Sarahel's Semiotics 4U

Aliens is awesome ... you shouldn't feel guilty. In general, you shouldn't feel guilty about watching "problematic" films, or cultural consumption in general. I'm definitely not some kind of puritan.

You know what I want to see? A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

That's neither here not there, but definitely agree with this:

The "save my baby" motif was particularly disappointing to me

This is seriously one of the most tiresome genre tropes ever.

You know what I want to see? A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

that definitely has promise. I'd be interested in that too.

Almost every time I see a particularly awful "save my baby" movie, I want the baby to be eaten by dingoes. I knew that the genre conventions that "Snakes on a Plane" adhered to would not permit the baby to be snake food, but I held out hope, all the same.

at least the dog got it!

yeah, though semiotically you could argue that the bitchy blonde got her dog eaten as punishment for being a traitor to her species -- being devoted to a dog as opposed to bearing a human child.

A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

I think part of the frisson in vampire tales stems from the possibility that one might not just be a victim but transformed.

same with zombie movies

Yeah, but zombies don't talk so good and their wardrobes are less fancy. They're kind of the trailer trash of the horror community.

Running around looking for brains kind of implies you don't really have any.

see that's where the horror comes from ... that one's friends, family members, or helpful truck drivers will transform into these grotesque things

I think part of the frisson in vampire tales stems from the possibility that one might not just be a victim but transformed.

Becoming a vampire has a comprehensible allure, though. You get to be immortal, stay up all night, be a blood-drinking badass, etc.

Body Snatcher/Pod People type movies play to Americans' self-image of being rugged "individuals" and our pathological fear of anything with the faintest whiff of collectivism.

it's definitely interesting to look at the four versions of the film and note the differences, as well as the similarities. The first one uses romantic love as a rationale; the fourth is the save-my-baby story, the third one's protagonist is a teenager living on a military base, so the narrative is colored with "normal" indentity issues and conformity issues. The second one - the Donald Sutherland/Jeff Goldblum/Leonard Nimoy one I think does the most examination and reflection on the connotations of pod personhood.

the second one rules so hard, i have this t-shirt:

http://www.rottencotton.com/shirts/horror/1008_donaldbody.jpg

yes it does. fuck that would be awesome on a shirt. My ipod is named "you're next."

that t-shirt ruins the ending tho

but, if you recognized the image, wouldn't that mean you'd already seen the movie and know the ending?

Sutherland's a dead ringer for Kurt Vonnegut in that shot

i'd have said david bedford

who?

shrink-to-fit, ding dongs

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:24 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

reminds me of

i have a philosophy degree buttasses

― bato (bato), Monday, November 6, 2006 12:16 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

http://waffleshop.org/

this is an example of "social practices" art ... the phrase that keeps coming to mind is "banal positivism"

Taylor Swift's suckiness has nothing to do with her alleged (and demonstrably false) "tunelessness" and everything to do with her not being a very good singer and being a glamorized version of the young white female ideal singing about how she's an ugly duckling who can't get the guy.

― nate dogg is a feeling (HI DERE)

does she look like a duck?

she is cute as a button

http://qing95.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/taylor-swift-71.jpg

I just remember growing up listening to Top 40 radio (until about age 12 when there was an "alternative" station), and being annoyed at all the "love you baby ooh" songs. It was a serious epiphany when I discovered that plenty of people wrote rock/pop songs about other things.

think that love you baby ooh songs are no better or worse than non love you baby ooh songs by definition

I think I also have issues with "baby" as a term of endearment.

semiotically speaking?

yes! There's a song by The Pop Group, that I thought the lyrics were "Don't call me baby" (I think it's actually "don't call me pain") ...

I think I also have issues with "baby" as a term of endearment.

Hahaha! I've recently asked a few female friends of mine whether this bothers them and it doesn't for the most part. I think it should.

Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about,
cos most groups make most of their songs about falling in love
or how happy they are to be in love,
you occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time -
it's because these groups think there's something very special about it
either that or else it's because everybody else sings about it and always has,
you know to burst into song you have to be inspired
and nothing inspires quite like love.
These groups and singers think that they appeal to everyone
by singing about love because apparently everyone has or can love
or so they would have you believe anyway
but these groups seem to go along with what, the belief
that love is deep in everyone's personality.
I don't think we're saying there's anything wrong with love,
we just don't think that what goes on between two people
should be shrouded with mystery.

xp -I don't hate all songs that use "baby" as a term of endearment, but if a romantic partner were to call me that, I'd have problems with that.

The Pop Group song is still a really good song.

i like when songs use "sugar"

I support "sugar"

"light of my life"

I dated a guy that referred to me as "she who must be obeyed" ... it wasn't as annoying as some of his other traits.

do you still have his number?

this was a guy that recently went to therapy for "internet addiction" ... he also suffered from "executive function disorder" (this is not the boarding school guy from the other thread) ... at one point I figured I would end up marrying him.

"cui parendum est"

if he had manifested all his endearments in Latin he would have been a right old catch imo

I went to a crappy American public high school ... I have no idea what that means, except for est = some version of the verb "to be" because that's what it is in French.

xp he liked croquet ... I was down with some of the fey anglophilia, but croquet ... too much.

It means "she (or he) who must be obeyed", weirdly enough. Literally, "for whom it is obligated to obey". Croquet is really good fun but I can go months, even years, without playing it. It's actually quite big in some American circles.

it just bugged me in the same way white hipster guys' excessive appropriation of black street slang annoys me.

yo, feelin u freals

lol - it isn't like any cultural appropriation bothers me, there's just this invisible line where it becomes too much ...