4 ms·

I have to wonder what our own HN user gumby thinks of this one. As for the author, you really can pinpoint their age pretty well. Born around 1960.

by e40 3y ago

zem 3y ago
I had never heard of Gumby before, and am a bit sceptical of the essay's central postulate that "Gumby will evoke powerful feelings—both positive and negative—in everybody he encounters. Some people will grab your Gumby and caress him lovingly. Others will sneer and mock. But nobody will be indifferent." (I do agree with the underlying musings on the uneasy fascination of formless objects; I am just not convinced that Gumby is sufficiently formless to evoke them. Also I remember several cartoons involving blobby entities from when I was a kid, most notably https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbapapa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbapapa, and none of them were uncomfortable in the almost lovecraftian sense that the essay is trying to posit.)
- argiopetech 3y ago
  I can easily believe this would have been true in the late seventies or early eighties when the author was in his 20s. My parents were of this generation, and, due to their influence alone, I still refer to Gumby as an avatar of flexibility (e.g., Semper Gumby) despite not having seem an episode of the show.
  - zem 3y ago
    but did you (or your parents) think of it as weirdly unsettling flexibility? i watched a bit of it on youtube and mostly it reminded me of "morph", a claymation cartoon that i did watch as a kid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morph_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morph_(TV_series)) - the only thing i found a bit disturbing were the horse's eyeballs.
    - argiopetech 3y ago
      I've not seen the series. Mom is not a fan, but understands it as a cultural phenomenon. Dad thought it was great.
- e40 3y ago
  > I had never heard of Gumby before Were you born around 1960? I was and IMO it was inescapable.
  - zem 3y ago
    no, born in the 70s and not in the US. gumby doesn't seem to be one of those things that caught on internationally.
zafka 3y ago
Ha, Having arrived on this sphere at the beginning of that year, I had the same impression. Funny thing is, I remember just one nightmare from my youth- and it involved Gumby.

I have to wonder what our own HN user gumby thinks of this one. As for the author, you really can pinpoint their age pretty well. Born around 1960.

by e40 3y ago

I have to wonder what our own HN user gumby thinks of this one. As for the author, you really can pinpoint their age pretty well. Born around 1960.

zem 3y ago

I had never heard of Gumby before, and am a bit sceptical of the essay's central postulate that "Gumby will evoke powerful feelings—both positive and negative—in everybody he encounters. Some people will grab your Gumby and caress him lovingly. Others will sneer and mock. But nobody will be indifferent." (I do agree with the underlying musings on the uneasy fascination of formless objects; I am just not convinced that Gumby is sufficiently formless to evoke them. Also I remember several cartoons involving blobby entities from when I was a kid, most notably https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbapapa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbapapa, and none of them were uncomfortable in the almost lovecraftian sense that the essay is trying to posit.)

argiopetech 3y ago
I can easily believe this would have been true in the late seventies or early eighties when the author was in his 20s. My parents were of this generation, and, due to their influence alone, I still refer to Gumby as an avatar of flexibility (e.g., Semper Gumby) despite not having seem an episode of the show.
- zem 3y ago
  but did you (or your parents) think of it as weirdly unsettling flexibility? i watched a bit of it on youtube and mostly it reminded me of "morph", a claymation cartoon that i did watch as a kid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morph_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morph_(TV_series)) - the only thing i found a bit disturbing were the horse's eyeballs.
  - argiopetech 3y ago
    I've not seen the series. Mom is not a fan, but understands it as a cultural phenomenon. Dad thought it was great.
e40 3y ago
> I had never heard of Gumby before Were you born around 1960? I was and IMO it was inescapable.
- zem 3y ago
  no, born in the 70s and not in the US. gumby doesn't seem to be one of those things that caught on internationally.

zafka 3y ago

Ha, Having arrived on this sphere at the beginning of that year, I had the same impression. Funny thing is, I remember just one nightmare from my youth- and it involved Gumby.