Meanwhile, in Showbiz News
Kevin Williamson pokes through the mental wreckage of writer and actress Lena Dunham:
Lena Dunham is fond of lists. Here is a list of things in Lena Dunham’s life that do not strike Lena Dunham as being unusual: growing up in a $6.25 million Tribeca apartment; attending a selection of elite private schools; renting a home in Hollywood Hills well before having anything quite resembling a job and complaining that the home is insufficiently “chic”; the habitual education of the men in her family at Andover; the services of a string of foreign nannies; being referred to a homework therapist when she refused to do her homework and being referred to a relationship therapist when she fought with her mother; constant visits to homeopathic doctors, and visits to child psychologists three times a week; having a summer home on a lake in Connecticut, and complaining about it; writing a “voice of her generation” memoir in which ordinary life events among members of her generation, such as making student-loan payments or worrying about the rent or health insurance, never come up; making casual trips to Malibu; her grandparents’ having taken seven-week trips to Europe during her mother’s childhood; spending a summer at a camp at which the costs can total almost as much as the median American family’s annual rent; being histrionically miserable at said camp and demanding to be brought home early; demanding to be sent back to the same expensive camp the next year.
That’s the first paragraph. From there on in he’s less forgiving.
Minnow and friends –
Heh.
David, smiter of the trolls:
http://94.136.40.103/~ukfilmnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thor-dark-world-hammer-lightning.jpg
See, now you’re just trying to flatter me and appease my terrible wrath.
Hey, this could work.
A show of hands, if you would.
Also late but glad you did.
Hmmm – reality is a little more like this…..
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kuy371WjG51qaqddyo1_500.png
If her sister doesn’t mind, why should we?
Erm, isn’t that rather the whole point about that age of consent thing? That toddlers are not in a position to “not mind” somebody fiddling with their privates. This is Roman Polanski all over again.
Hmmm – reality is a little more like this…..
Don’t shatter their illusions. I’m only thinking of them, you understand.
A show of hands, if you would.
Oh, yes. Late – but the votes just piled in too quickly.
My hand is in the air (plus a shameless bribe).
Call it piling-on if you will, but I’d still like to register my approval. I don’t think I’ve ever endorsed a ban-hammer outside of outright racism/antisemitism/raw unqualified hate, but as I said before the graffiti was becoming quite tiresome.
As to Steveageddon:
David – I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone who is quite as shameless in their mala fides as our Minnow. It’s like arguing with an Old Testament serpent.
I’ve found you don’t have to venture far into ivory tower academia, especially in the area of philosophy, to find many schools of such fish teaching young minds to think and doing it with our tax dollars, US/UK and I presume beyond. I can even name one or two who use this sort of reasoning and teach “ethics” of all things.
Is anyone else here tiring of Minnow’s trolling and habitual dishonesty? A show of hands, if you would
Aye
My hand is in the air (plus a shameless bribe).
Well, for a while it was kind of interesting to watch someone enacting some of the rhetorical manoeuvres I’ve tried to highlight over the years. A live example, as it were. But the benefits of that are soon outweighed by other factors. Not least that attempting discussion feels pointless if you know in advance that no significant error will ever be conceded, no matter what you say or how much evidence you provide.
I see from the spam filter that Minnow would have us believe that he/she has been banished to the Phantom Zone unfairly, on account of daring to disagree with other commenters here (and by implication, with me):
Yes, speaking truth to power, modestly, right to the bitter end. And yet… others who’ve disagreed with me and this heathen rabble, often at length – and including of course several members of this heathen rabble – are still very much welcome here. Whether they’re articulate, like Dr Dawg and Georges, or bizarre, like Sandwichman and Far-Centre Loony, or just abusive morons, like rv. (Oh, I miss rv.) Which suggests there might be something else to consider, beyond mere disagreement.
Also, bribery works.
Oops- too late putting my two penn’orth in.
Never liked him/her/it anyway.
I think – cannot be sure: it was a few lifetimes ago – that I had a touch of the Minnow in me when I was a teenager.
Then I grew up. Oddly, I have a lot less to say these days, though I am always pleased to read folk, mostly much younger than me, who have excellent bullshit detectors.
What Jeff Wood said. When I was in my 20’s, my version of winning an argument was not evidence, but ‘cleverness.’ Indeed, evidence was something I demanded of other people.
But then I got a job that required results and direct consequence for being wrong.
If I may pile in on the video/link fest, I find this clip to be rather appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5kPUFxXYLs
Good Lord!
Anyway, for anyone interested in the continuing theme of young privileged middle class women shamelessly trivialising serious crimes such as rape and sexual assault and exploitation this is a little related.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Dunham is lying as such – I actually think it’s worse than that.
Claims to have experienced rape, sexual assault or exploitation clearly seems to have become the must have blemish du jour for the aspiring Radical Feminist and she is simply following that trend as a voice for her generation might be expected to.
Just as there was once a time when it was modish among aspiring Leftist radicals from well-to-do or affluent backgrounds to root around in their family tree until they could dig up an Irish navvie or perhaps a Bradford mill hand amongst their ancestors as proof of the correct political background, so it now seems the thing to do for certain young women is to tell all the world that they have been a victim of rape.
I think this is why it is so common with such confessions that the supposed victim doesn’t actually seem to be sure what happened and has to have it explained to them, or that they don’t realise until a good while later what’s happened to them.
I assume this is supposed to convey the effect of being numbed by a trauma beyond words, but more often than not it just reeks of absolute bullshit.
And of course the moment anyone starts to suggest that, they’ve immediately fallen into the well-laid trap about the long history of victims who are ignored or never believed.
Similarly, when it is suggested that they go to the police if they truly believe that they have been the victim of this crime, this is the opportunity to wheel out derisory comments against police ‘bastards’ and the apparently dismal prosecution rate for alleged rapists – something which is always and ever seen as a failure of the justice system.
“When I walked home, it didn’t occur to me that I had been raped.” declares the author of this prime example of the genre.
I may sound quite harsh, but all this “There can be no debate because rape” shite has got to stop, it really has.
Apart from anything else, I find it an inexcusable insult to anyone who has actually experienced this crime and to their families and loved ones – which include men, fathers, brothers, husbands, sons – but who I’ve never seen heard or mentioned as being collateral.
To exploit rape in order to advance dubious political goals or enhance one’s celebrity status is an absolute and total fucking disgrace.
When I was 17, my dad was so ignorant I could barely stand to be in the same room as him.
By 10 years later… well, he hadn’t really changed. But I had come to the realisation that I was an obnoxious little shit and it was testament to the man’s self restraint that he only gave me the one half-hearted punch in the mouth the day I was kicked out of the house. God knows I deserved it.
I’d like to say being in the forces taught me to grow up, but to be honest it was more like school and I was a mouthy little bastard there too. I got to do a lot of guard duty and cleaning for my witty retorts. I used that time to hone my comedy routines further.
For some reason, my genius was never rewarded with a promotion to general. However, I can proudly say that Britain didn’t lose a single war on my watch.
It wasn’t till I had to fend for myself, without parents, teachers, or NCO’s to tell me what to do or put up with my nonsense, that I learned anything.
If I had a time machine, I’d probably steal historical artifacts of value and get a selfie taken with Elvis Presley. But I’d also drop in on my younger self and give him a shoeing.
Then I’d build a palace on the proceeds of my chronocrimes and own the world’s biggest collection of cats.
Not that I see much evidence of narcissism beyond the norm.
SO revealing, that.
And thanks for hitting the Mute button. He had definitely overstayed his welcome.
Ms. Dunham shares more than a few traits with Laurie Penny.
I think the ‘paedophile’ in this case was eight years old.
I had two younger sisters and it never EVER occurred to me to pry open their pudenda at any age.
Or are we going with the “erection equals consent” theory?
Ehn. Showbiz news?
Or merely commentary on someone that occasionally winds up in the vicinity of showbiz occurrences, without any actual discussion of some production or another?
I have a definite interest in storytelling and playing with pictures, and thus movies and theatre and related Stuff . . . and rather only very irregularly bother with reading news feeds that are flagged as Entertainment.
EntertainMENT news is all about the processes and occurrences and productions and is quite interesting.
EntertainER news is merely the latest entirely boring round of who threw up on whom which time . . .
. . . and both extremely separate concepts keep getting labelled as the same.
Hal – you never heard of Bing Crosby or Danny Kaye getting up to the shenanigans modern entertainers do.
Modern entertainers are rubbish.
That was when what people could ‘do’ had greater value than what they ‘seemed to be’.
Re Minnow:
yes, evasiveness; carefully choosing which arguments to ignore; then pouncing on an opportunity to score a minor point; condescension; and so many unclear implications: of arguments, but mainly implied criticisms…
The intent did seem to be to spoil the fun – certainly not an honest exchange of views – and indeed I tended to groan inwardly when I saw Minnow’s name, followed by the tortuous to-and-fro.
If you think Lena Dunham is an intriguing case, have a look at her father’s paintings and her mother’s photos. They may explain some things.
Eep.
Lemme guess: NSFW
I’ll have to wait until I get home to see that, if at all.
Girl needs therapy but instead gets an enormous stage to play out all her pathologies.
Yay us.
Lemme guess: NSFW
Pretty much. Especially daddy’s handiwork.
Well, I was wondering about our friend Minnow. Mainly “how long ’til we’re done with him?” I can’t disagree with the outcome.
Just looked up NSFW – bit sheltered, slightly shocked. Many aspects of her parents’ Art seem to have been reproduced in the way she has fashioned herself for public consumption: exhibitionism, provocative staging, calculated vulgarity and a desire to offend. In these instances, without any discernible deeper meaning. Much safer constituents in two – dimensional artworks than in a real-life human being.
RY – Not to mention highly conventional and very adolescent, although I may just be paraphrasing your observations.
wtp – I’ve found you don’t have to venture far into ivory tower academia, especially in the area of philosophy, to find many schools of such fish teaching young minds to think and doing it with our tax dollars, US/UK and I presume beyond. I can even name one or two who use this sort of reasoning and teach “ethics” of all things.
I think you’re spot on, both in general and specifically in this case.
The Lurker on the Threshold – Yes, highly conventional, and adolescence is the theme that runs through all of it. With an absence of anything real to say, it creates something of an intellectual vacuum. Although there will always be a market for it as it appears ‘eye-catching’ and ‘edgy’ and therefore desirable.
@Steve
However, I can proudly say that Britain didn’t lose a single war on my watch.
Neither on mine. Though I watched from my couch in the middle of the USA. That’s how you got Port Stanley back.
Send me a ham at Christmas.
“…I had a touch of the Minnow in me when I was a teenager”
“Ieder mens heeft een Minnow in zich. Voor sommige ongelukkige komt de Minnow echt naar buiten.”
Progressive or conservative? Brian scans betray the disgusting truth
Oh, piffle.
Clearly instead of scanning Brian, they should have been scanning Susie or Freddy or Charles or Wilma, and then everything would have been perfectly fine . . . .
R. Sherman – I’ll send you two hams if you keep Piers Morgan and Russell Brand.
Please, please keep Russell Brand! Anything to get him off the BBC. God help us, he might want to run for Mayor of London. It’s like a nightmare.
My Brian was “hardwired” to be devoutly Catholic and Leftist when I was 18 or so.
Now it’s agnostic, cynical and libertarian.
But then again, I am a product of Britain in the 1960s, so it probably wasn’t put together properly in the first place.
Alas, poor Minnow…. That reminds me, I’m having fish for dinner tonight. No doubt he’ll be back in another form.
As for Dunham, I think her Fathers painting has scared me Gay.
Another narcissist in show biz. Shocker.
It seems she’s at least minimally talented as a writer, but that doesn’t make her interesting enough to care about. Lots of minimally talented writers out there, most of whom don’t shove their weirdness in my face. I prefer it that way.
Another narcissist in show biz. Shocker.
Yes, but in Minnow’s tribe, having talent — ARTISTIC talent, that is — exempts you from any and all rules, standards, morals, and judgement.
You’re too VALUABLE to Humanity, ya precious thing! Express yourself to us unworthy mortals without restraint or internal control.
In Minnow’s tribe, being a talented artist should mean someone has special status. But if said artist demonstrated they held the ‘wrong’ views on the ‘right’ issues, they’d be pulled to pieces by those (including Minnow) who disapprove of their opinions. Talent doesn’t count if you’re not in the right club.
Sorry for banging on, but if Lena Dunham were pro-life,and hadn’t voted for Barack Obama, she almost certainly wouldn’t have had her career. Regardless of talent.
I don’t follow celebrity tattle and could have happily lived in ignorance of Lena Dunham and her pronouncements. There are only so many cartoonish narcissists you want in your head at any given time (and Laurie Penny got there first). But Ms Dunham, who says her parents coached her to feel talented and attractive, strikes me as a woman whose career is based on rationalising her own colossal self-involvement. Hence the memoir from someone in her twenties and its inadvertently comical contents. From what I can make out, her chief accomplishment is a TV series that expects us to empathise with obnoxiously self-preoccupied people who whine to each other about situations of their own making, and of course themselves.
Though at a time when Russell Brand is invited onto supposedly serious news programmes, on practically every channel, to share at length his thoughts on global economics, a subject he apparently knows nothing about, I suppose you have to pay celebrity figures some kind of attention.
Apparently she’s now annoyed that people didn’t like her abusing her younger sister.
I was actually surprised to see at this, Minnow’s last blog appearance, that he did not evince any kind of internal consistency. Surely Lena Dunham’s behavior is as predatory and climbing as any corporate CEO repressing their poor, doomed employees, but she deserves all praise and high honors because…art?
Yikes.
I suppose if I’d read more closely I’d’ve discovered the total cognitive dissonance before, though.
she strikes me as oddly oblivious to how she seems.
Ya think?
http://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/lena-dunham-threatens-sue-truth-revolt-quoting-her