tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post8364156209889398686..comments2024-03-18T23:02:16.395-04:00Comments on the daily howler: FISH AND FROGMARCH: The shape of anger!<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-19257929454261458032018-02-06T11:20:04.371-05:002018-02-06T11:20:04.371-05:00You may want to start with this.You may want to start with <a href="https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/movies/index.html" rel="nofollow">this</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-78584357783191955372018-02-06T11:04:07.891-05:002018-02-06T11:04:07.891-05:00Mao is a film critic I'd read.Mao is a film critic I'd read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-13763444537494906082018-02-06T11:00:10.102-05:002018-02-06T11:00:10.102-05:00Circumcision of infants is backward. Disfiguring ...Circumcision of infants is backward. Disfiguring and mutilating genitals to resemble those belonging to people of the sex the one is not and ruining their function is sickness, and doctors who do it are unethical barbarians.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-53608173277584631782018-02-06T09:07:46.521-05:002018-02-06T09:07:46.521-05:00Why does it have to be political all the time? Not...Why does it have to be political all the time? Not everything in this life is about liberals and their (most unfortunate) zombie problem. <br /><br />I thought the message was that an unhappy lonely woman will fuck anything. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-92105932702987145072018-02-05T23:07:37.630-05:002018-02-05T23:07:37.630-05:00Is it not possible that the "fish/man" r...Is it not possible that the "fish/man" represents a conservative that is misunderstood by liberals, as well as other possibilities? Perhaps del Toro's message is larger than Somerby wants to admit, and Somerby is the one guilty of stereotyping. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-41767877833822415832018-02-05T21:20:46.096-05:002018-02-05T21:20:46.096-05:00Re: your final note, he isn't only talking abo...Re: your final note, he isn't only talking about the press or "our liberal leaders." That's a Bobgoblin narrative.Bexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-4030539366408403562018-02-05T21:14:58.619-05:002018-02-05T21:14:58.619-05:00If a tree falls in Ostrav Letnyy Sad and no one is...If a tree falls in Ostrav Letnyy Sad and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound, comrade? Koannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-18192175540042139422018-02-05T21:02:52.902-05:002018-02-05T21:02:52.902-05:00Subtlety is not your strong suit, 6:02.Subtlety is not your strong suit, 6:02.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-37135458551644677612018-02-05T20:59:39.516-05:002018-02-05T20:59:39.516-05:00You like to let others do your thinking for you. You like to let others do your thinking for you. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-48768826326402100682018-02-05T20:51:10.640-05:002018-02-05T20:51:10.640-05:00This is why I like this site. Bob watches culture ...This is why I like this site. Bob watches culture industry vomit like Maddow and Shape of Water so I don't have to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-34165984650939810502018-02-05T20:14:59.979-05:002018-02-05T20:14:59.979-05:00This is funny. Your way of speaking about trans pe...This is funny. Your way of speaking about trans people was so convoluted I thought you were referring to circumcision, something that happens to children when they are too young to decide for themselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-22579848814939991522018-02-05T17:58:51.850-05:002018-02-05T17:58:51.850-05:00The species not only doesn't change that quick...The species not only doesn't change that quickly, it won't change at all absent Hitler's brand of selective breeding. We don't select for ethics and couldn't. The use of "evolved" to describe fashionable ethics, much of which is technically devolution from civilization back to chaos or barbarism is inaccurate. A good example is the barbaric trend of celebrating mutilating the genitals of patients who are mentally ill and cannot accept their normal, functioning body.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-74530914078085294532018-02-05T17:48:50.852-05:002018-02-05T17:48:50.852-05:00Perhaps an artist who uses his art to point out ra...Perhaps an artist who uses his art to point out racism and bigotry is hoping to show the ugliness of such attitudes and to change a few minds. But Somerby reduces it to mere political games by liberals trying to make themselves feel superior. Elsewhere, Somerby has criticized the liberal elite for discussing or even mentioning racism. Now, he wants artists not to mention it either? What kind of world is Somerby asking liberals to live in?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-87984386415618147022018-02-05T17:24:00.898-05:002018-02-05T17:24:00.898-05:00" a creature who is half-fish and half-man&qu..." a creature who is half-fish and half-man"<br /><br />There is no such thing as a creature that is half fish and half man. They cannot interbreed. This is a creature that is distinct from both humans and fish. Nothing is gained by comparing him to either species.<br /><br />When someone is compared to a man but is not a man, he can only be seen as a defective man -- while he may be a uniquely perfect specimen of his own species. So this idea that he must be a monster is stupid. Somerby's friend, the artist, strikes me as a better example of a monster.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-33497422476446290122018-02-05T17:15:38.585-05:002018-02-05T17:15:38.585-05:00Being sensitive is not the same as being sentiment...Being sensitive is not the same as being sentimental. Someone can be sensitive but not buy into the manipulative silliness of E.T. Crying at such a film strikes me as ridiculous. Now Somerby refuses to buy into the premises of Del Toro's film. Does that make him an insensitive person? I'd say yes. There's nothing noble about preferring Spielberg's images to Del Toro's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-38187476831777950562018-02-05T16:51:45.321-05:002018-02-05T16:51:45.321-05:00One reason why people tend to avoid those with phy...One reason why people tend to avoid those with physical disabilities is that survival of the species is aided when propagation occurs among the healthiest individuals. Mate selection involves identifying indicators of reproductive health. <br /><br />Not only do we avoid mating with those with physical disabilities, deformities, abnormalities and oddities that make us appear different, but we actively shun them, avoid them. That is because mechanisms of contagion have been poorly understood during prescientific times. It is safer for our species to stay away from those who appear in any way different because they may be physically dangerous to us.<br /><br />This isn't something that is part of logical thinking or conscious evaluation, it happens below the level of consciousness and appears to us in the form of disgust reactions, distaste, dislike. Difference is dangerous and our instincts guide us away from interactions with those who are different, guided by negative feelings toward them.<br /><br />Now Somerby wants to pretend this is a moral issue. It isn't. Our culture may evolve, but the species doesn't change that quickly. It may be safe to embrace difference these days, but our feelings haven't caught up with that knowledge. I prefer not to blame people for their instincts.<br /><br />Somerby seems to enjoy blaming liberals for trying to be more evolved. I'm not sure why, since it seems like the better way to be. <br /><br />When those people thought his friend was drunk, nine times out of ten they would be correct about the behavior they were seeing. How then are they bad people for misjudging Somerby's friend? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-38979644382085477222018-02-05T13:57:15.382-05:002018-02-05T13:57:15.382-05:00Perhaps Hollywood needs to return to the "goo...Perhaps Hollywood needs to return to the "good old days" when blacks were depicted as in "Gone With The Wind" (or "Birth Of A Nation") or Indians as in so many John Ford Westerns. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-46440488545212075522018-02-05T13:50:01.395-05:002018-02-05T13:50:01.395-05:00This post illustrates what is called "confirm...This post illustrates what is called "confirmation bias". Somerby believes certain things about liberals and finds them in "The Shape of Water."<br /><br />What makes Somerby think that his view of this film matches del Toro's intentions? Perhaps del Toro is trying to illustrate something more personal; perhaps he sees himself in the main character. Perhaps it depicts something in del Toro's life. <br /><br />And Somerby's view, that the film is simply trying to make liberals feel good, isn't exactly validated by his listing of so many critics who didn't rank the movie highly, nor by its extremely modest rating at the box office. I guess Manohla Dargis didn't get the memo from Lib Central. <br /><br />Next, artists often create characters that embody certain characteristics, as a way of praising or condemning said characteristics. Scrooge, in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", illustrates the emotional and spiritual bankruptcy of greed and selfishness. But Dickens never implied that Scrooge is a representative of any political party or even of all rich men. Similarly, del Toro's creation of "stereotypes" (if you buy that that is what he is doing) is, possibly at least, meant to condemn attitudes and frames of mind like racism or bigotry. To view this, as Somerby does, as some sort of gamesmanship to "make liberals feel morally superior" is to short-change del Toro. It makes more sense to just say you didn't like the movie. <br /><br />A final note: it's hard for me to see how Somerby is only talking about liberal "press" or "thought leaders" with this kind of post. Is he not suggesting that liberal audiences are among the ones who will like feeling morally superior after watching this film?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-82314315239898889532018-02-05T10:46:33.987-05:002018-02-05T10:46:33.987-05:00I saw ET in the theater. One of a fairly short lis...I saw ET in the theater. One of a fairly short list of movies I can say that about (probably less than 20) I don't remember any sobbing.<br /><br />I remember being very annoyed by the ending. Seemed like horrible story-telling. Suddenly ET is dying - we don't know why. He dies, and then suddenly comes back to life. How is that possible? Then suddenly he can fly too? Not just fly, but levitate himself and a bicycle with a kid on it.<br /><br />That's not an extra-terrestrial, it's a fairie or something. Okay, Starman does some of those things, but it is established early that he can do that with his magical orbs. He survives a fiery crash and re-animates Jenny's husband and a deer before he brings Jenny back from the dead.<br /><br />He also starts mysteriously dying, but not so suddenly. Oh, and unlike ET the government does not just suddenly appear, we are shown their activities all along.<br /><br />ET's government is mysterious and malevolent. As I remember it, they say less than a Charlie Brown adult. They don't need a warrant. They don't need to explain anything to the parents or the mayor. Apparently they declared martial law. Starman's government is fairly toothless, only able to threaten the professor with the loss of his stipend and then later grind their teeth when he defies them and blows smoke in their face.<br /><br />Maybe ET is more realistic that way, or have we become acclimated over the last thirty years, been told more stories where the fascist power of the American state is taken as normal. Whereas before, like the waitress in Maximum Overdrive, we would have at least incredulously protested "This is America!" ("We made you") before the police state gunned us down.<br /><br />ET seems to have an "Other" as well - the darned Grups. Whereas myself, from the time I was about twelve, thought grown ups were far cooler than my peers. I would hang around with them while they talked grown up stuff.<br />Dr. Tnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-16561803823921608222018-02-05T10:40:47.938-05:002018-02-05T10:40:47.938-05:00"a creature who is half-fish and half-man. Th..."a creature who is half-fish and half-man. This creature is viewed as a monster by certain figures in the film. Like the children in E.T., the woman played by Sally Hawkins sees with a keener eye.<br />We liberals are inclined to praise ourselves for such moral goodness."<br /><br />Yet "moral" lefties can't bring themselves to love creatures who are half human and the other half human, when those individuals are very young, without political power, and temporarily physically dependent on their mothers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-4458438043366032302018-02-05T10:33:08.638-05:002018-02-05T10:33:08.638-05:00Whoa. That's profound, man.Whoa. That's profound, man. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com