December 22, 2004

• Uh oh, two posts in one day.
• While I agree with understand your sentiment Starc, and would be more than willing to be the first to welcome you, you're being a tad bit flamebait here Still, I like the video. Sorta like Dawn of the Dead meets Lord of the Flies.
• I think they're Koreans.... Filthy Koreans are always smashing stuff and beating people up.
• flame on. yes, i think it's very interesting that a non-Asian director has chosen in other videos, as well as this one, to use Asian children to discuss social issues of control, identity, paranoia, authoritarianism and what not. it's the case in many Asian cultures that analysis of such issues by Westerners is only seen as provocation and reason for alarm. Though Asians often believe that these issues, especially in Chinesee culture, are not up for discussion.
• oh, boy, it's a christmas troll! or, for those nonbelievers among us, a winter solstice holiday troll!
• I think that the Western view of Asians in general, is that they live very structured, confined lives, bound by the strict tenets of their respective societies. I once visited my familiy in Korea, and wanted to run like hell after two weeks. If I wasn't half-white they probably would have disowned me. I mean, smoking and drinking in front of my aunts and uncles!!! Big no no. (Although, I had no idea... my mom told them before I got there that I was "Americanized, so would act rudely without meaning offense.) My cousins were the most shocked, however, they couldn't just get used to the fact that I didn't boil over with cognitive dissonace every time I lit up in front of an elder. In retrospect, the thing I liked most about Korea was the fact that they consider you 1 when you're born, and I went there when I was 20. (They have the same drinking laws as we do! w00t!!!!) ...on preview... I'm a lousy Asian....
• I think they're Koreans Very unlikely. The license plates and signposts have traditional characters on them. I would venture to guess Taiwanese. Almost certainly neither Japanese nor Koreans. PS: [this is shit]
• Another clue: driving on the right, so cannot be Chinese or Japanese. Taiwan seems the most likely to me, though I guess one of the Koreas is not strictly out.
• I think that even if you are half-Asian, people in Asian regard you as either Western or Asian. There's no half and half. In Hong Kong, the British, having ruled for a century or a little more, have completely left the impression that things are entirely Western there. But still, if you are a white foreigner, you are still a foriegner. There is nothing but lines of demarcation about identity in said cultures. The family, so to speak. Chinese will tell foreigners, that maybe they would consider the foriegners to understand China if only the spoke the language. It's as if the language itself is a marker of interiority. Is language that? What do you think? here's a video by the same director. Always the same themes. Children running lose, an oppressive aunty that wants to control them. Music as the anti-Asia, the redeemer. Still influence does not come from inside. It comes from outside. Is Asia the culture of paranoia? In that way, are they similar to the West?
• Hoo boy. Say Starc, have you met JonathanQuick and daisy_may?
• no. why?
• Well, I'm just doing some research on trolls, and I was wondering if they travel in packs or not.
• these would be interesting discussions, Starc, if you respected the guidelines of this community (re: posting more than once a day and self-linking). As it is now, it looks like you're hijacking us to be your private blog with a built-in audience.
• fine. sorry. tough crowd.
• what patita said. exactly.
• Does no one remember when trolling was a method of fishing (not phishing, which is a different beast all together)?
• oh, yeah, actually, in Hong Kong it's the next day, so technically this is not two posts in the same day.
• I'm choosing to take this post as an atonement post (for the previous one), and therefore not subject to the one-a-day rule I did enjoy that video, both the music and the children of the corn. And we're not Hong Kongese. We're Hongkies, or Hong Kongers. "we" who? What are you talking about? yes, i think it's very interesting that a non-Asian director has chosen in other videos, as well as this one... It would've been useful to include this kind of information with the FPP if you wanted us to discuss it. There's all kinds of information that would improve this post greatly if you included it, some of it you just now have brought up. What market was this video created for? If it was created for an Asian market, there should be no surprise that asians were used. it's the case in many Asian cultures that analysis of such issues by Westerners is only seen as provocation and reason for alarm. Though Asians often believe that these issues, especially in Chinesee culture, are not up for discussion. So then the fact that a westerner brought up the issue should be irrelevant. It would be shocking for anyone to bring up the issues, and focusing on his skin color distracts from the issues he brought up. Why does your shift key only work when you type a nationality, but not when you start a sentence?
• so technically this is not two posts in the same day. It's two posts in just under six hours. Ho, ho, ho.
• I once made two posts in two minutes.
• I would also point out that Asia is not just the motherfucking far-east. There is a huge Indian subcontinent, an even huger Russia, and the increasingly important Arabian penisula that are all still part of Asia. So please, let us not continue to abuse the term 'Asian' to mean some select members of the CJKV family.
• There's something wong around here.
• Starc, we are really trying to be patient here. If you think we're a tough crowd, try Big Brother here, or any number of discussion sites. What you just did today would have gotten you gutted, gangbanged and likely flamed to an inch of your life elswhere. Please read the FAQ, if you haven't already done so. As with any community, we do have some ground rules, and also some simple gestures of courtesy. One such gesture is informing us if the link goes directly to a movie, as many of us are on dialups or slow connections and may not wish to get our bandwidth tied up with multimedia. Some context to a FPP would be nice, sometimes, especially if it's an obscure or foreign link. And by context, I don't mean a whole barrage of questions, as hip and pomo as it may make you feel. I did four years of English Literature, lots of these questions are pretty old hat. You want some answers to them, check out the lit crit books. We do wish to welcome you to Monkeyfilter, but please do try to understand that we are a community, and we don't take kindly to people barging in and trying to turn things to their own liking. You wouldn't go to a bar or disco and tell the DJ to play only music you like, and go around asking non sequitor questions to the regulars, do you? Similarly, though there is not physical "room" as such here, it is still private property and the ground rules ensure that there's a minimum of conflict and misunderstanding.
• I say we take off and nuke starc from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. No offence.
• One of the above two sentences is a lie, BTW
• Is it the second one?
• I tried to be nice and I got a face full of snark. Good way to make a good impression on your first community blog, Starc. So it wasn't two in one day, I'm very sorry to have been ignorant of the time difference. Mr. Knickerbocker is nice enough to see this as an apology post, but I don't understand why the apology can't go in the original thread. Many thanks to Alnedra for having the patience to explain in a bit more detail why we're not jumping up and down for joy (especially the bit about lit crit books--woohoo!).
• Alnedra proves again that she is both extremely nice and devastatingly lucid. She's also real cute!
• dng: it's nothing to worry about. Happens to everyone sometimes. Or so I'm told, anyway. :-)
• So I probably shouldn't make a Nazi reference, right? That's too old school. Anyway. I actually enjoy the warm welcome, it gives me a sense of the community. Alright, so if we aren't going to talk about Foucault, or Derrida, or pomo, or David Foster Wallace or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and what not, then what should we talk about? The video was not designed for an Asian audience (which encompasses parts of Turkey, Russia, down through the subcontinent of India, Malaysia, the Phillipines, The Koreas), so I wonder if Asians depicted in the film can be said to mark anything. and in the second link the director contorts the faces of the asianS. What does that say? the questions may smack of old school pomo lit crit books, but usually you just see the questions get repeated. i'm sure the answers would be differenT.
• Alright, so if we aren't going to talk about Foucault, or Derrida, or pomo, or David Foster Wallace or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and what not, then what should we talk about? Lots of other things. But if you want to talk about Derrida, try to make a connection to how your FPP relates to Derrida's theory of deconstruction, perhaps. Or maybe, if you can tell us how these videos may sync with what Edward Said says about Orientalism (as a random example). It smacks very much of some high-school comprehension test, when you set up a link, then just throw questions at us. Maybe you have some opinions to tell us, and we can set up a discussion? Would that not be more rewarding? So I probably shouldn't make a Nazi reference, right? I don't know what you mean by this question, but my guess is that you think we're being unfairly critical of your posts and comments. But perhaps you, in turn, are being unfairly critical of our unwillingness to answer your questions? i'm sure the answers would be differenT. The answers are always different, depending on who you read, who you listen to, and where you are. But the point is, how does asking us these questions help us or help you? I don't see how it is in anyway enjoyable or rewarding to just fire questions at people you don't know yet, and just read a whole list of responses without giving us any other feedback or meat for discussion.
• I don't see how it is in anyway enjoyable or rewarding to just fire questions at people you don't know yet, and just read a whole list of responses without giving us any other feedback or meat for discussion. Its rewarding if he doesn't care what our responses might be, and he's really just looking to preach his own ideas at us. That's impression I'm getting. He's failing to compose good posts because they're just a precursor for his preach he has saved up. These posts are just to prime us.
• We seem to be pretty intelligent bunch of monkeys here, and if we wanted to talk about that Left Bank shower we could (and sometimes do). I can Foucault with the best of them, myself. Rubbish posts and own-agendas aren't the way to do it though. Now, where did I put those kittens...
• zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
• Read the FAQ. Please. We run on UTC time here, not on your time. Two posts in one day isn't against the rules, but as you've seen it's generally not appreciated. If you have such fantastic content that you want everyone to see it, save it up or post it on your own blog. Strike two.
• here's one, kitfisto!
• Dude. What's the big deal? I, for one thought it was an interesting post and I thought the one post per day guideline was to keep people from going into a fark-like posting frenzy. I see no evidence of that here. This could have turned into an interesting thread if the etiquette police didn't get their knickers in a twist. What happened to ignoring annoying stuff instead of making it worse?
• Yeah, I want someone to confirm or argue my conjecture about the nationality of these kids.
• I'm pretty sure they're not Japanese. I think you did some good deductive reasoning there fuyugare.
• Starc, welcome, for what its worth. I liked the link itself, but telling us it was a video might have been nice, and less questions. To all who have called Starc a troll, I think thats a bit much. If this had been a porno link, well, yeah, but it wasn't so lets not get too uptight. However, I resent the Nazi jab. We really do not have that many rules, and you'd been told before to read them. Though this one was in my opinion worth going over the limit for. If you feel the need to do multiple posts again, as long as you say in your FPP that you're aware its your second of the day and your sorry but its really really good (or something to that effect) than most of us won't care. Provided it doesn't happen a lot.
• Thanks Sidey, I feel much better.
• Fuyugare: In light of the fact that the term Asian appears to be offensive, may I suggest Pacific Rimmer, or Pacrimmer, or even Pakrim? Because absent any real environmental/cultural visual cues, there's not much else to go on. I think you'll find Asian works pretty well in comparison, since the US usage describes those in Eastern regions of the Asian continent.
• Because of course calling someone a rimmer is not offensive.
• Actually, 'Asian' is not offensive when used correctly. 'East-Asian', I think, would be better than 'Pakrim'. Anyway, I have no point here.
• This the second time this dipstick has come in here today and posted something irrelevant and meaningless. Not all media posts work for everyone, in this case, me. One link media posts that invite discsussions about the the poster are abuse of the front page. This frikken guy is a jerk. Why even discuss it?
• I think a point in general, PareidoliaticBoy, is that this board is many things to many people, and aside from the clearly defined no-go's, there aren't a whole lot of restrictions otherwise. I wouldn't haul out the "jerk" label until he starts getting egregious.
• Hmmm...Let me see... To review: A front page post to his blog that has nothing to do with the post. The thread degenerates into abject snarkiness. THEN, a one-link media post (which often turn out to be unwatchable for many users) and therefore useless as a point of discussion, for those of us who can't see it. An appropriate response to his lame first post might be to apologize in that thread, perhaps with an offer to try to do better. Some estoeric and incomprehensible front page post attempting to justify his earlier transgression is hardly the mark of someone who respects the community's very few rules. Asked nicely to read the FAQ, and respect the guidelines, he responds with a veiled Godwinism, and begins splitting hairs about the frikken International Dateline. Now, I am new around here, and wouldn't presume to lecture anyone on the finer points of posting to this community; but I certainly wouldn't behave in such in manner, lest others perceive me as a self-aggrandizing jerk, wrong as that might be.
• Lots of rimmers round here. Every time I see te word "pomo" I read "porno." Not sure why.
• And he used the "N" word. Unless you're quoting someone or it's in a relevant historical context or you bought a used car from Adolf Hitler, please avoid kneejerk use of that particular word. The Nazi nazi.
• Not sure why. Cos you got a dirty mind, goetter, that's why.
• He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer.
• Why, even to this very day I can't look at a pair of nutcrackers without wincing. And why, every time I'm with a large group of women I have this urge to bathe them in olive oil.
• Every time I see te word "pomo" I read "porno." Not sure why. I get it the other way round, with "burn" and "bum". Which makes reading lyrics such as "I'd rather burn you than love you" interesting.
• Either reading holds equal truth for me.