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In Wild, Reese Witherspoon plays memoirist Cheryl Strayed who decided to backpack a chunk of the Pacific Crest Trail to, it appears, atone for her life of whoring and heroin. Her desire to mortify the flesh via an arduous journey seems to be essentially the same as that of medieval pilgrims, such as in Canterbury Tales, but the obvious analogy never comes up.
A friend of mine periodically does Catholic walking pilgrimages like the long walk to Santiago de Campostelo in Spain and it does him some good, as this long walk evidently did Strayed some good. For some people, hard hiking can calm an unquiet mind And Strayed has lots of flashbacks that would disturb anybody, such as pulling trains for johns in alleys.
Fortunately, there’s quite a bit of comedy in the movie. Strayed doesn’t really have much of a clue what she’s doing — the idea of walking 1,000 miles comes to her as an escape from her junkie hooker existence, not as any kind of sensible plan — so she packs way too much stuff into her giant backpack, which she can’t lift with her arms so she has to put it on lying on top of it and then rolling it over on top of her. (I was behind Witherspoon in line at the grocery store once and she is indeed exceptionally tiny and pretty.)
But there’s remarkably little good scenery in the movie. Strayed started in depressing Mojave, California in the desert and when she finally started to get into the High Sierra, it turned out that the famous John Muir Trail, the summit stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, was closed that summer (1995) due to heavy snow cover. So she had to take a bus to Reno and then hike the lower elevation mountains of Northern California and into Oregon. The main scenic spots in the movie are a few seconds at glorious Crater Lake and a longer scene at the Bridge of the Gods across the Columbia River.
The digital cinematography is terrible. The whole movie is underexposed, as if the sun never came out that entire summer. I know it would be cliche to make the mountains look like a Galen Rowell pictorial for National Geographic, but they actually do look like that.
Most of the tension in the movie comes from the heroine, who apparently is too slow a hiker to find any traveling companions, fearing she’ll be raped by every man she meets on her solo hike. But screenwriter Nick Hornby slyly slips into Witherspoon’s concluding voiceover a line that isn’t in the concluding paragraphs of the book that suggests the situation was really more the opposite: Strayed, a recovering whore, wanted to sleep with every man she met.
They should have hired the cinematographer from the first Dinesh D’Souza it seems, or at least the guy from Savages.
Sounds like a film for women. Now if it had some sweet roads to drift on then Paul Walker would totally kick asses in this movie.
I once was shopping in the Pavilions grocery store in West Hollywood, with my sister, when we spotted both Nell Carter (who was short, but decidedly not tiny!) and Ron Popeil (with his third and current wife, Robin– who was neither short nor tiny!). Nell Carter was engaged in a fairly long conversation with a fan, and seemed very appreciative of his appreciation for her work. Ron Popeil looked much older in person than he did in his famous infomercials.
On an earlier occasion, in 1995 or 1996, I was shopping at my own local Ralph’s, across the street from the Beverly Center, when I saw actress Polly Draper, of “Thirtysomething” fame, along with a man whom I assumed to be her husband. For some yet-inexplicable reason, the very-well-bred Ms. Draper was born in the same now-moribund city– and quite possibly in the very same room– as I was, although she beat me there, by 117 days. She was still thirty-something, when I saw her grocery shopping– but, by then, just barely!
As for distance walking, I went on a kick, while living in Las Vegas, back in 2000. I first walked just over 2000 miles, from May 20 to September 9, and then walked well over 1100 miles more, from Devil’s Night through New Year’s Eve. It was an amazing process of self-reliance and self-discovery! On July 8, 2000, I accomplished a lifetime goal– albeit one that I had only set a few weeks before– by walking 30+ miles in one go, stopping only to go to the bathroom, once, and to get drinks of water, and to take my blood pressure and pulse readings, at a CVS pharmacy, along the route. It hit 108 degrees in Las Vegas, that Saturday afternoon– and I myself got hit, while crossing a side street, about an hour into the journey, by a stupid woman driving a purple Mercury compact! When I finally jumped into the pool, at home, late that afternoon, few things had ever felt quite as good to me. If I had died of heat stroke, then and there, as I told my friend, who was afraid that I might, I would have died a contented man.
I find desert landscapes beautiful in their own way. But that’s just me.
Here’s a link to Reese’s other 2014 movie “The Good Lie”. It’s another super liberal movie from Reese, celebrating more liberal themes. I haven’t watched it and don’t intend to. I read it is making some awards lists and certainly it has all the ingredients that get movies on those lists.
http://www.putlocker.tw/watch-the-good-lie-online-free-putlocker-2014.html
The review in Rotten Tomatoes gives:
“They were known simply as “The Lost Boys.” Orphaned by the brutal Civil war in Sudan that began in 1983, these young victims traveled as many as a thousand miles on foot in search of safety. Fifteen years later, a humanitarian effort would bring 3600 lost boys and girls to America.”
The movie is about 4 boys and “their struggle to adapt to America”. Of course, little will be mentioned of America’s struggle to adapt to 3600 kids, mostly boys, from the two of the most ungovernable tribes in the Sudan, possibly Africa. The two tribes these kids came from formed independent kid militias, uncontrolled by either side, and were some of the last groups fighting at the cease fire and after. So “Give us your tired, poor, stupid, ungovernable and assimilable masses”
Great. 3600 from the South Sudan during a civil war from 1985 to 2005.
The civil war in Sudan was an example of one group trying to impose a more strict law on another much like whites in America imposing the idea of empathy, cooperation, law, and order on another groups of blacks. The division is possibly one of the most obvious in the world, literally a place where two worlds meet, the Arab Sahara and the Black African south. The difference is quite obvious even looking at a map of the country, with desert in the north and green whatever in the south, the country containing both the “White” and the “Blue” Nile. These were the swell people who brought us Dafur and many, many other examples of multiculturalism prevailing over “tribal” and racial interests.
In 2011, a referendum for succession in the south voted 97% in favor. The pre-referendum period and the election itself were monitored by “oodles” of international groups and monitors. Jimmy Carter was involved. The array of ethnic and tribal groups in the south is enormous and the problems of forming any form of cohesive government that does not devolve into further succession is improbable. Other neighboring nations look askance at the succession of the south in fear that groups within those countries might follow the example.
Let’s hope these same “observers” are equally supportive in another area of the world where stark contrasts between racial and cultural groups, conflicts with no possibility of resolution, are becoming as divisive and as irreconcilable as any two groups in the world. And one of those groups is so hated by its culture and media that succession from that nation the only way to be fair to each group. I hope President Carter and Reese Witherspoon are equally vigorous in maintaining the right of an ethic group to divide from another once it becomes obvious that its interest is no longer served by continued national affiliation.
Reese Witherspoon used to be called America’s sweetheart until an incident she had with a police officer where she was drunk as hell and played the “Do you have any idea who the hell I am ?” card that is so common from the 1 percent.
…fearing she’ll be raped by every man she meets on her solo hike…
Women only get raped at college.
NYT, 12/21/14 – Accusers and the Accused, Crossing Paths at Columbia University
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/nyregion/accusers-and-the-accused-crossing-paths-at-columbia.html
…Mr. Nungesser is one of America’s most notorious college students. His reputation precedes him. His notoriety is the result of a campaign by Emma Sulkowicz, a fellow student who says Mr. Nungesser raped her in her dorm room two years ago. Columbia cleared him of responsibility in that case, as well as in two others that students brought against him. Outraged, Ms. Sulkowicz began carrying a 50-pound mattress wherever she went on campus, to suggest the painful burden she continues to bear. She has vowed to keep at it until he leaves the school…
Great comment, BTW. It gave me a laugh.
New Factor in Campus Sexual Assault Cases: Counsel for the Accused
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/nyregion/new-factor-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases-counsel-for-the-accused.html
4-5 days ago I posted a link to the above NYT article by Ariel Kaminer.
Ariel Kaminer has been the sole voice of reason at the NYT offering a counter-narrative to the cisgender white male as campus rapist hysteria.
However, perhaps because of this, Arial Kaminer was let go as part of last week's layoffs at the NYT.
Times cutting more than 100 newsroom jobs
By Keith J. Kelly - December 16, 2014 | 12:07pm
http://nypost.com/2014/12/16/times-cutting-more-than-100-newsroom-jobs/This latest article by Kaminer is likely her swan song for the NYT. I am kind of surprised it got printed.
Steve keeps asking when is the KKK-crazy glue media madness going to stop????
I say it might take awhile because the only people losing their job because of this insanity are the last of the grown-ups questioning it.
And yes, the grass roots backlash to the leftist insanity is destroying the MSM, but the Master of the Universe mega billionaires like Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet have too much at stake in controlling the MEGAPHONE to give it up. They can all afford to lose a billion or two a year keeping it going.
PERHAPS IT IS WORTH STEVE COMMENTING ON THIS.
In 2003, I encountered Hulk Hogan at a Tampa mall. He was doing some shopping with his son and, while and trying to stay inconspicuous, did give me a curt “hello” as we passed by each other. He would have been 50 y/o then, was wearing his ubiquitous bandanna, and looked much smaller than in his TV presence.
2.) I've seen these bumper stickers and think they may be relevant to Steve's point:
http://bit.ly/1sQ9RVr
I read Strayed’s book a while ago and my recollection is that she basically skipped over most of the trail. It was snowy that year so much of the trail was impassable but I expected to read an adventure tale along the lines of The Long Way and it was nothing like that.
Whar was the line?
[…] Source: Steve Sailer […]
I think you want to say Santiago de Compostela.
I’ll skip this one. I wanted to go see The Imitation Game this weekend, which is playing here in Cambridge (and Boston Common). Turing was a fascinating person. Isn’t it interesting that the greatest mathematical minds of the 20th century were exclusively Gentile and/or Christian? Turing, Gödel, Nash, et al. Same with the rest of mathematics history.
It's interesting how famous Turing is among the "lumpengentsia" while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known. Being a homosexual martyr seems to have its advantages.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
I met the Buddha on the road one time and I killed him.
Vanity Fair had a very favorable write-up of Strayed in a recent issue and at one point states that Strayed “is a champion of promiscuity”.
In the very same issue, VF has a profile of Russell Brand, and gives us this gem:
Which begs the following: How would VF cover a Strayed-Brand hookup? Champion of Promiscuity Hooks Up with Misogynist Pig, seems about right.
The feminist schizophrenia in terms of liberated promiscuity coupled with our “rape culture” brings to mind that classic scene in Little Shop of Horrors with Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist and Bill Murray as his masochist patient.
Still funny (and crazy) after all these years:
The fantasy of women (just read the stuff like Fifty Shades of Bondage or whatever) is to "tame" an Alpha who can and does sleep with any woman into devotion to just one (her). Women are totally uninterested in men who are already willing to enter into monogamy, figuring the men are just not worth it.
Of course, the obesity epidemic allows this -- as the market power of thin attractive women is marked amplified and the lack of need for beta male provision due to increased female earnings and the welfare state allows women their r-selected fantasies to play out in real life.
I once passed a briskly ambulating Jerry Orbach along the street in NYC. He was wearing a short sleeved button down shirt and a pair of slacks. He was one of those actors who looked the same in real life as he did on the screen (large or small). It took me somewhat aback and since it happened rather quickly – so I didn’t get to quip “nobody puts baby in the corner, you summa’bitch!”
Because, you know, I bet he never heard that one before. It woulda been hilarious.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/nyregion/07pinochle.html?_r=0
1.) Smaller dudes look more jacked. Compactness of muscles and all that.
2.) I’ve seen these bumper stickers and think they may be relevant to Steve’s point:
http://bit.ly/1sQ9RVr
The name Cheryl Strayed sounds to me like one of those made up hipster names like Michelle Shocked or Rob Zombie.
“(I was behind Witherspoon in line at the grocery store once and she is indeed exceptionally tiny and pretty.)”
I can see that on film. But being tiny doesn’t mean she can’t carry weight on her back. Look at Sherpa women. I think they can carry near their weight, which is probably no more than 90 pounds.
WEIRD people, especially women, are just very weak. That goes for the Crossfit loonies, as well.
Still waiting for your NORK/Hollywood/Pascal post. Now that Sharpton has stuck his ugly mug into the mix you might get interested?
https://www.facebook.com/CherylStrayed.Author/posts/536993549659273
“I find desert landscapes beautiful in their own way. But that’s just me.”
People in California hate the desert. I lived in Arizona for some time before relocating to the interior of Southern California. In Phoenix – despite its conservatism – there’s a very strong consensus that there should be natural desert landscaping. Green lawns are rare, except on golf courses.
When I moved to California, I was amazed that there is no knowledge of xeriscaping whatsoever. Green lawns and tall trees abound in wealthy Palm Springs as well as in poor Palmdale (both of which get comparable rainfall to Phoenix). It wasn’t until this past year when (several months into the drought) they put severe restrictions on lawn watering that people even started to consider that maybe green lawns don’t make sense in the desert.
I personally moved out to the SW in part due to allergies and have seen enough green lawns in my lifetime so they don’t excite me. Also, the green just attracts a lot of nasty bugs, and secondary to that lizards and poisonous spiders in the desert so I don’t see the appeal.
“Reese Witherspoon used to be called America’s sweetheart until an incident she had with a police officer where she was drunk as hell and played the “Do you have any idea who the hell I am ?” card that is so common from the 1 percent.”
For most other women, video of acting like a drunk, entitled jerk would be damaging, but actually I think Reese Witherspoon is way too adorable in that video for it to have really hurt her.
In context, it seemed to be more “I am famous; therefore I will expose you and your bad police work to the press” than “I am famous; therefore let me get away with my bad behavior.” She was apparently drunk enough to really believe she (and her husband who was the actual driver) were innocent.
This is starting to get confusing. Perhaps we should use our surnames. I am James N. Kennett. I am pleased to make your acquaintance!
Women only get raped at college.
NYT, 12/21/14 - Accusers and the Accused, Crossing Paths at Columbia University
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/nyregion/accusers-and-the-accused-crossing-paths-at-columbia.html
...Mr. Nungesser is one of America’s most notorious college students. His reputation precedes him. His notoriety is the result of a campaign by Emma Sulkowicz, a fellow student who says Mr. Nungesser raped her in her dorm room two years ago. Columbia cleared him of responsibility in that case, as well as in two others that students brought against him. Outraged, Ms. Sulkowicz began carrying a 50-pound mattress wherever she went on campus, to suggest the painful burden she continues to bear. She has vowed to keep at it until he leaves the school...
Women only get raped without knowing it at college.
Great comment, BTW. It gave me a laugh.
” I think Reese Witherspoon is way too adorable in that video for it to have really hurt her.”
I agree. And, FWIW, she was mostly going on about her rights as an American citizen who had “done nothing wrong”, not playing the celebrity card, except for one slip-up.
Yes, she was in the wrong because her actions were “obstructing a police officer” but I can hardly blame her for not knowing the fine line between aggressively asserting your rights and obstruction.
Of course, compared to some of the other notorious cop-civilian interactions, all three came out looking really good. The cop was super-professional, Witherspoon’s fiancé was eager to defuse the situation and Witherspoon was an articulate drunk who showed enough good sense to not put up even token physical resistance to being arrested.
Women only get raped at college.
NYT, 12/21/14 - Accusers and the Accused, Crossing Paths at Columbia University
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/nyregion/accusers-and-the-accused-crossing-paths-at-columbia.html
...Mr. Nungesser is one of America’s most notorious college students. His reputation precedes him. His notoriety is the result of a campaign by Emma Sulkowicz, a fellow student who says Mr. Nungesser raped her in her dorm room two years ago. Columbia cleared him of responsibility in that case, as well as in two others that students brought against him. Outraged, Ms. Sulkowicz began carrying a 50-pound mattress wherever she went on campus, to suggest the painful burden she continues to bear. She has vowed to keep at it until he leaves the school...
Steve posted a link in his last TAKIMAG piece to an earlier NYT article by the same journalist Ariel Kaminer highlighting the NYT’s obsessive coverage of the Rolling Stone UVA Rape Hoax Fabulism / Campus Rape Hysteria.
New Factor in Campus Sexual Assault Cases: Counsel for the Accused
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/nyregion/new-factor-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases-counsel-for-the-accused.html
4-5 days ago I posted a link to the above NYT article by Ariel Kaminer.
Ariel Kaminer has been the sole voice of reason at the NYT offering a counter-narrative to the cisgender white male as campus rapist hysteria.
However, perhaps because of this, Arial Kaminer was let go as part of last week’s layoffs at the NYT.
Times cutting more than 100 newsroom jobs
By Keith J. Kelly – December 16, 2014 | 12:07pm
http://nypost.com/2014/12/16/times-cutting-more-than-100-newsroom-jobs/
This latest article by Kaminer is likely her swan song for the NYT. I am kind of surprised it got printed.
Steve keeps asking when is the KKK-crazy glue media madness going to stop????
I say it might take awhile because the only people losing their job because of this insanity are the last of the grown-ups questioning it.
And yes, the grass roots backlash to the leftist insanity is destroying the MSM, but the Master of the Universe mega billionaires like Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet have too much at stake in controlling the MEGAPHONE to give it up. They can all afford to lose a billion or two a year keeping it going.
PERHAPS IT IS WORTH STEVE COMMENTING ON THIS.
In the very same issue, VF has a profile of Russell Brand, and gives us this gem:Which begs the following: How would VF cover a Strayed-Brand hookup? Champion of Promiscuity Hooks Up with Misogynist Pig, seems about right.
The feminist schizophrenia in terms of liberated promiscuity coupled with our "rape culture" brings to mind that classic scene in Little Shop of Horrors with Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist and Bill Murray as his masochist patient.
Still funny (and crazy) after all these years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7R0ZxNgC4
Strayed’s character isn’t just promiscuous, she goes in an alley way behind the diner where she’s a waittress and bangs two customers. I presume she’s getting paid.
According to the author, that scene was invented for the film:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/wild-cheryl-strayed_n_6188990.html
Hello “James K.” – I am “James K” (without the period).
This is starting to get confusing. Perhaps we should use our surnames. I am James N. Kennett. I am pleased to make your acquaintance!
In the very same issue, VF has a profile of Russell Brand, and gives us this gem:Which begs the following: How would VF cover a Strayed-Brand hookup? Champion of Promiscuity Hooks Up with Misogynist Pig, seems about right.
The feminist schizophrenia in terms of liberated promiscuity coupled with our "rape culture" brings to mind that classic scene in Little Shop of Horrors with Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist and Bill Murray as his masochist patient.
Still funny (and crazy) after all these years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7R0ZxNgC4
Russell Brand is popular with women BECAUSE he sleeps with a lot of them. Thing is, women want guys who have proven (by sleeping with a lot of women) that he’s worth sleeping with. Contrast, women who sleep around are viewed as low class, not able to attract the undivided attention and devotion of an Alpha male who goes from sleeping with lots of women to only one.
The fantasy of women (just read the stuff like Fifty Shades of Bondage or whatever) is to “tame” an Alpha who can and does sleep with any woman into devotion to just one (her). Women are totally uninterested in men who are already willing to enter into monogamy, figuring the men are just not worth it.
Of course, the obesity epidemic allows this — as the market power of thin attractive women is marked amplified and the lack of need for beta male provision due to increased female earnings and the welfare state allows women their r-selected fantasies to play out in real life.
For some reason I thought of this funny video with Ali G interviewing the world’s hottest feminist, Naomi Wolf. @1:45 he tells Wolf she would make a lot of money if she were required to sell herself. And she thanks him for the compliment.
RE: The Imitation Game,
It’s interesting how famous Turing is among the “lumpengentsia” while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known. Being a homosexual martyr seems to have its advantages.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
illuminatingpenetrating criticism.I like it a lot.
I guess it highlights the laziness of the lumpengentsia.
Who are some geniuses? Not too long ago, a typical American might have said that Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and that Thomas Edison was an inventive genius in electronics. Those guys have been replace by Steve Jobs (manufacturing) and Tesla (electronics). Jobs and Tesla are cooler than Ford and Edison. Why? I say that one reason is that they weren't from the despised flyover country. Also Ford and Edison were WASP-y and Jobs and Tesla were not.
Claude Shannon, a WASP-y straight, white male from Michigan has no chance. At some future time he will be recognized as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. But that may take some time.
I do wish Von Neumann had lived longer. That was a tragic loss.
“Strayed’s character isn’t just promiscuous, she goes in an alley way behind the diner where she’s a waittress and bangs two customers. I presume she’s getting paid.”
According to the author, that scene was invented for the film:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/wild-cheryl-strayed_n_6188990.html
It's interesting how famous Turing is among the "lumpengentsia" while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known. Being a homosexual martyr seems to have its advantages.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
This is a very
illuminatingpenetrating criticism.I like it a lot.
I guess it highlights the laziness of the lumpengentsia.
Is there any support or evidence for the addition to the concluding voiceover? If it isn’t in the book, why put that in the movie? Further, why do you mention it? You don’t discuss it in this article and don’t offer any insights about it? Do you really just like calling women whores? Why?
Uh oh, Steve. You're in trouble now with the Feminist Section of the Outraged Feelings Dept.!
Apparently you are responsible for the content of the movie because you reviewed it. You are also to blame for mentioning that something in a movie while reviewing that movie. You are also at fault for mentioning that a whore was a whore because this is the same as calling all women whores.
Reminds me of how on campus, so many females are able to transmute their post-coital regrets into male pre-coital coercion.
It's interesting how famous Turing is among the "lumpengentsia" while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known. Being a homosexual martyr seems to have its advantages.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
I perceive not only discrimination against straight white males in determining who gets into the lumpengentsia, but also discrimination against Midwesterners.
Who are some geniuses? Not too long ago, a typical American might have said that Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and that Thomas Edison was an inventive genius in electronics. Those guys have been replace by Steve Jobs (manufacturing) and Tesla (electronics). Jobs and Tesla are cooler than Ford and Edison. Why? I say that one reason is that they weren’t from the despised flyover country. Also Ford and Edison were WASP-y and Jobs and Tesla were not.
Claude Shannon, a WASP-y straight, white male from Michigan has no chance. At some future time he will be recognized as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. But that may take some time.
A really smart fellow, true, but if someone asked me to name the greatest American STEM guy in the 19th century, I would have to go with Josiah Willard Gibbs:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs
Is Jobs someone you'd stick in an 'ethnic' box or 'cool' box? He grew up in an unremarkable suburb in Santa Clara County, Ca.; his social background was quite near the American median (working class with moderate prosperity); his sister is unremarkable (bar for having spent nearly all her adult life unmarried); his mother and father came from hard-up Depression-era backgrounds, but only mildly below the social median when you average it out between them (their fathers respectively a general laborer and an insurance agent); and the cultural background of those parents (Wisconsin German and Armenian) seems guaranteed to produce nothing very coherent and particular.
Apparently you’ve never heard of Albert Einstein or Andre Weil, admittedly obscure figures in 20th century mathematics.
Perhaps I am wrong but I don't think Einstein is known for any new field of Mathematics.
My brother used to teach at Webb School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Webb is the school for the children of Knoxville’s wealthy.
At an alumni meeting my brother met a man who had dated Reese Witherspoon a couple of times when both were around 17. Reese went to Harpeth Hall, the rich girl’s school for Nashville. She had already been in several movies at the time.
He said Reese was “very pretty and very smart, but wild.”
Did Reese Witherspoon kill herself?
No, Reese Witherknife.
OT but interesting convo about growing up in LA between Bret E. Ellis and Matt Weiner.
starts at 21:25
http://cdn46.castfire.com/audio/522/3396/25152/2339886/2339886_2014-09-29-115326-7770-0-0-0.64k.mp3?cdn_id=46&uuid=71585272a91d72e0ad7480e0b332e70c&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.podcastone.com%2Fpodcast%3FcategoryID2%3D592
According to the author, that scene was invented for the film:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/wild-cheryl-strayed_n_6188990.html
Note the precise wording… “in an alley.” She is careful to make a statement that implies nothing one way or the other, about anything that may or may not have happened on any occasion when she was not in an alley.
"I had sex with two guys.....just not in an alley"
Or: "I had sex in an alley.....but only with one guy"
You tell me. Reese Witherspoon says that line in the concluding voiceover. The flashbacks show her doing things that no woman in her right mind would do except for money, presumably to pay for heroin. Maybe they are all made up, but they are in the movie. If you don’t like the contents of the movie, take it up with Ms. Witherspoon, who produced it for herself to star in.
Strayed apparently lied about major details such as the background of her father, who apparently is in reality a college grad who had middle class jobs like being a small businessman and a market analyst for a grocery chain rather than a mean steelworker as he's portrayed in the book:
https://www.facebook.com/CherylStrayed.Author/posts/536993549659273
I met Jerry Orbach in the steam room at the Lone Star Boat Club, an old school athletic club that used to be on West 54th. This was the late ’80s or early ’90s when a a college friend of mine belonged. We played basketball and afterwards saw Orbach taking a schvitz. He chatted with us and was amiable. He sounded just like his character in Law and Order, or in Crimes and Misdemeanors. He goes way back, was in original cast of The Fantasticks (he sang Try to Remember), and a movie version of Frederic Exley’s novel A Fan’s Notes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/nyregion/07pinochle.html?_r=0
"(I was behind Witherspoon in line at the grocery store once and she is indeed exceptionally tiny and pretty.)"
I can see that on film. But being tiny doesn't mean she can't carry weight on her back. Look at Sherpa women. I think they can carry near their weight, which is probably no more than 90 pounds.
WEIRD people, especially women, are just very weak. That goes for the Crossfit loonies, as well.
Still waiting for your NORK/Hollywood/Pascal post. Now that Sharpton has stuck his ugly mug into the mix you might get interested?
It is a pseudonym. Her real name is Nyland. And her dad isn’t too happy about her book:
https://www.facebook.com/CherylStrayed.Author/posts/536993549659273
Yeah, her wording (“I never did have sex with two guys in an alley,” ) does allow for some wiggle room:
“I had sex with two guys…..just not in an alley”
Or: “I had sex in an alley…..but only with one guy”
I dunno about Andre Weil, but I imagine that Einstein is better known in Physics than Mathematics.
Perhaps I am wrong but I don’t think Einstein is known for any new field of Mathematics.
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/20th.html
Who are some geniuses? Not too long ago, a typical American might have said that Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and that Thomas Edison was an inventive genius in electronics. Those guys have been replace by Steve Jobs (manufacturing) and Tesla (electronics). Jobs and Tesla are cooler than Ford and Edison. Why? I say that one reason is that they weren't from the despised flyover country. Also Ford and Edison were WASP-y and Jobs and Tesla were not.
Claude Shannon, a WASP-y straight, white male from Michigan has no chance. At some future time he will be recognized as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. But that may take some time.
RE: Edison,
A really smart fellow, true, but if someone asked me to name the greatest American STEM guy in the 19th century, I would have to go with Josiah Willard Gibbs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs
For most other women, video of acting like a drunk, entitled jerk would be damaging, but actually I think Reese Witherspoon is way too adorable in that video for it to have really hurt her.
Well what about making movies about pulling trains in alleyways? Not sure you can maintain a sweetheart image after that.
Not these two. A better two would be Paul Erdős and John von Neumann, Even though the latter converted to Catholicism for marriage and on his deathbed at age 53 summoned a Benedictine priest to hear his confession. Still, I think he counts as Jewish.
Theodore von Kármán (b. 1881), George de Hevesy (b. 1885), Leó Szilárd (b. 1898), Eugene Wigner (b. 1902), Von Neumann (b. 1903) Edward Teller (b. 1908), and Paul Erdős (b. 1913).
Or much of the contents of the film and book could have just been made up. As we’ve seen with the UVA thing, women seem to enjoy making things up for social attention and emotional gratification.
Strayed apparently lied about major details such as the background of her father, who apparently is in reality a college grad who had middle class jobs like being a small businessman and a market analyst for a grocery chain rather than a mean steelworker as he’s portrayed in the book:
https://www.facebook.com/CherylStrayed.Author/posts/536993549659273
MLK “Apparently you’ve never heard of Albert Einstein or Andre Weil, admittedly obscure figures in 20th century mathematics.”
Albert Einstein was not a figure in 20th century mathematics, obscure or otherwise. You should stick to opining on topics you know something about. (In your case that seems to be “I know about Jews!”)
Steve, have you read “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson? There’s a lot of background information on various scientists which would be grist for your mill.
There was one hell of a lot of first rate talent coming out of late 19th-early 20th century Budapest:
Theodore von Kármán (b. 1881), George de Hevesy (b. 1885), Leó Szilárd (b. 1898), Eugene Wigner (b. 1902), Von Neumann (b. 1903) Edward Teller (b. 1908), and Paul Erdős (b. 1913).
https://www.facebook.com/CherylStrayed.Author/posts/536993549659273
So it is a hipster fake-o name. Sounded that way. Thanks.
Theodore von Kármán (b. 1881), George de Hevesy (b. 1885), Leó Szilárd (b. 1898), Eugene Wigner (b. 1902), Von Neumann (b. 1903) Edward Teller (b. 1908), and Paul Erdős (b. 1913).
The one-drop-rule gallops to the rescue once again!
You know it’s a Steve Sailer blog when a post about Reese Witherspoon pulling a train in an alleyway in a movie leads to yet another debate about Jews in the comment thread.
One drop of what, dear fellow? My post was in reference to Budapest; I made no reference to ethnic background.
I saw the movie yesterday. I have been a hiker/backpacker my entire life. I read the book right after it came out, as I have done a lot of miles on the PCT, and wanted to know how a woman could hike that far and ‘heal herself’ – a sort of Live Pray Love On the PCT. As we were going in yesterday, I told my wife that I wanted to see just how the movie would ‘portray’ the PCT, as it was one of the ‘therapists’ that she needed – it ‘healed’ her. I was disappointed. As Steve said, the cinematography was crap – no really good shots of the scenery at all – yeah, a few seconds of Crater Lake. The voice-over was very low and made it sound like she was mumbling – didn’t even catch the last voice-over at the end, it was so gurgled. My wife and I decided that when you get non-outdoor-people to make a ‘hiking’ or ‘outdoor’ movie, they just don’t know how to do it. I liked the book much better.
My post was in reference to Budapest; I made no reference to ethnic background.
Nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
Or is that too English a reference for our fake Englishman?
So, yes, my list was about people from Budapest at the turn of the 20th century.Nothing more. Now, if paranoids wish to read more into what I said, that is their affair, not mine.
Perhaps I am wrong but I don't think Einstein is known for any new field of Mathematics.
There’s also a Cohen and a Cantor:
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/20th.html
“In 2003, I encountered Hulk Hogan at a Tampa mall. He was doing some shopping with his son and, while and trying to stay inconspicuous, did give me a curt “hello” as we passed by each other. He would have been 50 y/o then, was wearing his ubiquitous bandanna, and looked much smaller than in his TV presence.”
WELL YOU KNOW SOMETHING MEAN GENE.
Albert Einstein was not a figure in 20th century mathematics, obscure or otherwise. You should stick to opining on topics you know something about. (In your case that seems to be "I know about Jews!")
Facts are facts, regardless of how discomfiting those in the category of Jewish accomplishment may be to you.
It's interesting how famous Turing is among the "lumpengentsia" while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known. Being a homosexual martyr seems to have its advantages.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon
In his defense, Turing did a lot of the formative work in theoretical computer science. (Computability, Turing machines, etc.)
I do wish Von Neumann had lived longer. That was a tragic loss.
I was talking with a couple of hardcore long-distance hikers recently and they were worried (justifiably) that this film would inspire a large number of copycats to head out for the Pacific Crest Trail, because movie cool bright and shiny hip and edgy and all that. They feared that the experience would be cheapened and dragged down to the lowest common denominator. This, sadly, has happened to many non-mainstream activities or genres over the years when they become mainstreamed. Everything is dumbed down and the overall quality takes a major nosedive. Perhaps one of the best examples is the vampire genre, which used to be genuinely edgy and fringe. Then, along came a certain series that shall remain nameless, and suddenly vampires were hyper-emotional creatures full of teenage angst. No, thank you. I don’t even like telling people I’m into vampire literature – since I’m female and (well, relatively) young, they assume that I’m a fan of you-know-what.
As for “Wild” itself, I think Steve was pretty close to the mark. My guess is the producers were going for the “draw in the feminist demographic, but don’t go so far as to alienate normal people like Eat, Pray, Love did” strategy. From someone who’s explored quite a bit of the High Sierra, northern California, and the Oregon Cascades, there were so many opportunities for scenery porn that just weren’t taken advantage of. Apparently, the producers wanted to focus on a different kind of porn. And yes, most southern Californians do find the desert depressing. Every time I visit Oregon, I just love taking in how green everything is.
I give the film a C-minus.
I met the Buddha on the road one time and I killed him.
Life is difficult, then you die.
A lot of evidence points to Georg Cantor not being Jewish, while at least one notoriously sloppy historian says Cantor was Jewish on both sides.
“It’s interesting how famous Turing is among the “lumpengentsia” while Claude Shannon* (the father of information theory) is so little known.”
Turning and Shannon worked together on one important project doing the war, the secure phone system that allowed Roosevelt and Churchill (and Eisenhower and MacArthur) to talk directly:
In cryptography, SIGSALY (also known as the X System, Project X, Ciphony I, and the Green Hornet) was a secure speech system used in World War II for the highest-level Allied communications.
It pioneered a number of digital communications concepts, including the first transmission of speech using pulse-code modulation. …
…The system was cumbersome, but it worked very effectively. …
…A recording of Churchill talking to Roosevelt is on display in the British Parliament Building….”
The Germans had recorded it, but apparently weren’t even able to figure out that it was a voice system.
If you can’t trust the NSA to get your internet info, I mean, who can you trust?
“Sigsaly – The Start of the Digital Revolution”, J. V. Boone and R. R. Peterson, NSA Historical Publications:
“…Harry Nyquist and Claude Shannon made important contributions. He also relates that the British cryptographer Alan Turing was briefly involved in the development and approved the security aspects of the system for the British.”
(This point based on an article by historian David Kahn in IEEE Spectrum, September 1984, “Cryptology and the Origins of Spread Spectrum”.)
And Strayed has lots of flashbacks that would disturb anybody, such as pulling trains for johns in alleys.
Great. Now I’ll never be able to see things like this:
without detecting a homosexual subtext.
Steve Sailer wrote:
“The digital cinematography is terrible. The whole movie is underexposed, as if the sun never came out that entire summer. I know it would be cliche to make the mountains look like a Galen Rowell pictorial for National Geographic, but they actually do look like that.”
Obviously in this regard, Wild suffers from not borrowing Tarrantino’s cinematography. As you wrote regarding Django Unchained, the one thing that Tarrantino always seems to do well is to frame his shots, especially for that one iconic “look”. Classic hollywood (e.g. Ford, DeMille, Lang, Hitchcock, etc) instinctively knew how to create iconic visuals or “stills” within their best works.
Cinematography then as now remains an art unto itself and its shame when an otherwise critic praiseworthy Oscar bait film lacks an integral component such as outstanding cinematography.
On a lighter note, happy birthday Steve. This passing year saw some of your best work in noticing things before others on the superhighway.
Here’s to 2015 being another amazing year in noticing things.
von Neumann and Grothendieck were at least as good mathematicians as Turing, Gödel and Nash. Really, from that list of five people, only Grothendieck was a pure mathematician. The others poured most of their efforts into applications of mathematics.
You’re thinking of Eric Temple Bell, who claimed that Cantor was fully Jewish, and Ivor Grattan Guinness, who couldn’t find any evidence of Jewish ancestry. There actually is evidence that Georg Cantor had some degree of Jewish ancestry, though he certainly never considered himself a Jew. In a letter to Paul Tannery dated 1886, Cantor wrote that his paternal grandparents belonged to Copenhagen’s Sephardic Jewish community. Cantor’s maternal granduncle was a famous Jewish-born violinist, Joseph Böhm.
When in the 80′s I was working on oil tankers for a company not to be named(they were the best feeder in the US merchant fleet). I worked with a girl from Ca. She was a good shipmate a good seaman or seaperson.She had gone to UCLA for a semester and lived in a tent in a friends backyard. Having decided that college wasn’t for her she moved to Alaska to work at the canneries there.This was migratory work , she would work a few weeks at a cannery and hitch hike to the next one a couple of hundred miles a way and pitch a tent there.
she told me about a trip she made to Africa with a scoundrel she was enamoured of.They started out in North Africa , she her paramour and another man. They hitchhiked south to the border of Zimbabwe. At the border she for some reason was denied entry (she had a US passport theirs were UK.). Her cad of a lover and the other fellow after a moments discussion crossed the border and left her alone in darkest Africa. The poor girl had to turn around and hitch all the way back to N Africa alone.Her return ticket I think was from there and she had no funds to change it. What a trooper . I would have had the vapours myself.
When i knew her she had just bought two Llamas to use as pack animals on some trail in California .Maybe this one.As it turned out one of the beasts was to aggressive to handle and she could only use the other.
She mailed supplies to herself at various businesses along the way to lighten the load and cover what she couldn’t carry.
When last I heard from her she was sailing as second mate on oil tankers.
And they make a movie about a hooer out for a stroll.
“I was behind Witherspoon in line at the grocery store once and she is indeed exceptionally tiny and pretty.”
I’m afraid I can’t agree with the “pretty” business. Reese has a bizarre Jay Leno chin, and a lumpy forehead that offends me. Furthermore, her forehead is growing disquietingly more lumpy as she heads into middle-age.
Aesthetically, she is qualified as a door greeter on the Island of Dr. Moreau, nothing more.
“Hooer out for a stroll” Classic
Wild, indeed. Judging by her overdeveloped and frankly unappealing chin, which signals high testosterone, Reese Witherspoon must have a strong sexual drive. Her chin just ruins her otherwise pretty face and feminine body. Still prettier than 90% of Hollywood actresses.
Maybe. But AEI is hysterical too as it’s in cahoots with nuts like Adelson.
I do wish Von Neumann had lived longer. That was a tragic loss.
I’m certainly not claiming that Turing did not do important work.He did.But so did other people (cf my reference to Claude Shannon).Turing’s current high level of fame seems to have more to do with his sexuality than with his scientific achievements. The Left wants a Gay martyr to celebrate.
Turing had the Turing Machine, the concept of computability, and the Turing Test to make for ready bloviating. Shannon had information theory -- which means what to the average intelligent layman?
How many people know anything about von Neumann? But how many know about Schrodinger because of his cat?
I will grant of course that the current interest in Turing stems from his homosexuality in no small part. But you do have to grant as well that being put in a position, as he supposedly was, in which suicide seemed like the only option because of his sexuality, makes for good drama.
Nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
Or is that too English a reference for our fake Englishman?
Dear boy, I do not play coy games when it comes to Jews. I leave that kind of idiocy to others.When I talk about Jews, I am quite explicit.
So, yes, my list was about people from Budapest at the turn of the 20th century.Nothing more. Now, if paranoids wish to read more into what I said, that is their affair, not mine.
Interesting side note about Shannon.He did quite well at blackjack:
Perhaps that might engender some interest in Hollywood…..
Since I’m on something of a Shannon kick, here’s a video tribute to him. It’s title? “The Most Important Person You’ve Probably Never Heard Of”:
http://twistedsifter.com/videos/claude-shannon-father-of-information-theory/
I’ve often wondered if Claude Shannon was the inspiration for Dr. Laurence Waterhouse in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.
Who are some geniuses? Not too long ago, a typical American might have said that Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and that Thomas Edison was an inventive genius in electronics. Those guys have been replace by Steve Jobs (manufacturing) and Tesla (electronics). Jobs and Tesla are cooler than Ford and Edison. Why? I say that one reason is that they weren't from the despised flyover country. Also Ford and Edison were WASP-y and Jobs and Tesla were not.
Claude Shannon, a WASP-y straight, white male from Michigan has no chance. At some future time he will be recognized as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. But that may take some time.
I say that one reason is that they weren’t from the despised flyover country. Also Ford and Edison were WASP-y and Jobs and Tesla were not.
Is Jobs someone you’d stick in an ‘ethnic’ box or ‘cool’ box? He grew up in an unremarkable suburb in Santa Clara County, Ca.; his social background was quite near the American median (working class with moderate prosperity); his sister is unremarkable (bar for having spent nearly all her adult life unmarried); his mother and father came from hard-up Depression-era backgrounds, but only mildly below the social median when you average it out between them (their fathers respectively a general laborer and an insurance agent); and the cultural background of those parents (Wisconsin German and Armenian) seems guaranteed to produce nothing very coherent and particular.
Eat, Love, Pray.
Shoot-up, Whore, Hike.
Whatever.
@syon
I find it interesting that Claude Shannon died from Alzheimer’s. The teaching profession has one of the highest rates of Alzheimer’s. Right up there with bank tellers and clergy.
Karen said, “Is there any support or evidence for the addition to the concluding voiceover? If it isn’t in the book, why put that in the movie? Further, why do you mention it? You don’t discuss it in this article and don’t offer any insights about it? Do you really just like calling women whores? Why?”
Uh oh, Steve. You’re in trouble now with the Feminist Section of the Outraged Feelings Dept.!
Apparently you are responsible for the content of the movie because you reviewed it. You are also to blame for mentioning that something in a movie while reviewing that movie. You are also at fault for mentioning that a whore was a whore because this is the same as calling all women whores.
Reminds me of how on campus, so many females are able to transmute their post-coital regrets into male pre-coital coercion.
I think that Turing’s popularity was always greater than Shannon’s, mostly because virtually everything that Shannon did was relatively abstract and esoteric in nature, and didn’t make for easy understanding for the chattering classes who drive popularity.
Turing had the Turing Machine, the concept of computability, and the Turing Test to make for ready bloviating. Shannon had information theory — which means what to the average intelligent layman?
How many people know anything about von Neumann? But how many know about Schrodinger because of his cat?
I will grant of course that the current interest in Turing stems from his homosexuality in no small part. But you do have to grant as well that being put in a position, as he supposedly was, in which suicide seemed like the only option because of his sexuality, makes for good drama.
Me too. My first love is the Appalachians, but arid landscapes have a particular, Spartan allure. Well, the ones with some topography, anyway.
Did you take his stuff?
SoCalMike: do you like The Postman? My favorite nature-porn film.
Or how discomfiting those in the category of Jewish may find those accomplishments.
MLK Facts are facts, regardless of how discomfiting those in the category of Jewish accomplishment may be to you.
People who feel this peculiar need to gin up “Jewish accomplishment” are suffering from some sort of psychological disorder. When it comes right down to it there is vanishingly little difference between the Jew-worshipers and the Jew-haters. Both suffer from a grotesquely overblown notion of the importance of Jews … they just respond to that mistaken belief in different fashions.
And you wouldn’t recognize a fact if one dropped out of the sky and landed on your empty little head. You were calling Einstein one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century. One of the oddities of commenters here is what while they like to talk a great deal about the importance of intelligence, they don’t seem to possess much of it themselves.
Um, von Neumann wasn’t one of the greatest mathematical minds of the 20th century?
There’s a ton of prominent jews in the history of 20th century mathematics.
Alfred Tarski, Paul Cohen, Peter Lax, Emmy Noether, Norbert Weiner, Andre Weil, Jacques Hadamard, Alexander Grothendieck, Otto Toeplitz, John Von Neumann, Frigyes Riesz, Tullio Levi-Civita, Laurent Schwartz, Stanislaw Ulam, George Pólya, Solomon Lefschetz, Jacques Hadamard, Felix Hausdorff, Vito Volterra, Ed Witten, Efim Zelmanov, Paul Erdős, Theodore von Kármán.
Many of them(Grothendieck/Weiner/Tarski/Von Neumann/Schwartz/Hausdorff/Noether) would probably be considered of similar stature as Gödel/Turing/Nash.
Alfred Tarski, Paul Cohen, Peter Lax, Emmy Noether, Norbert Weiner, Andre Weil, Jacques Hadamard, Alexander Grothendieck, Otto Toeplitz, John Von Neumann, Frigyes Riesz, Tullio Levi-Civita, Laurent Schwartz, Stanislaw Ulam, George Pólya, Solomon Lefschetz, Jacques Hadamard, Felix Hausdorff, Vito Volterra, Ed Witten, Paul Erdős, Theodore von Kármán
SoCalMike: do you like The Postman? My favorite nature-porn film.Or how discomfiting those in the category of Jewish may find those accomplishments.
There are too many (movies AND television) to name (been diggin’ that Alaska show Life Below Zero), but a few that come to mind are Quest for Fire, any mountain climbing movie you can think of, and my favorite western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
What are some others?
For what it’s worth, John Von Neumann died a Catholic. From his Wiki page:
SoCalMike: do you like The Postman? My favorite nature-porn film.Or how discomfiting those in the category of Jewish may find those accomplishments.
Too many to name, but Quest for Fire and (my favorite western) Good Bad and Ugly are up there. I’ve really been into that Alaska show on NatGeo called Life Below Zero – great scenery in that.
@bemused, her name was changed to Strayed after a divorce.
“In 1995, the same year she legally changed her last name, Strayed set off on a 1,100-mile hike along the West Coast of the United States on the Pacific Crest Trail…” http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-strayed
I think Anonymous’s head just popped.
“Sounds like a film for women. Now if it had some sweet roads to drift on then Paul Walker would totally kick asses in this movie.”
When Paul Walker first burst on the scene in Hollywood, he starred in a chick flick called “She’s All That”.
I give you Gödel and Turing and you give me Frigyes Riesz and Tullio Levi-Civita. My original point still stands. And I would like to extend it and say that higher mathematics is almost exclusively a product of the Gentile/Christian mind. Fourier, Reimann, Gauss, Laplace, Cauchy, Lagrange, Weierstrass, Euler, Leibniz, Newton, Fermat, Poincaré, Frege, Fibonacci, Pascal, Gödel, Turing, … But of course, this is the one group in history that is not self-promoting and self-congratulating so it is not often said.