first place, and I can’t do that if I’m just seeing a bunch of cheap shitty acting, plots, and special effects.

That said, I do think there’s a place for the occasional silly, self-aware, over-the-top violent piece. Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead, that kind of thing. Yeah they’re absurdly violent and gory but it’s done in a funny way, in a “this is fun to watch with friends and be grossed out” way, and I think there’s value in that too. It’s stuff like Slow Torture Puke Chamber that I don’t have time for. That name got me really pumped up several years ago, and I was soooo disappointed. Just juvenile, silly. Not remotely disturbing.

fb lady

A couple days ago I bought a shelf from a woman on FB marketplace. Her profile pics made her look like an attractive 20-something year old. Yeah, I could tell there were a ton of filters on the pics but I have to admit that I was still fooled — I thought she obviously wouldn’t look as polished and perfect as her pics but would still probably be a reasonably attractive human. Then I got there and a withered old crone welcomed me. I thought this must be the seller’s mom, but nope. This was her. She only looked to be in her late 40’s but it was a rough late 40’s: weathered, dried out, tissue paper skin with millions of tiny wrinkles; beady little pig eyes; thoroughly scorched and frizzy hair. It was incredible, I was actually in disbelief that this was the same person from the photos I saw.

It blows my mind and makes me sad that anyone feels the need to create such an absurd illusion as to who they are. It says a lot about our society, superficial values, insecurities, stuff like that. It would be like me posting this pic and claiming it’s me:

^{This is actually pretty close tho}

I wonder if this woman does it because she finds she sells more stuff when she appears young and attractive. That’s very possible, and sad in different ways. Huh.

Whatever. I still wish people would care less about virtual junk and more about their real selves. Oh well, not much I can do about it except be grateful that I’m not on social media and seeing more of this or feeling pressure to join the trend. And I bought the scarecrow’s shelf and it looks pretty cool in our house now so hey, all’s well that ends well.

^{Pretty sweet, hey}

the doomsday clock

i read in the news today that the doomsday clock has recently been advanced to 2.5 minutes to midnight. not knowing much about the clock, this got me pretty excited. i assumed that, like time, the clock only moves forward, which meant that we had taken another step towards inevitable nuclear war that we could not take back.

sadly though, i did some reading and learned that it’s not a literal metaphor, that time on the old doomsday clock does in fact move forward and backward. not only that, the clock is not definitive at all. it’s just the opinion of a bunch of very smart, very educated people who are taking the likelihood of nuclear war and global climate disaster into account. yes, they have a very good idea of what they’re talking about, but no, it doesn’t mean humanity is definitely going to experience something catastrophic.

that’s all well and good — i think the doomsday clock is a very worthwhile thing for those folks to keep working on — but i admit that i was greatly disappointed by what i learned. i keep hoping for some kind of global reset, something that demolishes nations and our current structures of society and politics, and instates some real chaos into our world. i want to people to have to hunt and farm for their food, to have to build their homes by hand. i want to be scared when i see other people because i don’t know if they’re friendly or looking to kill me for what i have. i want to level the playing field so that the 1% are just as vulnerable as everyone else. i want life to be the same challenge for humans as it is for every other creature on this planet. and i thought we were that much closer to making such a wilderness our reality. well, phooey.

go ahead, drop the bombs. bring on midnight. i want to test myself.

tick tock, DING! global annihilation, hooray!