From: Walter Burton <wburton@pipestream.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 20:35:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: _PI_ movie
Message-ID: <013D438ED22ED2119F630060082F763C08A75F@kenny.pipestream.com>
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My wife and I went and saw the movie _PI_ this past weekend.  I was
attracted to it 'cause of the subject matter.  One reviewer wrote that
the protagonist was a "tortured genius steeped in an intriguing blend
of advanced mathematics and mystical Jewish cabala."

I suspect a fair number of cypherpunks' curiosity would be piqued by
such a description.  Well, don't waste the 5 bucks.  It's
self-indulgent, pretentious, second-year-film-student crap.  It's
whiny, "woe-is-me-tortured-genius" drivel.  It's
"squinty-cinematography-for-the-sake-of-squinty-cinematography"
effluvium.  

Here's the plot, in a nutshell:

1. Ah, I understand advanced mathematics SO WELL; I see patterns
EVERYwhere!  But alas, I cannot enjoy life's pleasures because I am,
de rigueur, a TORTURED GENIUS!

2. And my mentor USED to be a TORTURED GENIUS, but he stopped studying
THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES, and now he's happy and FUN!  What a WUSS!

[Oh yeah, and I suffer REALLY bad migraines.]

3. Isn't PI cool?

4. Aren't Fibonacci numbers neat?

5. Whaddya suppose The Holy Unspeakable Name of God is?

6. Oh, easy, it's 9049348384737...[insert 198 digits here]...32343.

7. I RUSH to tell my mentor what I've discovered, but, alas, my
ruthless taunting prompted him to re-open his investigation of THE
PROFOUND MYSTERIES and he couldn't hack it -- his brain overloaded and
he died of a stroke.  Damn!

8. So I dramatically BURN all my PROFOUND MYSTERIES conclusions and
the director inserts the requisite "shocking scene everyone will be
talking about" by having me lobotomize myself with an electric drill.

9. Next, I'm sitting on a park bench, playing games with a child
(Quintessential Innocence).  I am finally ENJOYING LIFE, appreciating
the leaves on the trees and such.  But this kid, she wants to play
math games with me, which of course symbolizes the fact that IT'S NOT
OVER!

10. The end.

And it's all shot on shitty stock in crackly black and white.  So
basically, it's about two gay cowboys and some pudding.


\\/alter
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