oh I don't that much. Check out this cool-ass conversation from Sept
2001!
I can't believe I saved this stuff. but I found a bunch of old CD-Rs
in my closet which were kind of resurrected after the move to this new
house but i'm just now looking at them. They were in a plastic baggy
and had lot of old music on them,pictures, etc., but also AIM
conversations.
From Peter tonguette, the writer on Orson Welles, and other websites,
film critic... he's a pretty good guy. Hates my guts of course, so
here is an old quickie from him:
stalepie: I'll be impressed if you can come up with a worthy reply to
Dahlquist's response to your Economics essay =)
Ptonguette: Yeah, what a response!
Ptonguette: This new group is so great :)
stalepie: Yeah I'm impressed with it so far
stalepie: Alexander really going to post?
Ptonguette: Even Ervin's stuff seems improved. (I liked his message in
the "Self-reflection" thread)
stalepie: me too
Ptonguette: He sent out a private e-mail to the original seven saying
he is.
stalepie: The Original Sevem
stalepie: n
Ptonguette: Bilge, Faisal, Mark, Tobasco, Rod, Peter, Gordon
stalepie: It could make a great movie
stalepie: A great western
Ptonguette: That's right up Robb's alley
Ptonguette: And Bilge saw Malick in person... jesus, New York is a
great city.
stalepie: heh yeah
Ptonguette: I also vastly prefer receiving these message via e-mail
than wrestling with this pathetic AOL newserver I have.
Ptonguette: messages
stalepie: I'm gonna have to be a lurker.
Ptonguette: Your post in the Pook thread was good, informative :)
Ptonguette: Just today we've got more interesting posts than the past
month on AMK, it feels like. There's something about this venue that
is appealing.
stalepie: Yes
stalepie: It is good to see you excited
Ptonguette: We have Bilge to thank for taking the initiative. :)
Ptonguette: That sleeveless t-shirt that Sgt. Hartman is wearing as
Pyle guns him down is really badass.
stalepie: ha
Ptonguette: "GET BACK IN YOUR BUNKS!!"
stalepie: That's his pajamas.
Ptonguette: It's a cool look when matched with that hat he's wearing.
Ptonguette: Great coverhttp://images.amazon.com/images/P/02625312
83.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Ptonguette: He's really good with covers :)http://images.amazon.com/
images/P/089608535X. 01.LZZZZZZZ.gif
Ptonguette: brb
stalepie: Yeah I really like that minimalist program one
stalepie: Is Power and Prospects the kind of human nature I'm
interested in?
Ptonguette: Kubrick could really have done great book covers :)
Ptonguette: That's one of his I've not read, so I can't say.
stalepie: Does he write much on human nature?
stalepie: What perspectives would he take? Political human nature/
Ptonguette: Well, he touches on it extensively by virtue of his work
in linguistics and innate grammar. He believes that our innate
capacity to learn grammar and be creative means that the best possible
society would be one which allows for free exploration of these innate
capacities. I can't think of any books he's written that deal
specifically with "human nature," although he wrote a long essay
refuting Skinnerism, which was the theory that we are born as blank
slates and can be molded any which way.
stalepie: All right I see, thank you
Ptonguette: My pleasure :)
stalepie: Yes I remember he wrote an anti-Skinnerism essay
stalepie: back in I think the 60s
Ptonguette: WRT AI, he finds it interesting that we ask "Can machines
think?" but not "Can submarines swim?" ;)
Ptonguette: Yes, in the late '60s I believe... very famous
stalepie: Does "apropos" mean the same as "WRT"?
Ptonguette: I don't know
stalepie: Does Kubrick have heroes in his work?
Ptonguette: We'd have to come up with a strong definition of that
term. If by hero we mean someone we root for or identify with blindly
- as in a good vs. evil scenerio - no.
stalepie: Oh, I was thinking more in the mythological sense
Ptonguette: I'm still not sure.
stalepie: Are our myths mostly hero-based?
stalepie: If they are, why?
Ptonguette: I think so, yes.
Ptonguette: Perhaps because myths also at one time served as kind of
moral guides... and the reader needed someone good to identify with
and extract a moral lesson from.
Ptonguette: Like the Icarus myth... very clear moral point there.
stalepie: Yeah but why do we feel compelled to retell and retell hero-
based stories. We do it to this day of course. Some of our genres, in
a way, are possibly mythological types. That is, the hero of a
thriller may be in a broad sense the same hero in every thriller, the
"hero of a thousand faces"
Ptonguette: Yes
stalepie: And by retelling the same genre-story over and over, we are
just retelling, broadly, the same hero story over and over.
stalepie: Am I pointing out the obvious?
Ptonguette: I agree, yes. How does Kubrick fit into this though? Can
someone like Bill be seen, even broadly, as a hero?
stalepie: I don't think they can, no
Ptonguette: He's the main protagonist, the guy we follow... but "hero"
has such specific connotations in my mind.
Ptonguette: I agree
stalepie: I see Bill's characters as nonrepresentational everymen
emboding themes, ideas, or even serving as examples.
stalepie: Heh, rather, I see Kubrick's characters....
Ptonguette: Agreed 100%
stalepie: what do I mean exactly by nonrepresentational? I'm not quite
sure
stalepie: It is important in my mind that clearly Bill is a husband,
and clearly Alice is a wife, and one if highly masculine and one is
highly feminine.
Ptonguette: They are specific characters?
stalepie: *is not if
stalepie: Kubrick would never make a movie with a "specific" character
that has a specific disease or other idiosyncratic markers
stalepie: Perhaps I should bring this up on Kubrick Net?
Ptonguette: Sure, it's interesting... I think I agree with your
conclusions, but some outside opinions are always benefitial.
Ptonguette: Don't worry about wording it perfectly... just bring the
topic up for debate
stalepie: I really don't know the language.
stalepie: What kind of characters are the ones in Short Cuts?
Ptonguette: This is one of those IM questions you love that is going
to take me 10 minutes to answer ;)
stalepie: You don't have to respond.
stalepie: You could just go "Matt, I think you just need to read some
more fiction or something."
Ptonguette: I honestly have not thought about defining them in terms
of types before. I'm tempted to say that, on the one hand, I think the
characters are highly specific. On the other, I think he is attempting
to present an economic cross-section of people - thus, the characters
are representative of people in various economic/social positions.
stalepie: All right
stalepie: I like that last sentence
Ptonguette: Thanks :)
stalepie: Hehe, I have this nice picture of Red Cloak performing the
ceremony thing, with the extended ceiling not found on the home
version, and I was considering posting it to the group in the "files"
section with like the described alluding to Kubrick Net =)
stalepie: *description
Ptonguette: heh... that's pretty funny ;)
Ptonguette: I remember the time about a year and a half ago where you
said all of the serious regulars - me, Dahlquist, Thornhill - should
get together for one of those ceremonies :)
Ptonguette: This was before you knew me, I think.
stalepie: hehe yeah
stalepie: I think that'd be fun
Ptonguette: I was flattered that you mentioned me with GD, so I recall
printing that out
stalepie: There, uploaded some pictures
Ptonguette: Isn't showing up yet, but I will check back in a little
while :)
Ptonguette: Kubrick Net rules!
stalepie: =)
Ptonguette: I've got to catch up on e-mail and a few other misc.
things... so we'll talk later. Hopefully I will be able to work up a
reply to Dahlquist that isn't too pathetic in comparison :)
stalepie: hehe all right.
stalepie: talk to you later
Ptonguette: Later