(no subject)

[lapsedmodernist]

Giant Panda Basi celebrated her 25th birday yesteday in Fuzhou, China.

I don't know why these photographs just made me intensely sad and disturbed.




I think I am having some kind of Panda-specific cousin of the Uncanny Valley.

Comments

[mashuta.livejournal.com]

mabe it's cuz pandas are supposed to eat fuckin BAMBOO?!?! and not with a FORK?!? oi vie. well, i suppose a little cake never killed anyone... or has it?

[nearly-there.livejournal.com]

i suppose a little cake never killed anyone...

Well, let's hope that a little cake never killed a panda. Or that the cake is made with bamboo shoot paste or something. Sad and disturbing is totally, totally right.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

well, yeah, I imagine the cake is something the Panda can eat, but...it's just so sad and pointless.

[lonna.livejournal.com]

no wonder these animals don't reproduce in captivity. who'd want to put their children through the same shitty live, wearing a stupid crown and eating cake with a spoon or a fork.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

Thank you for exposing me to that concept, and giving me a name for the feeling I felt when seeing commercials where babies talk. I also think that was the problem with the Polar Express, where the creatures had expressions, but soulless eyes (I never saw it, but the commercials creeped me out).

[pdanielson.livejournal.com]

Ugh. You're right. Those are really creepy for some reason. It's like they're doing the animal equivalent of "de-humanizing" the panda, if that makes any sense.

amadea weighing in with Objective Truth

[amadea.livejournal.com]

You are feeling sad and disturbed because THEY ARE SAD AND DISTURBING.

"love you obviously, like you really care/even though you treat me/Like a dancing bear"

that bear has lost its dignity.

Re: amadea weighing in with Objective Truth

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

"love you obviously, like you really care/even though you treat me/Like a dancing bear"

you are totally right! that IS the objective truth! It's not the Uncanny Valley, or it if is, it's the Magnetic Fields variation of it.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

zombie valley.

excellent!

[amarama.livejournal.com]

Wow! Wow! I never knew about the Uncanny Valley! I wonder if there's applications of that theory to understanding prejudice? I can see where that would get way too close to eugenics too fast, but it could also be turned the other way.

Thanks!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

hmmmm that is interesting, I never thought about it that way, but I can totally see where you are going with this. I think it connects with cultural parameters of abjection in that sense. Hm. Will need to think about it more.

[sui-generis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find almost all captive animals sad and disturbing, so I'm right there with ya.

[downward--dog.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm embarassed to be a human.

[sun-moon.livejournal.com]

Right there with you.