Steve Sailer: iSteve: "Him"

January 25, 2014

"Him"

Like I said, the Best Picture-nominated movie Her is a lot funnier when viewed as a parody of the kind of people who like Her.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...: Steve, slow down.

It's hard to keep up.

You're acting more and more like a woman. Wanting my attention all the time!; 1/25/14, 4:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Okay, now the homosexual version?; 1/25/14, 5:27 PM
Anonymous said...: What if a HIM was based on Sailer?

Imagine some SWPL guy with a Him-Sailer who keeps 'noticing' stuff he doesn't want to 'notice'.

Probably drive him crazy.

What if Sailer gets a Him-Sailer for himself? Would they agree on everything or start disagreeing?; 1/25/14, 5:30 PM
rumpole5 said...: What a stupid movie. Watching that metro-sissy made me want to vomit! No wonder his computer dumped him!; 1/25/14, 5:31 PM
Oswald Spengler said...: Anonymous said...
Okay, now the homosexual version?

1/25/14, 5:27 PM

------------------------------------------------------------------------

After that, the "third sex" version.

"Herm."; 1/25/14, 5:34 PM
rumpole5 said...: What a metro sissy. No wonder his computer gal dumped him. Boring movie. I almost walked out but watched in horrified fascination to the non ending.; 1/25/14, 5:36 PM
Jay said...: NOT ANOTHER SUNDANCE MOVIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spXU_kljHPE; 1/25/14, 7:28 PM
Rifleman said...: How does this version compare?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVV_yaLx6W8&hd=1; 1/25/14, 8:02 PM
Anonymous said...: OT, but the GOP is readying to hand victory to the democrats by amnestying the illegals. This just never ends.

Steve is there any way you can do some more posts on this issue? You could probably recycle ones you've already done concerning the GOP's electoral chances and the thirdworldization of the nation. We know more and more famous people are reading your material. Maybe some rehashing in this area might help.

For the rest of you, I suggest going to NumbersUSA and coughing up $10 to $20 to help the cause. They are probably the only organized effort on our side to stand up for sanity on this issue.; 1/25/14, 8:23 PM
Anonymous said...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7T-Gr60Fo8; 1/25/14, 9:18 PM
Anonymous said...: http://youtu.be/LKP-PUAI96U?t=40m37s; 1/25/14, 9:28 PM
Anonymous said...: So, if OSes had sex, which one would you want? Definitely a male for me - to hell with all the pretty accessorizing which seems to be the main point of OS evolution in the past 10 years. Which brings me to another point - an ideal AI OS would be an equivalent to a really good assistant/secretary, right? Would I want this to be a man as well? (I don't have one.) Sure, most men suck at organizing and multitasking, but some certainly don't. So why male assistant/secretary jobs are such rarity? Eye candy factor?; 1/25/14, 9:54 PM
zog said...: each year, about 11% of Harvard male freshmen surveyed report being gay, bisexual, or unsure of their sexual orientation, about three times the general population.

this is explained by very high IQ boys either bring heavily queer, affirmative action for gays, or a combination of both. having been there, I say both.; 1/26/14, 2:14 AM
Anonymous said...: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/how-i-rediscovered-faith; 1/26/14, 5:42 AM
Sobieski said...: The Japanese already have sex robots with AI. No wonder so many of the young men there have turned into trolls in their parents' home.; 1/26/14, 6:05 AM
Handle said...: Definite a big-practical-joke-on-the-audience movie. Saw it in the theater with an all-SWPL crowd, and it was the handful of people just like us who laughed at certain moments, which puzzled the rest of the audience who thought it was excellent and didn't see anything funny. I mean, 'falling in love with your iPhone' SWPL apple-groupies especially didn't get the joke.

You have to live in the midst of SWPL culture, indulge in the same consumer preferences and elevated tastes, and yet be slightly transcendent and apart and counter to a lot of its silliness.

The ultimate genius of the film is that it can be a joke, and yet simultaneously be deeply enjoyed by the people upon whom it is the joke, by not realizing its making fun of them.

There's a kind of humor inverse to the 'uncanny valley'. When the people in the movie resemble you and your fiends too closely, and are, seemingly genuinely, treated in a friendly way as sympathetic characters (the irony being just slightly too subtle to notice), you can't help but like the characters and relate to their anxieties and soap opera dramas. You are utterly disarmed, and instead of being insulted by the joke, you're sucked in.; 1/26/14, 6:20 AM
Handle said...: Example from Parks and Recreation. Just like SNL, it's fun to make fun of NPR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU4t7COg6W4

But the point is, you know it's a comedy, and the caricatures are so exaggerated. You can laugh even if you love NPR, but mostly because the people involved are so dorky and nerdy.

But you could make fun of NPR people in exactly the same way by playing scenes like this completely deadpan with brave, popular, attractive characters. They would just cut out the punchline buildup and remove 'wow, they're awful' and 'oh yes, but, they are lesbians'.

And all of a sudden, the true-believer NPR-listeners would say, "What a terrific, moving movie about the power of public radio to enlighten our suffocating provincialism."

Meanwhile, perhaps 1% of the theater-goers, who listen to NPR, but critically, would hear about the Norwegian African lesbian folk duo, hear the awful cacophony, and chortle to the puzzlement of the rest of the enraptured audience.; 1/26/14, 6:27 AM
Anonymous said...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILnE7dEhCcc

Foul but funny.; 1/26/14, 8:56 AM
Henry Canaday said...: From the file of “More Questions You Will Never See On a SAT Test:”

The United States is the first country in human history that has a home-ownership rate higher than its legitimate-birth rate. This is because:

A. Houses are easier to marry than people of the opposite sex.

B. Houses do not ask for divorces as often as people of the opposite sex.

C. Houses do not have good divorce lawyers.

D. House mortgages are much bigger than alimony or child-support payments.

E. Something Else; 1/26/14, 9:56 AM
Pat Boyle said...: This raises the obvious question - which sex is more likely to form a romantic attachment to a computer? In spite of the argument of this little parody clip I think the answer has to be boys.

There is a scene in 'Time Cop' where the boss yells at a nerdy secondary character - 'Stop fucking that computer'. The nerd was lost in a photo realistic dream of having intercourse with some beautiful naked woman.

This sort of thing is probably pretty close right now. I used to fit my girl friend of the time with a device that stimulated her clitoris. It was radio controlled. I carried the sender box with me. It was fun.

More advanced adventurers bought devices that worked over the Internet. You talked to the girl on the regular phone or on Skype and you sent a stimulus when you wished. It was an advanced form of phone sex.

Now just replace the real woman with a CGI woman and a PS3 or other game system and you have all the elements for man-machine love.

Such technology seems inevitable for men locked away from women - like in prison or the merchant marine. If I were king I'd take out all the weight equipment in prisons and issue game machines with love/sex characters and action.

There is at least some evidence that women need direct physical connection with a man so as to maintain proper health. Women seem to be more responsive to pheromones than are men. If that's so an electronic sex box toy would work better on men.

Albertosaurus; 1/26/14, 12:14 PM
Anonymous said...: I so wish the Russians or Chinese would research the bug that causes homosexuality / paraphilias. I'm sure it's all related and would cure most of this insanity - including the transgender thing.; 1/26/14, 1:05 PM
Anonymous said...: I feel like I don't have to see the movie now, not that I wanted to see it in the first place. Pretty funny stuff, not so much from the swpl angle, as from the "falling in love with a computer - how stupid!" angle, though I did once fall in love with a chair while on mushrooms.; 1/26/14, 1:09 PM
Aaron said...: Off topic and not that we want to do any favors for the stupid party, but I thought this was an interesting story:

Iowa GOP Fires Contractor Responsible For Facebook Post

Just when you think that the GOP couldn't possibly be any more craven they dig deep and find some way to outdo themselves. The real irony here is that Hart's firing and the reaction to the flowchart demonstrate the flowchart in action.; 1/26/14, 1:32 PM
David said...: My computer and I are just friends. She and I had a talk and we mutually agreed to respect each other.; 1/26/14, 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...: mushroom induced paraphilia is okay as it's temporary - as long as you don't get the chop while high - that would majorly suck; 1/26/14, 1:34 PM
sunbeam said...: Albertosaurus wrote:

"I used to fit my girl friend of the time with a device that stimulated her clitoris. It was radio controlled. I carried the sender box with me. It was fun."

Whatever. I couldn't be bothered. I'd probably write a bot to do it for me. Hmmmm maybe a geiger counter ;-)

Do a little pen and paper work, maybe send a signal when I read two consecutive decays that are <30% likely or something to have occurred so closely in time. Note: have to do a little work on the premise, wouldn't want the poor device to go off too much.

Probably have to do a little more work on researching the expectations of someone expecting this sort of thing; after all I wouldn't want to be caught farming out my drudge work.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'd find the whole thing boring, which is why I guess most of you guys get all bent out of shape about the moribund birth rate of white people.

I couldn't be bothered to do something I consider so silly to begin with.; 1/26/14, 1:40 PM
Anonymous said...: You all sound like an alienated clique desperate to come up with some sort of in-joke counter-narrative against pop culture.

This "joke" only seems to be obvious to you people and no one else. Help? Because Sailer's take on it is convoluted and unconvincing.

All we have here is empty cackling...

Even Sailer taking a simple (and typical) youtube parody of a current film as some sort of confirmation of his thesis is wacky.; 1/26/14, 1:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Women who fell in love with inanimate objects:

http://jezebel.com/5146666/objectum-sexuality-when-relationships-with-inanimate-objects-become-intimate; 1/26/14, 1:51 PM
Anonymous said...: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paraphilias

List of paraphilias including

Autogynephilia A biological man imagining himself as a female

Mechanically speaking how could a single bug cause all the things on that list?

It would either have to randomly scramble sensory wiring or damage sensory wiring and the body make random mistakes repairing the damage.

It would probably happen in the womb of an infected mother.

It would probably have a somewhat different or at least diluted effect on adults.

It's gotta be a bug.; 1/26/14, 1:59 PM
Cail Corishev said...: My computer and I are just friends. She and I had a talk and we mutually agreed to respect each other.

Let me guess: she said she's just not ready for a relationship at this point in her life, right? Don't be surprised if you check your system logs and find out she's been letting the ex-con who lives down the street jack-in while you're away.; 1/26/14, 2:16 PM
Anonymous said...: SNL spoofed this last night with Jonah Hill.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1abp8f_jonah-hill-him-spoof-of-the-movie-her-snl-1-25-14_fun; 1/26/14, 3:57 PM
Anonymous said...: This sort of thing is probably pretty close right now. I used to fit my girl friend of the time with a device that stimulated her clitoris. It was radio controlled. I carried the sender box with me. It was fun.

More advanced adventurers bought devices that worked over the Internet. You talked to the girl on the regular phone or on Skype and you sent a stimulus when you wished. It was an advanced form of phone sex.

I don't get it. How is this fun for the man? (A category I'm not sure you fit in); 1/26/14, 4:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Autogynephilia A biological man imagining himself as a female

Mechanically speaking how could a single bug cause all the things on that list?

I'm pretty sure that the primary cause of "Autogynephilia" among men is watching too much porn.; 1/26/14, 4:25 PM
Anonymous said...: "I'm pretty sure that the primary cause of "Autogynephilia" among men is watching too much porn."

Yes, I wondered about that but it would depend how old they were when it started.; 1/26/14, 4:41 PM
Anonymous said...: If I could build a time travel machine I would use it to remind Moses to add an 11th commandment: thou shall not fuck a PDA.; 1/26/14, 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Great song from the original cast album of Oliver in which Nancy wonders why she loves a physically and emotionally abusive bastard. I wonder if a PDA boyfriend can be accessorized for physical abuse.; 1/26/14, 5:01 PM
Hedda H. said...: The politicking against "Her" seems to be ramping up. It happens every year with the Best Pic category, but it's easy to see that "12 Years A Slave" and "Gravity" are the immediate beneficiaries from successfully sinking it. The "it's all a mean retort to Lost In Translation" meme has gathered speed and plus, movie journalists are more enthusiastic about bashing the peaked-too-early "topical movie" than explaining why Slave or Hustle are timeless works of art (I still have the chips on Hustle for the upset divide-and-conquer win, because it helps for your nominee to be entertaining).; 1/27/14, 12:29 AM
Steve Sailer said...: "The "it's all a mean retort to Lost In Translation" meme has gathered speed"

Who else has said that? I was thinking of entitling my review "Turning Japanese," but I didn't feel like developing that theme much.

Anyway, "Lost in Translation" was a pretty mean movie, too, especially if you were Japanese (short jokes) or Cameron Diaz ("I'm not anorexic, but my father was. Castro tortured him with food.") But it was funny.

"Her" may be the rare movie where people who weren't all that enthusiastic about it thought it was funnier than the people who loved it.

Anyway, my image of the average Academy voter is somebody not young and quite sociable (a major way to get ahead in Hollywood is by being likable, not by hiding with your computer). That sounds not like the "Her" fans. Instead, it sounds like "American Hustle," but they just gave the Best Picture Oscar to another 1979-set movie last year in Argo. AH is likely better than Argo, but they're awfully similar in their demographic appeal, so maybe they'll vote for Gravity as at least being different.; 1/27/14, 12:44 AM
HADOUKEN said...: Somebody linked to a (non-movie reviewer) article from theweek.com in the comments recently; all I read was the byline and seeing that the guy's name was Ryu... cool; 1/27/14, 1:40 AM
The La Cañada Kid said...: Was trying to explain to myself why the demise of "Her" wouldn't necessarily help "Nebraska," its nearest-equivalent nominee, but my gut reaction is a second-tier piece without the Spike Jonze novelty -- artful and charming enough to make an impression, but "Sideways" already won and people in Paramount's orbit won't be seen taking a side (even though "Wolf" was whacked before its own premiere happened, due to supposed inchoate 99% feelings out there). I was pleased to find this year's only obviously DOA entry, "Philomena" (deployed semi-derisively in an unfunny SNL sketch w/ Jonah Hill last night) is the Weinstein project, for once.

BP- Hustle
BA- Ejiofor; Blanchett
BD- Cuaron
Adapted- Slave
Original- actually wide open; I'll go with Bob Nelson for the hell of it
Editing- Hustle
Cin- duhhhh...

(the upcoming PBS/Disney special writes itself; as well as the knee-jerk piece in Esquire or Harper's rebuking digital cameras); 1/27/14, 2:12 AM
Steve Sailer said...: Lubezki from Mexico City has been nominated six times for cinematography -- including for "Children of Men" and "Tree of Life," both of which were spectacular -- but hasn't won yet. If "Gravity" doesn't do it for him, I don't know what will.; 1/27/14, 2:48 AM
Steve Sailer said...: "Nebraska" -- It hasn't caught on at the box office. It did kind of sort of okay this weekend in wider release. I liked it a lot, but it's not setting the world afire, that's for sure. And it's not like Alexander Payne has been overlooked by the Oscars over the years. But it would be nice if Bob Nelson won for Nebraska's screenplay in a triumph for middle-aged nobodies.

The box office verdict is Gravity by a mile, then American Hustle, then Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips. 12 Years has done pretty well for its kind of movie. WoWS has actually made a lot of money for a long movie whose second evening screening is usually around 10:30 pm and runs until almost 2am.; 1/27/14, 2:58 AM

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January 25, 2014

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Steve Sailer: iSteve

January 25, 2014

"Him"

42 comments:

Panhandling

Subscribe To iSteve

Links

Search This Blog

Recent Comments

Classic Steve Sailer articles

Subscribe To

Rough Cut

Subscribe To iSteve

"What Is Winter Good For?"

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My Book:

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