tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8196758400911246783..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: "Homesickness: An American History"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48912551233176357672011-10-28T17:50:50.696-07:002011-10-28T17:50:50.696-07:00"Since Jews have encyclopedic minds that can ..."Since Jews have encyclopedic minds that can memorize and organize tremendous amount of facts, they usually win the argument. Not because they are necessarily correct but because they regurgitate more selective facts to make their case. "<br /><br />Not really. They focus on emotional impact, framing in essence. I've known some Jews who probably wouldn't want to have to live up to your glorified image of their mental processing (more mathematically inclined, I guess). Articulate and focused on moral implications, yes: encyclopedic brains, not so much. <br /><br />What's with the smugness, btw?????????Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73370232650297447892011-10-28T16:53:19.745-07:002011-10-28T16:53:19.745-07:00"I think Ethan is really conflicted in the se...<i>"I think Ethan is really conflicted in the search. Initially, it is to save her and later to kill her."</i><br /><br />But that's not really a conflict. When he thinks she can be rescued quickly (before, as he says, "she's of an age to..."), he wants to find her and bring her back alive. But once she's been with the Indians long enough that she's become the wife of one, he wants to kill her. For him, it's solely a question of whether or not she's been tainted by having relations with a Comanche. <br /><br /><i>"But even killing her is like 'bringing her back home'."</i><br /><br />Good point and beautifully put. <br /><br /><i>" Since she has been defiled by savages, she can only be purified and redeemed through death), but I was talking home more of as a metaphor than a specific entity. A psychological sense of placement and displacement."</i><br /><br />I'm not sure you can make that distinction in Westerns, particularly Ford's Westerns. Mrs. Jorgenson's remarks seem to blend the two, the specific place with the sense of belonging: "It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come."<br /><br />Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and insightful reply. As you may have noticed, this movie is a favorite of mine. I don't ever feel more at home than when watching it--it is a kind of homecoming to me.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75734535389935333252011-10-28T13:02:21.527-07:002011-10-28T13:02:21.527-07:00"This is so completely untrue. Liberal Jews a..."This is so completely untrue. Liberal Jews aren't at all concerned with factual history. It's all just creation of narratives of victimhood so they can rally more troops for the Marxist cause."<br /><br />History is so rich and complex that there's are tons of facts. It all depends on 'which facts'. Since Jews have encyclopedic minds that can memorize and organize tremendous amount of facts, they usually win the argument. Not because they are necessarily correct but because they regurgitate more selective facts to make their case. <br /><br />There is an element of this in psychology too. If Jewish historians say to goyim, "I know more about your history and culture than you do", Jewish psychologists said, "I know more about your mind and emotions than you do." Thus, a psychologist can gain power over his patient. Think of Eugene Landy and Brian Wilson. Wilson was his virtual mind-prisoner for over a decade.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43654586381396820162011-10-28T12:55:48.793-07:002011-10-28T12:55:48.793-07:00"I'd say the theme of family, rather than..."I'd say the theme of family, rather than home, is central to these films. in Sunrise, the couple's marital problems start at home on their farm and they don't renew their love until they're away from home in the city. In Tokyo Story, the ageing parents go from one adult child's home to the next. There is room in the actual homes of these children for their parents to visit but the children don't make room in their hearts for the parents who raised them. And surely in The Godfather, the central message is that of family above all. Michael is instantly accepted when he goes to Italy because he's family."<br /><br />That sounds about right(and your point on Searchers too, though I think Ethan is really conflicted in the search. Initially, it is to save her and later to kill her. But even killing her is like 'bringing her back home'. Since she has been defiled by savages, she can only be purified and redeemed through death), but I was talking home more of as a metaphor than a specific entity. A psychological sense of placement and displacement.<br /><br />Interestingly enough, Jonathan Rosenbaum compiled two books called 'Moving Places' and 'Placing Movies'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1290881705082724702011-10-28T12:34:17.542-07:002011-10-28T12:34:17.542-07:00"So, if a neo-Confederate says he wants to de..."So, if a neo-Confederate says he wants to defend his heritage for so-and-so facts and reasons, the Jewish liberal will say, 'but the real history was actually such-and-such, and therefore, your argument is based on false premise and your sacred memory is all based on lies'. "<br /><br />This is so completely untrue. Liberal Jews aren't at all concerned with factual history. It's all just creation of narratives of victimhood so they can rally more troops for the Marxist cause.<br /><br />You obviously don't know much about history or critical theory.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32106623464562824832011-10-28T09:00:34.660-07:002011-10-28T09:00:34.660-07:00"Btw, the S&S top 10 list also include TO...<i>"Btw, the S&S top 10 list also include TOKYO STORY, GODFATHER, and SUNRISE, all movies where the theme of home is central."</i><br /><br />I'd say the theme of family, rather than home, is central to these films. in <i>Sunrise</i>, the couple's marital problems start at home on their farm and they don't renew their love until they're away from home in the city. In <i>Tokyo Story</i>, the ageing parents go from one adult child's home to the next. There is room in the actual homes of these children for their parents to visit but the children don't make room in their hearts for the parents who raised them. And surely in <i>The Godfather</i>, the central message is that of family above all. Michael is instantly accepted when he goes to Italy because he's family.<br /><br /><i>"I guess all them liberal critics deep down inside have a hankering for home themselves."</i><br /><br />Yeah, they're a bunch of hypocrites. So what else is new? <br /><br /><i>"SEARCHERS is also a big favorite among critics, and it's about two men trying to bring a white girl back home."</i><br /><br /><i>The Searchers</i> is a favorite among discerning critics who can see past the purported "racism" of the film. But it is <i>not</i> about two men trying to bring a white girl back home. Ethan Edwards, who hates Comanche Indians for killing his mother, among other things, wants to find Debbie and kill her because he believes she's been tainted by contact with the Comanche. Marty accompanies him to try to prevent the murder. I think the film is more about identity in the context of family: What do you have to be and do to merit inclusion in a family?Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17942366808897599792011-10-26T15:18:26.177-07:002011-10-26T15:18:26.177-07:00dearieme - "It occurs to me that this is yet ...dearieme - <i>"It occurs to me that this is yet another reason why so many young Britons move to London. There you can repeatedly change jobs without a need to move house - and, since the same incentives apply to all the rest of your age group, there's a good chance that many of your friends from school and university will pitch up too."</i><br /><br />Yes, but what happens <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060505110348/http://pubphilosopher.blogs.com/pub_philosopher/2005/04/why_ben_and_chl.html" rel="nofollow">when Ben and Chloe have children ?</a>Labanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12031578024191117985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38946045808301797922011-10-26T13:01:38.335-07:002011-10-26T13:01:38.335-07:00What happens when outsiders know more about one...What happens when outsiders know more about one's 'home' than one does? <br /><br />This occurred to me when I was speaking to some young German tourists in a cafe. They were talking about American pop culture--TV shows and music and etc--, and I didn't know what the hell they were talking about(though I spent all my life in this country). I don't watch TV and don't listen to most contemp music. They knew more about American 'culture' than I did. I kinda tried to fake my knowledge of recent culture by naming some hiphop stars(whose names I gleaned from news items) and saying I didn't care too much for them, but they caught me real good. I said, 'Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye, Slim Shady.... yeah, they're okay but it's just not my stuff...'<br />The guy said, 'wait, Eminem and Slim Shady, they are the same person'. Oops. I didn't know that. <br />I'm American but I know very little of what happens to be current American culture--not least cuz most of it's shit. <br /><br />Then, there is the case of outsiders knowing INTELLECTUALLY more about one's home, people, etc. Jews read a lot and have good memory. An urban Jew in the North who has no affinity for the American South, Christianity, Confederacy, and etc may actually know more about those things than a white Southerner who wants to preserve them. Oftentimes, liberal intellectual Jews win the argument cuz they know MORE about the history and culture of the people who are trying to defend it. So, if a neo-Confederate says he wants to defend his heritage for so-and-so facts and reasons, the Jewish liberal will say, 'but the real history was actually such-and-such, and therefore, your argument is based on false premise and your sacred memory is all based on lies'. <br />Even if liberal Jews have no affection for the home of goyim, they may know more about it factually and intellectually and thus win the argument as to how things really were and gain the legtimacy of how things really should be remembered and shaped for the sake of deciding the future of the goy people. <br />Jews are smart not only in guarding the narrative of their own history and home but in takign over and dominating the narrative of 'home' of non-Jewish peoples.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-71379700333547508552011-10-26T12:45:19.971-07:002011-10-26T12:45:19.971-07:00The two top movies on the 2002 Sight and Sound pol...The two top movies on the 2002 Sight and Sound poll of best movies are CITIZEN KANE and VERTIGO. One's about homesickness and the other is about lovesickness. But both emotions are similar. Characters in both long for something/someone that's gone for good: Childhood home and some beautiful woman. <br />And yet, both Rosebud and Madeline are bogus myths. Kane's childhood was actually quite cruddy surrounded by poverty and a drunken abusive father. Kane's memory made it into something it was not. And 'Madeline' is doubly fake: the woman fooled Scotty and she is still alive. <br />Both movies wittingly or not comment on the mythology of movies. As something 'more real than real', we've come to prefer myth over reality, almost to the point of seeing myth for reality. <br /><br />There's some of that in Leone's films too. Why would a kid who grew up in Italy--and has never been to America until much later--feel nostalgia for the American West and NY gangsters? His nostalgia should have been for where he grew up. But he was bored by humdrum reality around him and found his 'home' in the movies. With Hollywood movies as his imaginary home, he longed for the cowboys and gangsters and made mythic nostalgic movies about them. <br />Truffaut also hated his home life. He found his truer home in the movies. <br />And at home, Spielberg didn't really feel at home. He found his real home on TV than in the home itself(and the neighborhood full of goy kids). Home was homedrum. Disney movies on TV carried him away to his 'real home'. <br /><br />Movies and TV are thus like time machine portals to another time and place that is both outside time and time-specific. For example, West is both a bygone place and an eternal place(one where we can return anytimes through movies). I think many Americans developed their sense of being-home-at-America through the mythology of movies and popular culture. An immigrant who lived his whole life in NY city watched John Wayne movies and felt a connection to Pioneer America. JAZZ SINGER is about a Jews who comes to feel American by singing Negro songs. <br /><br />Also, any movie--whatever its subject or theme--can have nostalgic value for the fact that one saw it in one's youth. For those who saw ANIMAL HOUSE in 1979, re-watching it is like entering a time machine(though the movie itself has nothing to do with nostalgia). <br />Incidentally, one of the biggest hits in France was AMELIE, a movie about nostalgia; its heroine tries to help people reconnect to their golden past. The French Left attacked it for its nostalgia-mongering--for a time when France was more white. <br /><br />Btw, the S&S top 10 list also include TOKYO STORY, GODFATHER, and SUNRISE, all movies where the theme of home is central. I guess all them liberal critics deep down inside have a hankering for home themselves. SEARCHERS is also a big favorite among critics, and it's about two men trying to bring a white girl back home.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35639962318433804322011-10-26T12:20:23.337-07:002011-10-26T12:20:23.337-07:00"Normally I ignore your psychotic babble. How..."Normally I ignore your psychotic babble. However, it's usually the threatened parent who is losing a child who uses weapons of some sort to halt time (or have an incestuous relationship, if you must use a freudian lens)."<br /><br />No, I'm right and you're wrong, so just shaddap.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-44404931606389108712011-10-26T08:28:19.884-07:002011-10-26T08:28:19.884-07:00, it clearly wasn't an urban neighborhood, app...<i>, it clearly wasn't an urban neighborhood, appearing instead to be a fairly low-density suburb.</i><br />Norman Rockwell loved country settings, as did Disney (The real guy) both were raised primarily in cities but did not like them and had 'ideal summers' on a farm.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84099249769709849912011-10-26T06:56:25.431-07:002011-10-26T06:56:25.431-07:00Country music culture is interesting and contradic...Country music culture is interesting and contradictory when it comes to home. Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn never wanted to go back and settle back down in their cruddy old towns. They wanted to be BIG STARS in the big world. But so many of their songs about home, simple virtues of rustic life, and standing by their man. <br />(Tammy dumped her first hubby for her career.)<br /><br />And do we really want Holly Golightly to go back home with Buddy Epson in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and become Lulu May again? On the other hand, we don't want her to go off to Brazil either.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-62197436220744108222011-10-25T22:18:56.184-07:002011-10-25T22:18:56.184-07:00"...boys and girls traditionally want nothing..."...boys and girls traditionally want nothing to do with each other. "<br /><br />In my experience, the cootie phase is a creepy awareness of sexual differences right before kids hit puberty. Before this period, they interact freely and innocently; after, there's usually a certain amount of flirtation involved.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90748577863297273092011-10-25T22:12:21.090-07:002011-10-25T22:12:21.090-07:00"The birds are essentially Tippi's psychi..."The birds are essentially Tippi's psychic-sexual energy to wipe out all competition for the possession of the man."<br /><br />Normally I ignore your psychotic babble. However, it's usually the threatened parent who is losing a child who uses weapons of some sort to halt time (or have an incestuous relationship, if you must use a freudian lens). Since Tippi is on mom's home turf, more than likely the birds are mom's minions out to protect her from having to face reality: she's getting old, her son's in the prime of his life and about to be husband and father.<br /><br />Similarly, I speculate that we'll be seeing lots of those narcissistic baby boomers having a hard time relinquishing their hold on their children as well as on their children's jobs. It's hard for people to relinquish their power and preeminence. Just try to take your mom or dad's DL away when they're no longer competent to drive and you'll see what I mean.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-44235548439652025932011-10-25T22:09:21.372-07:002011-10-25T22:09:21.372-07:00@ NFL, what a good summary of Citizne Kane.
I don...@ NFL, what a good summary of <i>Citizne Kane</i>.<br /><br />I don't quite agree with your comment on <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i>, though.<br /><br />You say, <i>"MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS is about a boy born into a rich family and deeply possessive of his mother--so possessive that he ruins her chance of happiness. He's so attached to home that he hates outsiders and change itself; he even hates automobiles. He wants everything to remain as it is."</i><br /><br />George Minafer hates change but not because he's so possessive of his mother. It's the family name of Amberson and the prestige it has in their city that he wants to remain exactly the same. When the film opens, the Ambersons are the most important family in their town, with the most wealth and biggest mansion. Even one of the streets was named Amberson Avenue, IIRC. This family pride is what obsesses George. By the end of the film, he's stricken when after losing everything, he sees a book about their city and notices the family name of Amberson is not even included. The Ambersons are not only gone but forgotten. Only he is left--and left with nothing.<br /><br />I think <i>Citizen Kane</i> was primarily about place as home and <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> was primarily about place as status, though there is overlap in both films.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-58710741722287094332011-10-25T21:51:58.615-07:002011-10-25T21:51:58.615-07:00"John Denver may have had a strong sense of h...<i>"John Denver may have had a strong sense of home, but his knowledge of geography left much to be desired."</i><br /><br />John Ford was the same. <i>The Searchers</i> opens with the words "Texas 1868" and shows what is clearly Monument Valley in Utah.<br /><br />Neither one let geography get in the way of telling a good story or conveying a strong sense of home.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4271028680791998542011-10-25T20:45:06.071-07:002011-10-25T20:45:06.071-07:00"Do kids still talk about cooties?"
I r..."Do kids still talk about cooties?"<br /><br />I remember this in the 70s when I was in city elementary school. Black kids tagging whomever didn't have their fingers crossed and saying, 'ooh ooh you got the coooootie!' <br /><br />I think kids are too much into booty to care about cootie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-83420400422785608702011-10-25T20:43:04.145-07:002011-10-25T20:43:04.145-07:00"Androgyny is a mark of childhood"
&quo..."Androgyny is a mark of childhood"<br /><br />"Really? My impression is that childhood is a time when sex differences are very strongly felt."<br /><br />But as a kid, I wondered why Ken doll had no dick.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79544959542782161482011-10-25T19:32:45.625-07:002011-10-25T19:32:45.625-07:00Hitchcock was an interesting director on the theme...Hitchcock was an interesting director on the theme of home. <br /><br />In many of his movies, the two most powerful emotions are that between man and woman AND that between parent and child. <br /><br />Parent-and-child bond is about keeping home intact, but it can also be destructive. The parent can either be overly possessive or the child can be overly dependent. It might even develop into a weird sexual complex. <br /><br />The man-and-woman bond undermines the idea of home. A man or woman must grow away from original home and make a new home with someone else. Person must lose one home to found another home. If all goes well, no problem. But things can get complicated. <br />Sometimes, man-and-woman bond can come between parent-and-child bond. <br /><br />Norman Bates is a super mama's boy; so much so that he became his mother after he killed her. He killed her cuz her affections went to another man. A part of Norman is normal. He lusts after Janet Leigh--as a normal guy should--, but he also sees her as a threat between his bond between him and his ma. <br /><br />In MARNIE, the woman is a cosmopolitan thief who changes her identity and pulls all sorts of tricks, but it turns out she has a strong attachment to mama and home. Winning her mother's approval and affection is the most important thing to her. And she sees Sean Connery as a threatening force that comes between her and her ma. <br /><br />In BIRDS, Tippi Hedrin falls for a guy who still lives at home. She wants to tear the guy from his mother and sister. The mother sees the Tippi as a threat to her family order. The birds are essentially Tippi's psychic-sexual energy to wipe out all competition for the possession of the man. It's sexual energy out of the pandora's box, or out of the bird cage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-41768726266105716002011-10-25T19:24:04.784-07:002011-10-25T19:24:04.784-07:00"Androgyny is a mark of childhood"
Real..."Androgyny is a mark of childhood"<br /><br />Really? My impression is that childhood is a time when sex differences are very strongly felt. Of course it is a time before sexual desire and before fatherhood and motherhood, but that in some ways increases rather than decreases the sense of differentiation - boys and girls traditionally want nothing to do with each other. (Do kids still talk about cooties? That was already a fading tradition in my day (1980s), probably more so now.)James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14998015538665739552011-10-25T19:19:07.136-07:002011-10-25T19:19:07.136-07:00"In connection with trying to make the Americ..."In connection with trying to make the American sheeple more fungible..."<br /><br />I thinketh the globo-elites are trying to mold us. So, doesn't that make us moldy?NLFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45960259293193952412011-10-25T19:16:25.163-07:002011-10-25T19:16:25.163-07:00Maybe the most famous movie about homesickness is ...Maybe the most famous movie about homesickness is none other than CITIZEN KANE. A young boy is sent away from his home to make it in the big world. But he never really forgets his old home and ma. In a way, his ambition to own the world and win the love of the people is to recreate on a large scale the home he lost. Yet the world of Rosebud is gone for good. <br /><br />In CITIZEN KANE, a poor boy inherits a fortune and leaves home to become a rich man. <br />MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS is about a boy born into a rich family and deeply possessive of his mother--so possessive that he ruins her chance of happiness. He's so attached to home that he hates outsiders and change itself; he even hates automobiles. He wants everything to remain as it is. If Charles Kane was about homesickness, the Amberson guy is about homestickness--he's so stuck to home he can't imagine living anywhere else. And it's like he wants his mom to live forever and be with him. <br /><br />It's interesting that both were made by Welles, who was happy traveling around the world. He left home early and never looked back. In fact, his father took him to China and etc. Though happy being a man of the world, maybe he harbored a wish to return 'home'. CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT has Prince Hal drop Falstaff and 'return home' to fulfill his destiny as prince.NLFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-24459552004452348502011-10-25T18:57:36.630-07:002011-10-25T18:57:36.630-07:00In connection with trying to make the American she...In connection with trying to make the American sheeple more fungible, I remembered that I saw a photo of a sign at Occupy Wall Street demonstration: "We are not your human resources."<br /><br />To which, I suppose the corporation replies, "Yes you are, and I find that you are very fungible."Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54274304196257714132011-10-25T17:18:23.198-07:002011-10-25T17:18:23.198-07:00It's the land itself--its contours and trees a...<i>It's the land itself--its contours and trees and wildlife--not any city or building or childhood memory that means so much to me.<br />Country Roads by John Denver</i><br /><br />John Denver may have had a strong sense of home, but his knowledge of geography <a href="http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/almost-heaven/" rel="nofollow">left much to be desired</a>.<br /><br />PeterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-82702831913963770692011-10-25T14:06:50.350-07:002011-10-25T14:06:50.350-07:00"I love my family and the home we live in, th..."I love my family and the home we live in, the life we have made in it."<br /><br />True, but if you HAD to move to another place, what are you gonna do? Just feel homesick forever? No, you gotta start anew and in time, you might come to accept the new place as home. (It's like the Beach Boys song 'Waiting for the Day'. The girl dumped by her boyfriend still longs for him but eventually comes to love someone else.) And for your kids growing up in this new place, it will be their HOME. And by sharing their attachment to that place, you also grow closer to that place. You get see and hear through their eyes and place. What is a new home to you is the first home to them. Same goes for culture. Rap music, for me, is what invaded and destroyed the pop culture I sued to know. But for kids who came of age in the 90s and 2000s, it was their mother's milk. <br /><br />I think this is why children are important to immigrant parents. Immigrants may have come to US for jobs, opportunity, and freedom, but they may not really feel close to American culture, language, and etc. But when they see their children grow up as Americans, they too care share in some of that belongingness that they themselves cannot really feel directly. Their children become an emotional and cultural bridge to America. It's like Vito Corleone still feels primarily as a Sicilian. He had hoped Michael would join the mainstream and serve as the bridge between the family and mainstream America. <br /><br />To be sure, things are somewhat different today. One can become almost fully Americanized even before setting foot in America. If you're an educated urban dweller in Mexico City, Lebanon, or Hong Kong and if you learn English and watch MTV and eat fast food, then coming and living in NY or LA isn't gonna all that much of a culture shock. <br />I noticed this with an Assyrian family that came to US following the Gulf War--they got booted out of Kuwait for siding with Iraqis. The kids spoke almost perfect American English and seemed to fit in all too naturally with American culture. As US becomes most globalist, rest of the world becomes more Americanized.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com