# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 221
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4405 "2021-11-29T03:55:40Z")
Right above the flames on the spaceship are those four metal ‘claws’. Those hold strings, but there are only four of them… like a bass. But if you look at the handle, there’s 3 tuning knobs on one side, and 2 visible on the other side (the third hidden by the flame). Like a regular guitar. Woah, trippy, man. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4406 "2021-11-29T04:08:47Z")
Where is this “handle”? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4407 "2021-11-29T04:14:25Z")
lol, extending from the main part of the guitar behind the flames. It’s actually called the ‘neck’, my bad. [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51712969515_3815182b97_z.jpg "handle") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/68782016@N08/51712969515/) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4408 "2021-11-29T05:03:53Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I just realized… five minutes ago… it’s a damned guitar. It’s actually three guitars. Although the two in the background have only two visible tuning pegs, so are probably basses. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4409 "2021-11-29T05:14:32Z")
Yeah, I can understand how you didn’t see it was a guitar. More drugs might have helped. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4410 "2021-11-29T05:23:04Z")
Completely missed the cocaine thing, so you may be on to something there. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4411 "2021-11-29T10:31:42Z")
Add me to the “familiar with the picture for decades and yet never noticed the guitar bit” list. Jeebus. I feel dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4412 "2021-11-29T12:36:09Z")
I caught a bit of “The Incredibles” on TV last night. When Edna is talking to Bob Parr (about having designed for “gods!”), she and Bob enter a room with sculptures - one of which is an abstract human form with water falling down its back - like a cape! ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4413 "2021-11-29T14:57:53Z")
I have one— at least, I think I do. The Afterlife bar in _Cyberpunk 2077_, and the Harukiya bar in _Akira_ are located in the same building. In the game, you are told there used to be a mortuary there before the Afterlife opened. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4414 "2021-11-29T18:11:49Z")
I bought John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow” album in 1985 and played the hell out of it. Replaced it with a CD a few years later and played the hell out of _that_. I know all the songs by heart, and they’re still in regular rotation on my iTunes shuffle. “Minutes To Memories” is a song about the singer having a conversation with an old man on a Greyhound bus. There’s this line: _The rain hit the old dog in the twilight’s last gleaming_ _He said, “Son, it sounds like rattlin’ old bones”_ I could never figure out what the dog imagery had to do with anything. Then yesterday, after listening to this song for _36 years,_ it suddenly hit me that the “old dog” is THE BUS. Greyhound. Duh! I cannot believe I never got that before. The weird thing is, I wasn’t even listening to the song at the time. That line just popped into my head for some reason, and its meaning suddenly became clear. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4415 "2021-11-29T18:40:07Z")
“Arrested Development” is full of references to “Peter Pan” and “Mary Poppins.” It just recently dawned on me that both of those stories include a father named George and a son named Michael. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4416 "2021-11-29T19:36:16Z")
OK, so I got right off the bat that Forrest Gump was a tribute by the baby boomers to themselves. But I totally missed that Gump himself is THE idealized self-image of the boomers. Told by The State that he’s too dumb but overcoming that with non-sequitur mantra, he wonders around showing what an innocent wise child he is. He keeps sticking it to the man by trying to be helpful and is never spiteful except for the one time it was romantic to beat the shit out of an uptight patriarchy-figure for slapping a woman. He is the complete propaganda package that the Boomers have created for their own consumption. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4417 "2021-11-29T20:21:18Z")
In the Wizard of Oz, first Glinda asks Dorothy if she’s a good witch or a bad witch. Later, she explains that only bad witches are ugly. Is she saying that Dorothy is ugly? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4418 "2021-11-29T20:28:36Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > In the Wizard of Oz, first Glinda asks Dorothy if she’s a good witch or a bad witch. Later, she explains that only bad witches are ugly. Is she saying that Dorothy is ugly? I see somebody else is an Ashleigh Burton fan. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4419 "2021-11-29T23:07:40Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I have one— at least, I think I do. The Afterlife bar in _Cyberpunk 2077_ , and the Harukiya bar in _Akira_ are located in the same building. In the game, you are told there used to be a mortuary there before the Afterlife opened. I don’t see how they could be - _Akira_ is set in Tokyo, and _Cyberpunk_ is set in a fictional city in California. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4420 "2021-11-29T23:53:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I see somebody else is an Ashleigh Burton fan. Yeah, but I have to agree with her on this. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4421 "2021-11-30T00:08:42Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Yeah, but I have to agree with her on this. So do I. In fact I opened this thread today to post pretty much the same thing you wrote. I’ve watched this movie probably a dozen times but I had never noticed this before. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4422 "2021-11-30T00:23:58Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > OK, so I got right off the bat that Forrest Gump was a tribute by the baby boomers to themselves. But I totally missed that Gump himself is THE idealized self-image of the boomers… He is the complete propaganda package that the Boomers have created for their own consumption. So why is this confined to only one age group? If your views are correct, I’d think it’d be a common mythology. Do you have other theories that you attribute to only one generation? Something like this?: > _Get Out_ is a biting satire on how Millennials view the differences between the races. It skewers Millennials’ views with surgical precision, as a myth that Millennials tell each other about black vs white in the America that only Millennials experience. (Quote not actually a quote; for reductio ad absurdum purposes only) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4423 "2021-11-30T00:41:28Z")
Because the Wise, Innocent Child as portrayed by FG is specific to boomers’ self-image. Previous and subsequent generations don’t portray themselves in that way. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4424 "2021-11-30T00:56:43Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > He is the complete propaganda package that the Boomers have created for their own consumption. Terry Southern was born in 1924. Kinda not a boomer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=220) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=222)