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capuchin's Replies
<blockquote>Rather than a "function of aging" which implies a state reminiscent of senility, would you not consider that it is a state of mind acquired through wisdom and experience?</blockquote>
I don't think it implies a state of senility. I'm merely suggesting it's something that happens as people get older and support this with evidence that it has happened within other generations. It's possible that it is acquired through wisdom and experience - which itself would be a function of ageing - but I find that hard to square with the repeated cycle throughout previous generations - unless we're going to accept that middle-aged people who lost their minds over rock n roll and Elvis Presley on Ed Sullivan were being wise.
It's still not entirely clear to me who or what you believe is to blame. The 60s counterculture?
In any case, next question: what would you like to see done about it? How do we 'fix' it?
<i>It's a sign of despair over the state of the world we have made for ourselves</i>?
So our art reflects the state of the world? And what it is about the current state of the world that has led to this 'cultural degeneration'? What has changed in this regard since the 1970s, or whenever this phenomenon you have identified began?
<blockquote>Well, you're both probably in your 20s</blockquote>
I wish.
But I am fully aware that my parents hated the films and music I liked when I was in my 20s and thought it was a sign the world was going to hell in a handcart. And I'm aware that my grandparents felt that way about the music and films my parents liked when they were in their 20s and felt the world was going to hell in a handcart.
So - while you <i>might</i> be right that the world is going to hell in a handcart - it might be worth considering that it's just a function of ageing. And you might choose to apply Occam's Razor.
<blockquote>I see posts like this all the time, how everything was great, and now everything is shit.</blockquote>
It's all very 'Get off my porch!', isn't it?
So you personally think 'the rise of multiculturalism' is responsible for a purported 'cultural degeneration'?
<blockquote>All this, in my eyes, points to a culture-wide deep psychological disturbance in humanity that has developed over the last several decades.</blockquote>
And what do you belive this change is symptomatic of? What has <i>caused</i> it?
OK. First pass-through...
2. Blue Velvet
4. Finding Nemo
5. The Fast & the Furious
7. Wonder Woman
9. The Karate Kid
12. Titanic
13. Empire of the Sun
15. Ghost Busters
17. The Bicycle Thief
19. The Lion King
26. Jurassic Park
27. King Kong
28. Apollo 13
31. Brokeback Mountain
36. Galaxy Quest
44. American History X
45. U-Turn
47. The Godfather
<blockquote>Having said that, my favourite horror films are creepy ghost stories anyway, which don't tend to include a lot of blood 'n' guts.</blockquote>
Same, I think. Would generally prefer an atmospheric or psychological horror to a gore-fest. But gore is a lot of fun when it's done right - which, of course, has to involve a decent story and characters.
I find that perfectly reasonable.
Oh, <i>all</i> the gore. I can handle <i>all</i> the gore.
But I don't think movies should be an endurance test. The problem with movies labeled 'torture porn' isn't so much that they contain grizzly material - so what? - but that they revel in it to such a degree and to the detriment of all other narrative elements, that it becomes, frankly, dull.
If it is, what - in a nation that pretends itself to have been founded on religious freedom and somewhat prides itself on this myth - would you like to see done about it?
Usually, I just go to the local crust shop.
Aye. Just the standard story of major corporations bullying independent producers. As if enough people are going to confuse The Asylum's The Day the Earth Stopped with 20th Century Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still for that to cut into the latter's profits.
These things are nonsense. But the Big Companies throw their weight around because they know it'll never get to a court; the threat is enough to get their way, because being on the losing side in just <i>one</i> case would probably finish a company like The Asylum off, while the majors can just soak it up all day long.
Oh, OK.
25 is A Nightmare on Elm Street... But I still don't get it.
5. Ohhhh. It's shaken, but not stirred? Dr No.
The <i>title</i> isn't copyrighted. Other elements of the film absolutely are. I could make a wholly new movie that just happened to be called <i>The Graduate</i>. I couldn't remake <i>The Graduate</i> and think I was being clever by calling it something different. If someone noticed I had remade <i>The Graduate</i>, they could successfully sue me. If someone noticed I'd made a film called <i>The Graduate</i> that had no similarities to <i>The Graduate</i> beyond its title, they could not.
Yes. Because their beliefs are only a stone's throw away from those of an apocalypse cult.
Not so long ago, some of these same people would have gone into the mountains with a charismatic prophet and waited for the apocalypse. When the date of the apocalypse came and went without event, they'd rationalise it to themselves and move the date again. These days, they're listening to nonsense online and waiting for the apocalypse to happen around them from the comfort of their own homes. But they're basically the same type of people.
In two years' time when what they believe will happen doesn't, somehow they won't have been entirely wrong. They won't reject those old ideas in the face of new contrary evidence. The cult will evolve. Because it's a religious impulse. And that's how that line of thinking always works.
Not that you're any better with your 9/11 nonsense - so you're not really in any position to condemn them.
Graped with sufficient force, the surgeon could lose an eye. This exact thing happened to a friend of mine. Except they weren't a surgeon. And it wasn't a grape. And they didn't lose an eye. But paper darts can hurt too.