Terror.
You know... it is really hard to offend me. I was at an MIT lecture once where the audience was blindsided with 20 minutes of hardcore transexual porn, but it made me more bored than anything. This though is the sort of shit that really gets under my skin. I suppose there are two kinds of people in the world: the people who would find this kind of prank funny and those who would find it the most base form of human cruelty. I am one of the latter. Maybe it's because I was a child with a powerful imagination, and I remember what it was like to stay up nights literally screaming because of a single picture I saw in a ghost story book.
Pay close attention to the child's face in the video. Feel the laugh catch in your throat as you see how hurt he really is. You can see the horror cutting through the child's brain like a knife. I think a video of this kid being beat to tears would have felt about the same.
Pay close attention to the child's face in the video. Feel the laugh catch in your throat as you see how hurt he really is. You can see the horror cutting through the child's brain like a knife. I think a video of this kid being beat to tears would have felt about the same.
posted by Matthew "Sajon" Weise at
5:05 PM
4 Comments:
I vaguely remember that it was 10 minutes of gay porn, not 20 minutes of transsexual porn. Even the director noted how boring it was.
While I agree that this was a nasty, nasty prank, and I wouldn't wish it on any kid, my most vivid memories of my childhood are of me being scared of my wits, and if that's what it takes for me to remember what it's like to be a kid, I think I'm better off for it.
Looking back at a silent clip from Ang Lee's "The Incredible Hulk" on a big screen from a distance in an electronics showroom, I remembered how terrifying I found the Banner-Hulk transformation in the old Lou Ferrigno TV series. I think the modern remake could really have worked well as a horror film, rather than an epic action piece.
Horror and adrenaline are powerful tools in an entertainer's toolkit, be they storytellers or game developers, and I think every craftsman in these fields would benefit from wielding it as best as they can.
By
Philip, at 9:01 PM
Okay, it was probably more like 10-15 minutes, but it was *was* transexual. (It was men with vaginas, Philip. How could you forget that?) It was a panel of transexual writers, poets, and filmmakers and one was an exotic dancer/porn director. I'm pretty sure he didn't think his clip was boring. He said it was "hot 70's style action" or something, and he clearly relished the act of inflicting it on an academic audience.
Isn't it funny now vivid my memory of lecures involving porn is? :D
By
Matthew "Sajon" Weise, at 11:38 AM
I believe the director said something like "well, it's two guys, but otherwise it looks exactly like vanilla porn, so it's not very interesting." He then went on to stuff that was considered "more interesting." I had a lot of fun looking at our classmates' reactions that day.
By
Philip, at 9:47 PM
Hmmm. I don't remember that. I remember one clip, and I remember he seemed to think it was interesting enough to let run for 10+ minutes. Maybe he made some off-hand comment about it not being Shakespeare or something, but I don't remeber him downplaying it much.
Anyway, I think it's funny that you and I have conflicting memories of the same event. I guess that's what happens when you show porn in lecture halls.
By
Matthew "Sajon" Weise, at 12:02 PM
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