[ExI] Her

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

I just saw Her, and frankly, I am not smitten.

A gentle, pastel Singularity, written by and for literature majors, has
peculiarities: All the issues of interest to a man of my persuasion, such
as ideas, mechanisms, major processes, are "delete from inbox without
reading" while endless droning about childless, crappy or delusional
relationships takes the center stage. Curiously wimpy men in high-waist
pants (late 50s nerd style?) interact confusedly with somewhat bitchy women
in clean urban spaces, to the tune of Muzak, an androgynous utopia. As the
movie studiously avoids mentioning anything that might interest me, it
becomes a metaphor for literature studies, which tend to elevate language
to an end in itself, rather than a mere medium to convey ideas.

An expert on the matter told me once that I have a limited emotional
repertoire. I am assuming he meant this as a put-down of sorts but I see
this as a blessing in my quest to see the heart of the matter, rather than
matters of the heart. It makes me immune to Her appeal. Let the literature
majors go on dates to watch Her.

Now, I don't want to speak too unkindly of the effort: It's a pleasant,
kind, humane doodle, in the AI-singularity genre a welcome respite from the
terminators and human-body-heat-powered monstrosities. And this little
review is not a boorish attack on literature majors, more of a gentle
chiding.The engineers among you might find the movie intellectually wanting
but if you bring a lit or psych major along on this date, you will find a
lot to talk about Her.

Rafal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20140118/009e29d0/attachment.html>