defending my jimmeh
Sep. 8th, 2006 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewlisian_aferOkay. When I posted my House commentary to my journal, I'd already seen at least three posts on my flist which either consisted entirely of or included "WTF, Wilson?!" So I labeled the fact that I'm totally on Wilson's side as an unpopular opinion. At ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pagingdrhouse, which is the House meta community that everyone should join, they posted a list of people's commentary. Looking at it, I had no idea how right I was.
In the past couple of days I've seen Wilson called evil (seriously), a cunt, an asshole, mean, a bully, a bastard, a jackass, a dick. (Some of these things are true, but not because of anything in this particular episode, IMO.) People want to slap, kick, hit, punch and otherwise inflict physical harm on him.
"At the moment, he had no right at all to think the worst of House just because." Why not? House does it to everyone else all the time. Not to mention, that's not what Wilson did. "My leg hurt," says House. Wilson, concerned for his friend, starts asking doctor-y questions. "How bad did it hurt?" "Enough that I'm telling you." "But it went away, right?" Well, yeah, it did, and House admits to that. Wilson points out that House is middle-aged and needs to get used to normal middle-age aches and pains. When House argues that he knows what normal middle-age pains feel like, Wilson makes a good point. No, House doesn't know. He's been popping vicodin in increasing amounts since he reached middle age. He needs to get used to being 47 years old and stop depending on the high because it's easier. This is a logical conclusion for Wilson to come to.
Now, yes, in the long run Wilson may be proven wrong. But fandom needs to realize something. As the audience, we have a major advantage. We hear/see everyone's story and know a lot more than each individual character. If you look at the situation and think only of what Wilson knows, he's not being an asshole. He's being a logical human being.
If Wilson had all the information that we have and was still acting the way he's acting, then he'd be an asshole. But that isn't the case. As for "evil," that's just idiotic.
pagingdrhouse, which is the House meta community that everyone should join, they posted a list of people's commentary. Looking at it, I had no idea how right I was.In the past couple of days I've seen Wilson called evil (seriously), a cunt, an asshole, mean, a bully, a bastard, a jackass, a dick. (Some of these things are true, but not because of anything in this particular episode, IMO.) People want to slap, kick, hit, punch and otherwise inflict physical harm on him.
"At the moment, he had no right at all to think the worst of House just because." Why not? House does it to everyone else all the time. Not to mention, that's not what Wilson did. "My leg hurt," says House. Wilson, concerned for his friend, starts asking doctor-y questions. "How bad did it hurt?" "Enough that I'm telling you." "But it went away, right?" Well, yeah, it did, and House admits to that. Wilson points out that House is middle-aged and needs to get used to normal middle-age aches and pains. When House argues that he knows what normal middle-age pains feel like, Wilson makes a good point. No, House doesn't know. He's been popping vicodin in increasing amounts since he reached middle age. He needs to get used to being 47 years old and stop depending on the high because it's easier. This is a logical conclusion for Wilson to come to.
Now, yes, in the long run Wilson may be proven wrong. But fandom needs to realize something. As the audience, we have a major advantage. We hear/see everyone's story and know a lot more than each individual character. If you look at the situation and think only of what Wilson knows, he's not being an asshole. He's being a logical human being.
If Wilson had all the information that we have and was still acting the way he's acting, then he'd be an asshole. But that isn't the case. As for "evil," that's just idiotic.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-08 10:06 pm (UTC):: clings to you and your sanity when it comes to JIMMEH ::
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Date: 2006-09-08 11:24 pm (UTC)Hanging out on free-for-all fandom communities exposes one to idiocy and leads to inevitable frustration, disbelief and eventual fear for the future of humankind. This is a sad truth. I think Sturgeon's Law applies to fandom as much as fanfic: 90-something percent of people's comments are crap. Even when I talk to fairly intelligent people I know who call themselves House fans, I sometimes ask, Are we watching the same show?
I can think of a bunch of fic writers who understand Wilson (well, as much as the show allows), though, and that's a comfort. It's the anticipation of an outpouring of super-dark!Wilson stories from the remaining people who don't stop liking him that has me cowering at the moment.
Three cheers for snobbery!
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Date: 2006-09-08 11:57 pm (UTC)I'm not exactly upset that people don't understand Wilson. I'm not exactly upset that people dislike Wilson. I mean, I'm used to people hating characters I'm very attached to. One does not love Peter Pettigrew the way that I do without getting used to fandom hating on characters you like. Basically, I am not upset on the character's behalf.
I'm upset for fandom. People who used to really love Wilson suddenly don't anymore. That means they spent two years either being blind apologists or just plain blind. Because his actions shouldn't be such a surprise. So these poor people loved their idea of this character and now the writers are focusing on the side of him that they (fandom) have been ignoring. Feeling that a character that you love is changing for the worse is almost as bad as a character that you love dying. I feel so sad for them. :(
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Date: 2006-09-09 12:06 am (UTC)Oh, I see. That is sad. And it's sweet that you feel bad for people going through that. I haven't made that last leap -- still stuck on *facepalm* at the "blind apologists or just plain blind" situation.
P.S. Have you read Amy mumblelastname & Sharon somethingorother's 60-some-odd-page conference paper defense of Peter Pettigrew? They did it as prep for a panel at Convention Alley back in 2004. If you haven't and are ever interested, drop me an email.
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Date: 2006-09-09 02:52 pm (UTC)Many fans have built up an unrealistic ideation of House, and anything that threatens that is bad and must be either reasoned away or destroyed. For anti-Cameron fans, they didn't have much to worry about in early episodes because Cameron was shy and sweet, with a cute crush on teacher. In later episodes, some fans began to dislike and hate her because she started openly pursuing House, and this threatened their perception of House as the aloof and lonely genius
who could not be swayed by any but the deepest love for their Mary Sue. For some slash fans, Cameron also threatened their OTP. Thus she must burn. And in the second season, when Cameron became more cynical and distant, more like House (or Stacey), this was even worse, because House might actually start to like her! Oh noes! I think this is the root of a lot of Cameron-hate.Similarly, Wilson has not been a threat to House until recent episodes. For the most part, House likes Wilson, and it is apparent that, whatever crap they go through, they have a strong friendship. "Detox" was interesting because it showed that Wilson was willing to lie to House, but this was supposedly for his own good, and Wilson backed off at the end. In "Babies and Bathwater," Wilson is still willing to go to bat for House despite House having cost him his job. Yay, Wilson is a great friend, everything is happy. It really isn't until the later parts of season 2 that a serious strain is apparent in their relationship, after House outs Wilson's affair with his patient. And then it's Wilson lying to House, and both of them being jerks about it. But they were okay, sort of. Then came the season finale, and suddenly House is hallucinating Wilson plotting and lying behind his back to force treatment on him (sublimated suspicion or knowledge from "Detox"?). That was a hard one to get a grip on, because we thought House trusted Wilson, as least insofar as he thinks he knows Wilson and finds him predictable. But now Wilson is lying to House and refusing to "help" him, and it's not a hallucination, and that puts a dent into people's perception of House (because House appears vulnerable) as well as their perception of Wilson as Best Friend Ever (especially because Wilson has a history of tacitly supporting House's addiction through prescriptions). Wilson is therefore perceived as a threat to House and thus must be evil incarnate.
Wilson: the new Cameron.
There's another aspect to this problem which has to do with the way Wilson presents himself. Wilson is trying very hard to project an image of goodness that masks his underlying pathology. But I don't get the impression that this is because he wants to prove it to other people; I think he wants very much to convince himself of it. And because he's trying, people who have less experience with pretense or who aren't looking very closely are fooled by his outer persona. It doesn't help that he is onscreen for fairly brief periods and interacts almost exclusively with House and Cuddy.
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Date: 2006-09-09 07:14 pm (UTC)"...you seem somewhat surprised that these people are also exhibiting typical behavior."
Yeah, I tend to get upset over "normal" behavior sometimes. I think it's human nature to assume that other people are just like you, and sometimes I forget how weird and atypical I can be. So when people act common, I get disappointed. Fandom is really not a good place for me. XD