“Tear into my heart; Make me do it again…”
Animated .gif images creep me the fuck out.
I watch them keep running through the same action.
Over and over and over again.
And every time I do, I imagine some blighted wasteland, where nothing but rubble – and a monitor playing the image – exist.
No one watching.
Just the pointless action, devoid of meaning – since it’s devoid of observers – cycling endlessly.
It makes me think of hypergamy, too.
It makes me think of being shot-down because I drive a shitty car.
Only to see the same woman take the bus home.
It makes me think of the woman that rebuffs me for being too ‘intense’.
Only to learn she went home and read about a sadistic billionaire brutalizing a willing. young heroine.
It makes me think of being ‘written off’ because I give useful, honest advice.
Only to see her bathe in the warmth of platitudes and false – yet comforting – hope.
Click ‘Like’.
Take a photo of this meal to preserve its epicurian glory.
Hold the Starbucks cup so the logo can be seen.
Same with your iPhone.
Lust after sparkling vampires because no man is strong enough to lift a Buick.
Pine for the fictional Scotsman with washboard abs and a noble title.
Keep climbing the status ladder-
Until you find there’s nothing at the top but emptiness.
See, you’ve reached Mr. Tyrell’s goal:
“More human than human”.
And, like the motto says:
There are no people there.
Just an image of Orson Welles.
Applauding your accomplishment.
Endlessly.
Ω
80-Proof Oinomancy 
October 24, 2013 at 6:07 am
Reminds me of this joke except switch the genders:
http://www.guzer.com/jokes/jladdersuccess.php
October 24, 2013 at 6:09 am
Nice!
Haven’t heard from you in a while.
I hope you are well.
October 24, 2013 at 8:30 am
I’ve heard a similar joke with women and looking into a department store for husbands.
Constantly looking for better seems to lead to missing what works well enough that stands before your eyes and finding nothing.
October 24, 2013 at 9:04 am
Another bitter truth I should have known…but it only came to me after another discussion.
Women are in love with their imagination…not with the actual man standing in front of them.
October 25, 2013 at 2:40 am
I’m saying that here, certainly.
And I’m sure I’ve said such on this blog, before, as well.
October 25, 2013 at 3:12 pm
You can use this to your advantage.
October 25, 2013 at 7:38 pm
To me, what Ace writes of here is unspeakable tragedy.
It’s in her nature to be hypergamous. She’ll repeat the same conduct, over and over and over again. She’ll never learn. She literally cannot help it.
She’ll blast a good man out of the water; and give her best, most valuable assets to the least deserving men. Oh, it will feel good for a moment or three. Until the luster wears off; or she gets a disease, or she gets bored, or her friends say they don’t like him.
It will ultimately rob her of her best. And then destroy her.
And it will play out thousands upon thousands of times.
And nothing, nothing that you, or Ace, or I, or anyone else says or does can stop that.
Nothing.
October 26, 2013 at 2:22 am
Deti,
Ever since I hit publish on this piece, I’ve been overwhelmingly proud of it.
I feel it’s one of my best.
And you’ve no idea how disappointed I was to see this get so small a reaction.
What you say about it was exactly what I was trying to convey.
“She’ll repeat the same conduct, over and over and over again. She’ll never learn. She literally cannot help it. “
“I watch them keep running through the same action.
Over and over and over again.”
Look at it carefully.
From its full-circle format [mimicking an animated .gif; the opening image is the closing image, too]
To its allusion to Ozymandias.
To its tie-in with a well-known dystopian future.
To choosing Citizen Kane, with its protagonist’s death bed realization. Think “Rosebud”.
I write using a technique photographer’s call “negative space”.
In short:
What is not explicitly shown is a significant portion of the message.
My sincerest thanks for your comment.
– A♠
October 26, 2013 at 4:50 am
Ace, look at so many here. Look at the multitude of views, ideas, hopes. None the less, boil them down, and it all comes back to women; wanting them, and relating to–and with–them. How, and to a lesser extent, why, and if. Manosphere, they call it, and what do we talk about? Women.
So you stand up and you expose the destruction they have wrought. “Look,” you say, “upon the despair of the mighty. Look upon their fallen greatness.”
Those would have been wives, lovers, companions. The women we wanted to romance; their lives become a tragedy. That kept me back from posting, at first. What is our greatest works, our farthest advances, if we cannot protect the ones who we love.
The Shadowed Knight
October 26, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I think hypergamy from women is still a hard issue for men to understand.
Men value men based on who we are. You drive a shitty car but you write some of the best stuff around these parts. I heard a story about a homeless man who found a large sum of money and returned it to the rightful owner. Most rich guys are devoid of that virtue.
Women value men based on what they can get from them.
And we keep thinking women should act like they should value us for who we are…and are disappointed when they do exactly what we expect them to do and it leads to their demise.
November 1, 2013 at 4:58 am
Earl,
“Men value men based on who we are. You drive a shitty car but you write some of the best stuff around these parts.”
That means a great deal to me.
Especially coming from you.
November 1, 2013 at 4:59 am
TSK,
“Those would have been wives, lovers, companions. The women we wanted to romance; their lives become a tragedy. ”
A tragedy greater than many realize.
And one that has, honestly, kept me awake many a night.
October 26, 2013 at 8:09 am
Thank you for this. It is a great tragedy that needs not only to be written but read, repeatedly.
November 1, 2013 at 4:57 am
Mistress,
You’re quite welcome.
October 26, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Don’t take the lack of response to this post too hard. Fame and popularity aren’t so important, in the end. I’ve said before that if you want to be successful and popular (as a blogger), you must tell people what they want to hear. You’re definitely not doing that, which is one of the things that sets you apart. What you do is more valuable. You’re in good company regarding lack of responses. Some of the best bloggers, and my favorites (Donlak and Michael Byc are two), get very little response. You’re becoming one of my favorites and are linked on the front page on my blog.
Still, I understand the desire to be appreciated and have your message understood and appreciated. My book End Game employs a similar ‘negative space’ approach. I think of it like a Chinese painting, wherein the emptiness and space is as much a part of the work as anything. To date the book has had only 2 reviews, and the most prominent being by Matt Forney. To his credit he’s done a lot to link to my blog, but his review of the book essentially misses the boat. He focuses on how short it is and how he felt it was over-priced. I can only imagine the insanity of someone looking at an ancient Chinese painting and saying, “well, I’m not paying THAT much, I mean, he didn’t even fill the whole canvas with paint, what a rip off!” Word count, no more than number of brush strokes nor quantity of paint used, is no marker of quality.
Your work is spare, but full and rich with message and subtlety. Keep up the excellent work, we’ll be reading and appreciating, even if sometimes silent. When you see something beautiful, like a sunset, sometimes the only thing to do is keep your mouth shut and point it out to someone else.
November 1, 2013 at 4:55 am
DM,
Amazing comment.
Thanks very much for you kind and supportive words.
I’m honoured.
I really need to read your book ‘End Game’, now.
October 26, 2013 at 5:31 pm
It’s a tragedy all the worse for its innocuousness.
So much in our society has been turned completely upside down. Don’t get married in order to make a life; make a life in order to get married. That’s what we tell our children these days, and we’re surprised to find that we hang on to our childhood, even though the point had been to delay adulthood. We understand children mature only by socialization with others, but we think of adults as atoms, who don’t stand to essentially gain from a foundational relationship that guides and conditions their lives. Everyone seems to realize things aren’t like they’re supposed to be, but that seems only to make everyone cling more strongly to exactly those narratives which lead to this emptiness. Yet all those who come through this and realize their emptiness, their ruin, turn on the innocent, feeding them lies so that at least they won’t be alone in their ruin.
Society is sick. That’s why I do what I do. I have every intention of preventing this from happening. I don’t really want to, yet I feel I must, as though it were a divinely inspired mission.
I really rather would’ve been happy and stupid. But I’ve been given eyes to see, and I can’t keep them shut.
November 1, 2013 at 4:56 am
Bryce,
Extremely well-stated.
Not that I expected any differently from you.
October 26, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Really liked this piece, mate.
November 1, 2013 at 4:55 am
MattC,
Many thanks.
October 29, 2013 at 12:13 pm
[…] these scenarios time and time again until they just physically cannot attract a man any longer. Ace had an excellent post comparing these women to animated […]
October 31, 2013 at 9:53 am
[…] I was going through some stuff and found an old rant I written after a Broadways show. To me, it was a great reminder. Many who hear the music I create ask about my “punk” background. I don’t consider myself a punk, though I did grow up listening to it (amongst oldies and 80′s.) However, this piece is testament to what punk bands can do to a group of strangers and friends. Speaking of friends I hope you all are reading the brilliant posts that Ace is throwing up. Especially this one. […]