They Live: A populist documentary on shadowy cabals turns 30
October 18, 2018 5:28 PM Subscribe
"Drones in the sky, conspiracies in our heads, militarized police in the streets, economic inequality in every corner of society, media that seeks to control our minds: The terror of They Live is more tangible and primal in 2018 than a slasher movie could ever be." Steven Hyden, The Ringer: John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ Was Supposed to Be a Warning. We Didn’t Heed It. We Didn’t Even Understand It.
The present's so bright...I gotta wear shades (SLYT; suglasses clip).
The making of They Live (SLYT).
They Live celebrates its 30th anniversary next month.
Previously and previously.
The present's so bright...I gotta wear shades (SLYT; suglasses clip).
The making of They Live (SLYT).
They Live celebrates its 30th anniversary next month.
Previously and previously.
Rewatched it a year and a half ago and it hit much harder than the first time. Really bummed me out, tbh.
posted by JauntyFedora at 5:41 PM on October 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by JauntyFedora at 5:41 PM on October 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ Was Supposed to Be a Warning. We Didn’t Heed It. We Didn’t Even Understand It.That really depends, I think, on who you mean by "we."
Some people apparently chose to use it as a f*cking instruction manual.
posted by Nerd of the North at 5:54 PM on October 18, 2018 [29 favorites]
I came here to smash fascists and awaken chaos gods...
posted by homunculus at 5:57 PM on October 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by homunculus at 5:57 PM on October 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
I guess I didn't understand Idiocracy either?
posted by humboldt32 at 6:08 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 6:08 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
Where have you gone, Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 6:12 PM on October 18, 2018 [15 favorites]
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 6:12 PM on October 18, 2018 [15 favorites]
There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT, Union Carbide and Exxon Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Academi.
posted by pompomtom at 6:44 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by pompomtom at 6:44 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
I remember first watching that movie on a fake sick day in the early 90s. It was the movie of the day. (I want to say Channel 20 WTXX, but who knows.)
It blew my mind. I think it was one of the first movies I saw without a classic happy ending. Definitely influenced me in my teenage years.
I enjoyed the article's point about the malleability of conspiratorial thought. Just as everyone wants to wield 1984 for their own purposes, They Live has been co-opted by low life conspiracists of the worst kind. Sad that before his death, Piper went on Alex Jones' show.
I want to push back on the message of the movie though. I remember listening to David Brin give a talk, probably around 2002. He stated that the overwhelming message of mass media is to be your own person, be a rebel, don't conform etc etc.
Think of The Matrix, Pleasantville, loads of teen movies. The classic narrative is usually of the outcast finding their own way against the system. It's rare that a message is about overtly confirming.
Of course the implication is that your express yourself by buying things. I think of the Cadillac Commercial that used Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, but there's nothing special about it.
This point has been made before in books like Nation of Rebels/The Rebel Sell and some of the essays in Commodify Your Dissent, and The Conquest of Cool.
If a global cabal of alien lizard skeletons wanted to control us, they wouldn't overtly tell us to conform, they'd harness our own desires. They'd convince us that arguing on twitter and putting tragedy filters over our facebook profiles actually accomplished something. They'd convince us that we can make a difference by smoking pot and watching vaguely subversive movies.
That's the beauty of ubiquitous capitalism, if you want to rebel, we'll find a way to profit off of it and fit your desires back into the system.
posted by Telf at 7:30 PM on October 18, 2018 [25 favorites]
It blew my mind. I think it was one of the first movies I saw without a classic happy ending. Definitely influenced me in my teenage years.
I enjoyed the article's point about the malleability of conspiratorial thought. Just as everyone wants to wield 1984 for their own purposes, They Live has been co-opted by low life conspiracists of the worst kind. Sad that before his death, Piper went on Alex Jones' show.
I want to push back on the message of the movie though. I remember listening to David Brin give a talk, probably around 2002. He stated that the overwhelming message of mass media is to be your own person, be a rebel, don't conform etc etc.
Think of The Matrix, Pleasantville, loads of teen movies. The classic narrative is usually of the outcast finding their own way against the system. It's rare that a message is about overtly confirming.
Of course the implication is that your express yourself by buying things. I think of the Cadillac Commercial that used Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, but there's nothing special about it.
This point has been made before in books like Nation of Rebels/The Rebel Sell and some of the essays in Commodify Your Dissent, and The Conquest of Cool.
If a global cabal of alien lizard skeletons wanted to control us, they wouldn't overtly tell us to conform, they'd harness our own desires. They'd convince us that arguing on twitter and putting tragedy filters over our facebook profiles actually accomplished something. They'd convince us that we can make a difference by smoking pot and watching vaguely subversive movies.
That's the beauty of ubiquitous capitalism, if you want to rebel, we'll find a way to profit off of it and fit your desires back into the system.
posted by Telf at 7:30 PM on October 18, 2018 [25 favorites]
Obligatory?
There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:33 PM on October 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:33 PM on October 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
In case anyone wants to hear it in all its florid, jowly glory.
My favorite bit is:
...one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
posted by Telf at 7:47 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
My favorite bit is:
...one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
posted by Telf at 7:47 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
I saw it in the theaters when it came out. It's managed the trick of seeming somewhat retro when it came out and ahead of its time, three decades later.
posted by mark k at 8:59 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by mark k at 8:59 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
I guess I didn't understand Idiocracy either?
A good friend of mine says it's a documentary.
In case anyone wants to hear it in all its florid, jowly glory.
My favorite bit is:
...one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
My favorite movie of all time.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:11 PM on October 18, 2018
A good friend of mine says it's a documentary.
In case anyone wants to hear it in all its florid, jowly glory.
My favorite bit is:
...one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
My favorite movie of all time.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:11 PM on October 18, 2018
There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT, Union Carbide and Exxon Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Academi.
pompomtom... since there are a couple of missing corporations missing there can I guess that you are quoting Snog: Corporate slave? An amazing song... sometimes it depresses me that the anti corporate music from the 90s is even more appropriate today than it was then. I was at a PWEI show last year and wondering how many of the old punks that listened to these guys in the 90s are now day traders or something...
posted by cirhosis at 9:20 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
pompomtom... since there are a couple of missing corporations missing there can I guess that you are quoting Snog: Corporate slave? An amazing song... sometimes it depresses me that the anti corporate music from the 90s is even more appropriate today than it was then. I was at a PWEI show last year and wondering how many of the old punks that listened to these guys in the 90s are now day traders or something...
posted by cirhosis at 9:20 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
I guess I didn't understand Idiocracy either?
A good friend of mine says it's a documentary.
You should look at the Flynn effect and how measured IQ scores seem to be going up & up. It’s such an easy movie to get sucked in by because it appeals to lots of little biases, some of which have good foundations in the present. (e.g. infrastructure is decaying, we all eat a lot of bad mass produced food, there are many corporations selling us things, etc.) But it seems to be wrong -or at least incredibly over-simplifying- in its central thesis. The future may be dumb, but it won’t be stupid.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:01 PM on October 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
A good friend of mine says it's a documentary.
You should look at the Flynn effect and how measured IQ scores seem to be going up & up. It’s such an easy movie to get sucked in by because it appeals to lots of little biases, some of which have good foundations in the present. (e.g. infrastructure is decaying, we all eat a lot of bad mass produced food, there are many corporations selling us things, etc.) But it seems to be wrong -or at least incredibly over-simplifying- in its central thesis. The future may be dumb, but it won’t be stupid.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:01 PM on October 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
The crypto-eugenicist premise of Idiocracy is a bit gross but it's still a good movie. I think it would work better as a short story, like a Black Mirror or a Twilight Zone.
It's more an indictment of modern media and consumer society than it is about IQ. Just take Neil Postman's observations and run with them. It might be time for a remake, with social media included.
I sort of suspect the Flynn effect is as much about sanding down regional/societal differences in lay epistemology as it is about people getting "smarter". We just value a more narrow definition of intelligence than would have been useful in the 1920s etc.
I mean, unless we're talking about better nutrition through iodine or whatever, there's not a biological mechanism that I can think of. We're not selectively mating for intelligence. It must be a wrinkle of our society.
Also, for anyone who hasn't read it, the 1950s inspiration for Idiocracy is available for free in project Gutenberg.
posted by Telf at 10:27 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
It's more an indictment of modern media and consumer society than it is about IQ. Just take Neil Postman's observations and run with them. It might be time for a remake, with social media included.
I sort of suspect the Flynn effect is as much about sanding down regional/societal differences in lay epistemology as it is about people getting "smarter". We just value a more narrow definition of intelligence than would have been useful in the 1920s etc.
I mean, unless we're talking about better nutrition through iodine or whatever, there's not a biological mechanism that I can think of. We're not selectively mating for intelligence. It must be a wrinkle of our society.
Also, for anyone who hasn't read it, the 1950s inspiration for Idiocracy is available for free in project Gutenberg.
posted by Telf at 10:27 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
That was a good little essay. I guess the idea is They Live can mean a lot of things depending on your ideology, and in our golden age of The Paranoid Style, it is now more often a metaphor for people's anti semitic conspiracy theories instead of Reagan and the Corporate Mainstream Media, and also, the movie is legit dumb, but having said that Zizek had a good point about the sunglasses because we naturally see the world through our own ideological interpretation, and it takes an external intervention (the sunglasses) to have skepticism about ideology.
posted by latkes at 10:42 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by latkes at 10:42 PM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
I did not like Idiocracy because it was so misanthropic. I just thought the filmmakers did not like people at all.
posted by latkes at 10:44 PM on October 18, 2018
posted by latkes at 10:44 PM on October 18, 2018
Where have you gone, Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Ric Flair woo.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:31 AM on October 19, 2018 [5 favorites]
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Ric Flair woo.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:31 AM on October 19, 2018 [5 favorites]
Per his discussion with Joe Bob Briggs, Piper didn't really agree with Carpenter and was a fan of Reagan.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:37 AM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:37 AM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
That's a strange article. Not so much for being "wrong" per se, it touches on a lot of important points and sort of grabs at a reasonable enough conclusion. But, while easy enough to read in a enjoyable enough manner, it doesn't really build an argument as much as present several conflicting concepts and then hedges reconciling them into coherency. The author seems to want to stand up for They Live! as Carpenter intended it while explaining why others see it differently and accepting there is still some unresolved issue about that conflict of views.
I don't think the article quite succeeds for that reason, but some of the individual points made are still of interest. The very idea of making Hollywood movie to decry consumerism is itself fraught. The article noting the other "franchise" Carpenter initiated, the Halloween series, and speaking of the box office numbers for They Live! in describing it as a flop points a bit to that, but even more obviously Hollywood is simply too central to the kind of dissemination of ideology Carpenter wants to criticize for there to be anything but a inherent conflict at the core of the movie. Despite Carpenter's claim “I just love that it was giving the finger to Reagan when nobody else would.”, there were plenty of movies criticizing capitalism, corporations, the rich, and all the associated elements of society aligned with Reaganism. That had been a part of movies for decades and hadn't changed that much before They Live! That movies also support those same interests sometimes directly, but also just by giving "real" people an acceptable outside enemy to root against was also not new, which further highlights the problem.
"Conspiracy" movies weren't new and there had been plenty of writing noting the problems with conspiracy theories and the society that had come to so rely on them. Hollywood storytelling relies heavily on the celebration of rugged individualism or more simply stories about being or finding "the one" whether to defeat great evil or as a soul-mate. This concept is almost antithetical to producing social change as it posits the individual against society, not as a part of it. The problem is "out there" just waiting for the right person to be enlightened enough to see and solve. The article concludes on something like that idea, but without looking closely at the larger systemic issue that supports it. Hyden, after quoting Zizek, still leaves it as a personal issue, an individual problem of perspective around seeing self, not the need to see others or how any of the individual ideologies are formed. There are, in that sense, no ideological glasses that will show any one the "true nature" of society as it is a collective acceptance of living. Positing oneself as being able to see from a remove is to duplicate the problem. People accept conspiracy theories because society is too complex and interconnected to be parsed without simplification. To claim distance without also claiming complicity doesn't work and that complicity itself is the great difficulty of disentanglement. The problem then is neither "out there" nor "in here", but as an interrelationship.
The paranoia of The Thing isn't much better at getting to that than They Live! since both rely on the traditional techniques to tell their stories. The manner in which we identify or understand characters onscreen doesn't readily allow for escape from that in conventional technique. That's in part why feminist film writers so often agitated for the development of new methods of filmmaking, because the conventional ones were inherently corrupted with bias. Ironically perhaps in Carpenter's previous movie, Prince of Darkness, he gives a little shout out to Godard by naming the church after him. Godard, while no feminist, does at least recognize the problem in convention, which is why he goes to great lengths to challenge perspective by doing things like separating the image from the soundtrack, where one doesn't seem to readily correspond to the other directly so much as comment on it obliquely. The challenge isn't to get people to accept some new ideology as much as simply getting them to accept they're part of a larger collection of peoples all struggling towards the same ends.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:41 AM on October 19, 2018 [9 favorites]
I don't think the article quite succeeds for that reason, but some of the individual points made are still of interest. The very idea of making Hollywood movie to decry consumerism is itself fraught. The article noting the other "franchise" Carpenter initiated, the Halloween series, and speaking of the box office numbers for They Live! in describing it as a flop points a bit to that, but even more obviously Hollywood is simply too central to the kind of dissemination of ideology Carpenter wants to criticize for there to be anything but a inherent conflict at the core of the movie. Despite Carpenter's claim “I just love that it was giving the finger to Reagan when nobody else would.”, there were plenty of movies criticizing capitalism, corporations, the rich, and all the associated elements of society aligned with Reaganism. That had been a part of movies for decades and hadn't changed that much before They Live! That movies also support those same interests sometimes directly, but also just by giving "real" people an acceptable outside enemy to root against was also not new, which further highlights the problem.
"Conspiracy" movies weren't new and there had been plenty of writing noting the problems with conspiracy theories and the society that had come to so rely on them. Hollywood storytelling relies heavily on the celebration of rugged individualism or more simply stories about being or finding "the one" whether to defeat great evil or as a soul-mate. This concept is almost antithetical to producing social change as it posits the individual against society, not as a part of it. The problem is "out there" just waiting for the right person to be enlightened enough to see and solve. The article concludes on something like that idea, but without looking closely at the larger systemic issue that supports it. Hyden, after quoting Zizek, still leaves it as a personal issue, an individual problem of perspective around seeing self, not the need to see others or how any of the individual ideologies are formed. There are, in that sense, no ideological glasses that will show any one the "true nature" of society as it is a collective acceptance of living. Positing oneself as being able to see from a remove is to duplicate the problem. People accept conspiracy theories because society is too complex and interconnected to be parsed without simplification. To claim distance without also claiming complicity doesn't work and that complicity itself is the great difficulty of disentanglement. The problem then is neither "out there" nor "in here", but as an interrelationship.
The paranoia of The Thing isn't much better at getting to that than They Live! since both rely on the traditional techniques to tell their stories. The manner in which we identify or understand characters onscreen doesn't readily allow for escape from that in conventional technique. That's in part why feminist film writers so often agitated for the development of new methods of filmmaking, because the conventional ones were inherently corrupted with bias. Ironically perhaps in Carpenter's previous movie, Prince of Darkness, he gives a little shout out to Godard by naming the church after him. Godard, while no feminist, does at least recognize the problem in convention, which is why he goes to great lengths to challenge perspective by doing things like separating the image from the soundtrack, where one doesn't seem to readily correspond to the other directly so much as comment on it obliquely. The challenge isn't to get people to accept some new ideology as much as simply getting them to accept they're part of a larger collection of peoples all struggling towards the same ends.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:41 AM on October 19, 2018 [9 favorites]
Sure enough, the Youtube comments have more than one antisemitic triple-parentheses.
Seems like no matter what you're criticizing, somebody will find a way to make it antisemitic.
posted by clawsoon at 5:48 AM on October 19, 2018
Seems like no matter what you're criticizing, somebody will find a way to make it antisemitic.
posted by clawsoon at 5:48 AM on October 19, 2018
cirhosis, you'd be bang-on in your guess.
So, funny* thing, I was a huge Snog fan back in the day. I couldn't count the number of times I've seen them. I've not just got all the albums (mostly bought at launch gigs), but even all the singles (the b-sides to Shop are awesome). In this new, worst-timeline century it turns out Thrusta is an anti-vax anti-semitic Alex-Jones-fan fuckwit.
GenX OWNS irony. That's not a good thing.
*What are you expecting for a footnote?
posted by pompomtom at 6:28 AM on October 19, 2018
So, funny* thing, I was a huge Snog fan back in the day. I couldn't count the number of times I've seen them. I've not just got all the albums (mostly bought at launch gigs), but even all the singles (the b-sides to Shop are awesome). In this new, worst-timeline century it turns out Thrusta is an anti-vax anti-semitic Alex-Jones-fan fuckwit.
GenX OWNS irony. That's not a good thing.
*What are you expecting for a footnote?
posted by pompomtom at 6:28 AM on October 19, 2018
In this new, worst-timeline century it turns out Thrusta is an anti-vax anti-semitic Alex-Jones-fan fuckwit.
Yeah I just listened to some interviews with Thrussell and wow... yeah he's one of those fringe "left" types who just hates the status quo so much that he's willing to believe in anyone who says they want to break it. So he gives way too much credence to horrible people like Trump, Assange, Yiannopoulos and Jones. Everything is the fault of the Deep State or SJWs. That is so depressing when people get so broken.
posted by cirhosis at 8:08 AM on October 19, 2018
Yeah I just listened to some interviews with Thrussell and wow... yeah he's one of those fringe "left" types who just hates the status quo so much that he's willing to believe in anyone who says they want to break it. So he gives way too much credence to horrible people like Trump, Assange, Yiannopoulos and Jones. Everything is the fault of the Deep State or SJWs. That is so depressing when people get so broken.
posted by cirhosis at 8:08 AM on October 19, 2018
The good news: Nada shut down the transmitter so everyone can see that the people in power care nothing about humanity and the no-longer coded messages they used to control the populace.
The bad news: Most people don't really have a problem with it and just keep doing whatever they were doing.
posted by ckape at 8:59 AM on October 19, 2018 [7 favorites]
The bad news: Most people don't really have a problem with it and just keep doing whatever they were doing.
posted by ckape at 8:59 AM on October 19, 2018 [7 favorites]
Agreeing with gusottertrout about the article's shambling around. Citing Zizek as a favorite pushed it over the edge for me.
I saw the movie opening night and have loved it from then on. It's a great film about oligarchy, among other things.
When did we stop saying "yuppie"?
posted by doctornemo at 9:23 AM on October 19, 2018
I saw the movie opening night and have loved it from then on. It's a great film about oligarchy, among other things.
When did we stop saying "yuppie"?
posted by doctornemo at 9:23 AM on October 19, 2018
I feel like Sorry to Bother You did a good job of filling the gap that They Live left, and does a good job of conveying the horror loop of "we're trapped in the system, and even fighting the system is part of the system".
posted by windbox at 10:15 AM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by windbox at 10:15 AM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]
When did we stop saying "yuppie"?
Probably when they stopped being young.
posted by asperity at 10:21 AM on October 19, 2018 [6 favorites]
Probably when they stopped being young.
posted by asperity at 10:21 AM on October 19, 2018 [6 favorites]
A friend once asked, "I'm in my 20s, I live in a city, and I have a job, why is that a bad thing?"
posted by kokaku at 11:26 AM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by kokaku at 11:26 AM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
I still say "yuppie scum" but it's more a classifying title than an acronym at this point.
the movie is legit dumb
fight me for five minutes in an alley
posted by phearlez at 1:35 PM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]
the movie is legit dumb
fight me for five minutes in an alley
posted by phearlez at 1:35 PM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]
In this new, worst-timeline century it turns out Thrusta is an anti-vax anti-semitic Alex-Jones-fan fuckwit
..I'm glad to see that word "fuckwit" because that's what I plan to repeatedly call all the Ontarians who helped put Doug Ford in office.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:25 PM on October 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
..I'm glad to see that word "fuckwit" because that's what I plan to repeatedly call all the Ontarians who helped put Doug Ford in office.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:25 PM on October 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
That's the beauty of ubiquitous capitalism, if you want to rebel, we'll find a way to profit off of it and fit your desires back into the system.
Right! Now let’s turn that Adorno into Adoryes.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:51 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]
Right! Now let’s turn that Adorno into Adoryes.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:51 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]
Right! Now let’s turn that Adorno into Adoryes.
Don't forget to make a children's line of
Teddy Adorbo dolls.
posted by Telf at 5:04 PM on October 19, 2018
Don't forget to make a children's line of
Teddy Adorbo dolls.
posted by Telf at 5:04 PM on October 19, 2018
I had never seen “They Live!”, somehow, so I just ponied ou my $2.99 to YouTube to stream it. I thought it was fascinating. Uneven, sure, but I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
posted by wintermind at 6:02 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by wintermind at 6:02 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thrussell went fully Kanye? Aw crap.Used to love SNOG, went to their gigs etc.
posted by ephemerae at 2:14 AM on October 20, 2018
posted by ephemerae at 2:14 AM on October 20, 2018
A friend once asked, "I'm in my 20s, I live in a city, and I have a job, why is that a bad thing?"
Perhaps you should explain to your friend the difference between connotative and denotative meanings.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:09 PM on October 20, 2018
Perhaps you should explain to your friend the difference between connotative and denotative meanings.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:09 PM on October 20, 2018
I asked my wife to sit down and watch this with me Saturday and since it's October I had more success in getting her interested in a horror movie, though I think she was surprised by its overall content since she's absorbed the modern expectation of horror movies as needing to involve more jump scares and gore.
The extended silly alley fight motivated her to look up the rotten tomatoes score, which in that moment she was surprised to discover was a high 84%. When it was all over I asked if she was in the 84 or the 16 and she was torn, partly because of the somewhat bleak and open-ended conclusion. So what now, she asked? I said when I saw it I would have pretty confidently said that with these creatures revealed the people would rise up and drive them out. Now I'm not so sure.
As far as the fight goes, I said to her that to the best of my knowledge it was a bit of a joke predicated on the fact that Piper was a well known pro wrestler, but I really have nothing to back that up with.
posted by phearlez at 9:32 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
The extended silly alley fight motivated her to look up the rotten tomatoes score, which in that moment she was surprised to discover was a high 84%. When it was all over I asked if she was in the 84 or the 16 and she was torn, partly because of the somewhat bleak and open-ended conclusion. So what now, she asked? I said when I saw it I would have pretty confidently said that with these creatures revealed the people would rise up and drive them out. Now I'm not so sure.
As far as the fight goes, I said to her that to the best of my knowledge it was a bit of a joke predicated on the fact that Piper was a well known pro wrestler, but I really have nothing to back that up with.
posted by phearlez at 9:32 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
When did we stop saying "yuppie"?
Probably when they stopped being young.
Also when their jobs moved to dull office parks in the middle of the suburbs, instead of requiring some level of everyday engagement with a metropolitan landscape and culture.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:46 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Probably when they stopped being young.
Also when their jobs moved to dull office parks in the middle of the suburbs, instead of requiring some level of everyday engagement with a metropolitan landscape and culture.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:46 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by loquacious at 5:40 PM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]