virus: Apollonian light

Michelle Lee Gendvil (shellybe@gladstone.uoregon.edu)
Tue, 22 Jul 1997 16:12:03 -0700 (PDT)


On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Tim Rhodes wrote:

> Remember way back when Tim you asked me to back up a few things in
relation to the memetic perspective? Well, I am afraid you were right, I
alluded the question in my reactive defensiveness. Now that my self esteem
is redeemed I think it only fair to answer your question. But first I'm
curious, what do you mean be "scrappy"? I can honestly say I've never
heard that one.

Often when a female admires a hyper-educated,
> "egotistic" male, the male will use his knowledge and
> overconfidence as a means of seducing the female. The most
discouraging part is when the female elaborates on something she
> knows a lot about, the man really doesn't seem to give a shit. His
eyes glaze over and he somehow manages to manipulate the topic of
conversation to a subject he knows "all" about. If the female
> counterpart argues a point made by the male counterpart, she
> is wrong because male always get final word.

> >How can one attack and disable that meme?
What are its weaknesses and
> strengths? What antibody memes will interfere with its reproduction?
> >
It will take some very clever tactics by some very smart women.
I saw this intellegence in the movie _Live_Nude_Girls. The women
do not ultimately deny their sexuality, which I admire. Although
there was too strong of an emphasis on the "women as victim of men"
perspective.

> So my answer is that it will take the birth of a "virus" that will
make the most influential memes, those which the largest amount
of people across cultural boundaries are "infected"
with. The "strong" man meme is outdated. The man no longer needs to
hunt for food to provide for his family or fight off predators or
even wars for that matter. As we reach a new millenium I think we
are also reaching an end to this meme because it is no longer
necessary for the propagation of the human species. Also, it is no
longer necessary for women to bat their eyelashes to get a man,
brains are in. Beauty (in my opinion) in the "super model" or
ultra feminine sense is out (who the hell can live up to Cindy
Crawford or Kate Moss, better yet who would want to?). Hey, I'll
be happy to pay for my own meal if that means I am no longer an
object and I can make .35 more an hour (and expectations are on an
equivalent plane, ha ha).
Are pretentious yuppies still admired? It seems to me that
these are the people who are being laughed at. I read _Spy_ and
_Details_ once in a while just to see what is going on in the
"post-modern fashion world". I enjoy these
magazines at a certain level because they promote a genre in which
the "nerds" are transcended above the arficiality of the world, even
though they are a part of it, at the same time they make fun of it
the way it previously made fun of them. I don't know if Bill Gates
was a nerd in high school, but if he was, look whose laughing now.

The "iconic" figures in the "post-modern" genre are the
folks we've labeled "nerd" since the advent of computers.
My thought is that there is a very powerful meme spreading right now
that is allowing those with the knowledge in science and technology
to laugh at all those old stereotypes that were spread by way of the
"iconic stud meme".

Sorry for the overelaborate and indirect way of answering your
question, hell, I don't even know if that answered it (my
mom is responsible for the overly talkative gene and my dad
the overly analytical gene. Dangerous combo.)

The phallic sun, forever fluctuating between rising and setting,
coming into being and passing away, is transformed into the
immutable source of light. It enters the realm of solar being,
leaving behind it all idea of fecundation, all yearning for
mixture with feminine matter....Apollo frees himself entirely from
any bond with woman.
- Johanm Jakob Bachofen

I'm curious Tim if you might be able to guess my focus of study.

;> Michelle