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gwern comments on June 2015 Media Thread - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: ArisKatsaris 01 June 2015 08:27PM

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Comment author: gwern 01 June 2015 10:28:29PM 2 points [-]
  • Pumping Iron (1977 propaganda-documentary about American bodybuilders; it follows a young Arnold Schwarzenegger last competition and some rivals. It's interesting to watch Schwarzenegger before he became really famous, the insouciance with which he treats everyone & basks in admiration & blows off any slightly onerous obligations like his father's funeral and calculating choices sabotaging his rivals & self-promoting, as he prepares to jump ship to an acting career, his only apparent qualification the volume of his muscles. (I should note that the Wikipedia article for PI notes that it's a bit controversial whether or not the funeral thing happened, but nevertheless, Schwarzenegger is clearly trying to build an image.) I'm not familiar with bodybuilders but they come off during the competition as freakish: so muscular that they often pass into the repulsive and I stared fascinated at the flexing meat on display. Of course, PI is a very successful puff piece aimed at glamorizing bodybuilding - doesn't go anywhere near any questions of health issues or the steroid abuse although everyone is of course juicing like crazy, or into any details about how bodybuilders can get so large or what motivates them to do this, aside from one interview segment touching on childhood bullying, which had an almost Charles Atlas vibe.)
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