Miyazaki: iPad Users "Nothing But Chronic Masturbators"

[ane-san]

Hayao Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli fame, has launched into one of his trademark rambling tirades against the ills of technology, likening “iWhatever” users to “chronic onanists.”

The remarks came in the context of an interview with Miyazaki published in “Neppu,” an in-house Ghibli rag, which had been covering the iPad.
Upon being confronted by an interviewer fiddling with his iPad, Miyazaki let loose:

“That thing that looks like a gaming device in your hand, along with that strange stroking movement you make with your hands is by no means attractive to me, nor am I at all impressed by it. I feel a sense of revulsion for it, in fact.
I’m sure in short time there will be an increase in people on trains making those strange masturbatory strokes. It was the same when everyone started reading manga on trains, and when it became cellphones – I’m fed up with it.”

That was merely his initial statement.
The interviewer went on the defensive, describing how he thought the iPad a good tool for research, and something to buy books on and look up information with.
This only aggravated Miyazaki further however:

“It may seem like I am ignoring your human rights to say this, but you can’t research any of that. Why? Because you have no way of knowing what it’s like to be on an old trireme, or having empathy with the men on board, covered in sweat as they labour at their oars.
You go out into the world without enriching your imagination. You are merely grasping the iWhatever as a skimming tool you use to stroke yourself.
I’m sure there are many people who want to become omnipotent by getting their hands on this iWhatever. I’ll tell you sir, there were once a bunch of people who wore radio cassette players (those bulky things) wherever they went in the sixties. They wore it like a priceless emblem.
They’re mostly probably living off of pension funds now, but you and them are the same. You jump at the newest gadgets, and all you do is relish the pride in owning one as some consumer.
You must not becomes a consumer. You must become someone that creates.”



source:
the huffington post

 

[Sakunyuusha]

The title is misleading as Miyazaki never said anything about an iPad owner actually masturbating, let alone doing it chronically like some sex junkie. He was just likening the stroking of the iPad to the stroking of masturbation -- which is already batty enough to warrant this thread!

Why Miyazaki is being batty:

1. He's never been on a trireme, either! In what way has he led a hard life? In what way is he entitled to assume that he has led a harder life than the interviewer!?

2. How is reading manga on a train a technological annoyance to this man? How does he lump it in with cellphones and iPads? How does he not lump it in with newspapers and books?

3. What is a man who has dedicated his life to animated cinema doing bashing on manga? WTF. Way to tell your fans (children and adults alike) "FUCK YOU." Does he not realize that people who enjoy cartoons are by and large the exact same people who also like to read comics? Even if this is a low blow at otaku (which still would deserve a big "FUCK YOU"), does he not realize that he is insulting the children as well?

4. Did they even have audio cassette players in the 1960s? Never mind portable Walkmans and the like!

5. "You must not be a consumer. You must become someone who creates." Yeah, that's all well and good, except (a) you don't know that he doesn't create; (b) we are all of us -- including you, Mr. Miyazaki -- consumers at some level or another; and (c) your entire livelihood has been given to you by a consumer-based economy. If all filmmakers were given stipends by the government of equal size, you would not be able to make the films you have made nor would you be able to live the life you have led. If you told children across Japan, "Don't be a consumer and watch my movies! Be a producer and make your own movies!", and if every child were to listen to you, then you would have no audience: and by extension, no major purpose in life. Your life is built around entertaining audiences. But you cannot lead that life without there being audiences in the first place! If audiences no longer exist -- if consumers go away and producers are all the world knows and has -- then you'd be just another producer in a sea of producers, with an audience of 0 to see your wonderful works.


Man! What an asshole! >_<

 

[sapientiam]

actually im reading some manga using ipad and it feels great LOL

i wonder what they use to animate and draw at the studio, since most hi-end wacom that most production artists would probably use, integrates touchscreen drawing board and are more less look like giant ipad with added pallete tray on the side and a stand on the back :exhausted:

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Not to mention, are a consumer product which the studio purchased rather than creating from scratch. :distressed:

 

[lowleg26]

Japanese Colonel Sanders is right! New technology sucks! Its STEAMPUNK time, bitches! Now, where to fuel up my wood-mobile? uzzled:

I think I might get what he's trying to say. Its something like a statement against unnecessary consumerism via created wants. Like, you don't want an iPad, you're TOLD you want an iPad, you see others with an iPad and THEN you want one because it seems like the thing to do. Its not a worthwhile device on its own merits, its just a fashion accessory.

I'd say its a valid opinion, but it doesn't seem like he really made the point properly or at an appropriate juncture.

Then again, I might be ennobling his sentiment. Maybe its just crotchety old man talk. :dunno:

 

[Syobon]

...he is right about one thing: all those modern devices, netbooks, smartphones, iWhatever will in a no distant future be obsolete useless pieces of metal, a fad with the rights a joke, many people jump to buy those new gadget with no other desire than fulfill their consumption needs.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

5. "You must not be a consumer. You must become someone who creates." Yeah, that's all well and good, except (a) you don't know that he doesn't create; (b) we are all of us -- including you, Mr. Miyazaki -- consumers at some level or another; and (c) your entire livelihood has been given to you by a consumer-based economy. If all filmmakers were given stipends by the government of equal size, you would not be able to make the films you have made nor would you be able to live the life you have led. If you told children across Japan, "Don't be a consumer and watch my movies! Be a producer and make your own movies!", and if every child were to listen to you, then you would have no audience: and by extension, no major purpose in life. Your life is built around entertaining audiences. But you cannot lead that life without there being audiences in the first place! If audiences no longer exist -- if consumers go away and producers are all the world knows and has -- then you'd be just another producer in a sea of producers, with an audience of 0 to see your wonderful works.

I think you are going too far, it's merely criticism to fallow-the-brand culture.

 

[Gir633]

...he is right about one thing: all those modern devices, netbooks, smartphones, iWhatever will in a no distant future be obsolete useless pieces of metal, a fad with the rights a joke, many people jump to buy those new gadget with no other desire than fulfill their consumption needs.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple



I think you are going too far, it's merely criticism to fallow-the-brand culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuCRuXLzSw&feature=related

 

[Rollyco]

There's something particularly ennerving about that smug righteousness and corporate slavishness that pervades the Apple fanbase. I don't blame Old Man Miyazaki for getting his knickers in a bunch.

 

[sapientiam]

well, all in all, actually people like miyazaki in Japan is far from few, take a look at this excerpt from bbc

Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating.

A dystopian vision of a nation with technology stuck in an Orwellian time warp? Not at all. These are aspects of contemporary, low-tech Japan that most visitors miss as they look around the hi-tech nation that its government, electronics industry and tourism board are keen to promote.

you can read the rest here :tea::tea::tea:

 

[seiya1]

Hey I liked his comments. He's pointing out facts and they hurt people who deserve it. Good that hes not all PC and speaks his mind. It would be worse if he played it safe like all other artists "who don't want to offend anyone." He was only pointing out that all this technology is good, but to dwell on it too much means perdition (ex: living through cell phone like most young girls). If only more people were like that then others would not be so "sensitive."

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Are you kidding me? The man has no right berating others for not having experienced what it's like to be a slave onboard a trireme. He has never nor will he ever be a slave onboard a trireme. It's a completely juvenile argument for him to have made. Shameful.

 

[Kenpachi God]

this man just became my god!!!!:grassdance::grassdance::grassdance::grassdance:

 

[phuctlyfe]

but Miyazaki,
in the end....aren't we all chronic masturbators? I like to think so.:beautiful:

 

[jjjjeczalik]

I might be reading too much into his comments, but I feel that a point to be gleaned from his *attempt* at making a point is that that average person who purchases an iWhatever is hardly being productive with it. Sort of like the (MANY, MANY) people who buy a $500 phone for no other reason than to download ringtones and yap on the phone. Sure, it's their choice; but it's like buying a Lamborghini to make weekly trips to the grocery store down the street. It IS sad to see a nice sports car never exceed 50 km/h.

Also, personally, I find people's droolings over iPhones and iPad to be pretty obnoxious anyway.

Finally, I worked for years loading and unloading trucks back in the 1990s; I do think there is something to developing a real work ethic no matter what you end up doing in life. I might have a desk job now, but I don't cringe at the thought of fixing my own car or my own house when something needs to be done, and I *do* have a bit less respect for people who can only wear one collar (blue or white).

I could go further off-topic, but naaaaaaaaaaaaah...
andalaugh:

 

[camlost245]

I'm outraged. As a chronic masturbater, I take great offense to being compared to an ipad user.issed:

 

[Kenpachi God]

Hey I really mean we should take what he said in this perspective: Old people hate technology lols.

 

[typoman]

Everyone here is a chronic masturbator.

I myself love my portable media player, mp3, etc... I actually use them for a different reason - learning. But to everyone else, they think I am jamming to music. Too bad the ipad can't replace books. It might be good for fiction, but I am into nonfiction.

 

[phuctlyfe]

I'm outraged. As a chronic masturbater, I take great offense to being compared to an ipad user.issed:

lol~ right on brotha!

 

[hampa6]

Sakunyuusha,

if you had stopped to think, you'd realize he's saying that creators have to put themselves in the shoes of others. If he's making a movie that includes trireme rowers then you can be sure he will research the subject thoroughly and try to imagine what it would be like in order to achieve the right mood in the scenes involving them. If on the other hand all you do is look it up on wikipedia you'll really have little idea what it was like to be a trireme rower.

Perhaps what Miyazaki is ultimately calling for is more humanity and empathy instead of walling yourself off behind what you find entertaining. In which case it's kind of missing the point to feel schadenfreude or anger at him mentioning the iPad. To him it's just another technical gadget, he's not singling it out, just using it as an example of yet another overhyped fad.

 

[Alphared137]

As with everything in life, the incident is part batty, part old-people-lashing-out, and part valid concern.

Old people tend not to be that sharp in general; when Miyazake lashed out, his argument was not well composed or cogent.

But I am sensing that his concern stems from some feeling that 'this whole iWhatever thing isn't quite right'. I am speculating that perhaps, like the generation before him, he is concerned with the ill-effects that the newest man-made thing is having on the people that are using it: young men and women that make up "society". One of the biggest concerns that old people always have is that new technology alters the way that people interact with each other in a negative way. All technology is just a tool, and can be used for good or ill.

For example, smartphones are a ubiquitous tool for communicating anywhere, anytime. You can get a lot of information with that tool. But becoming a slave to the device is also a strong possibility, with incoming calls during rest periods and vacations, texting while driving (which can result in the injury or death of someone other than the user), having a family sitting at the dinner table all communicating with people other than those at the table.

There is a valid concern that people (who are foolish, selfish lemmings on average) who adopt a new tool en masse will do so to the detriment of their society. That is not to say that it will not cause an overnight collapse of Life As We Know It, but that it causes a change in culture which destroys something that helps people develop into sociable, grounded adults and citizens. Using the smartphone as a known example, a family of four that doesn't say one word to each other at dinner for weeks at a time seems like an unusual family at best, but more likely dysfunctional to some degree. And it doesn't help that such a device is manufactured by an entity whose only concern is capturing market share and branding/bonding its customers to an image that its advertising department cooked up. What kind of world would it be if society were distilled down to the bare essence of what a corporation desries from its customers? The energy-farming scene from The Matrix springs to mind... except they'd farm money, in addition to attention and energy.

On a different tack, I think that the statement "don't be a consumer, be a creator" by itself is quite ludicrous, formatted as it is as a platitude. But I am speculating that perhaps it reflects a sentiment along the lines of: people need to avoid simply assembling their lives from objects centered around a consumer brand. It is an expectation that Japanese people become less isolated from each other based on their ownership of a particular item (not ignoring of course the capabilities of the tool to facilitate communication). In other words, for those that own the New Thing to be separated from those that do not own the New Thing (because either the "Haves" and "Have Nots" do not consort with the other class).

I'm no expert, I don't invalidate anyone else's viewpoint on this and I don't know nothin', but that's what I take away from Miyazaki's spaz attack.