House, M.D. - "One Day, One Room" + related fandom vent

[beandelphiki]

Okay, THIS is what I meant to post the other day when lj was being poopy:

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This is very House, M.D. fandom-related. If you don't watch House, this will make NO SENSE. Feel free to ignore.

I have been meaning for a long while to post my thoughts on recent House episodes. I've not posted much of anything about House at all in this journal,

Comments

[motorghost]

And still, I have a hard time not seeing this as selfish. Seeing House disciplined and successful at the expense of his sense of safety and trust benefits who, exactly? Eh...

He probably figured that all he could really do for his son is prepare him for the trials and tribulations this world has to offer and equip him with suitable traits, like discipline and thoroughness and a thirst for hard work. Mr. House likely left things like House's emotional well being up to his wife, which is why Greg liked his mother so much more. It reflected the different times in that the father handled the punishments and the mother comforted the child afterwards.

House is very "me first" because of that reinforcement from his mother. Did you hear her in Daddy's Boy? "You're perfect just the way you are." I wondered then, how many times has she had to say that to Greg, to bandage and heal his sense of self-worth? Greg's also an only child, and some would argue that makes you the center of your parents' world, thus you must be the center of the rest of it as well.

Anyways, (John, is it?) House wasn't being selfish because he wasn't punishing Greg for his own personal gain, he was punishing him for Greg's personal gain. In a world where intentions matters and what we are ignorant of excuses us, his dad was just trying to raise his son in what he thought was the best way possible. Biologically, (nearly) every parent does that. (The clinically insane ones don't count. Unfortunately, anyone can have a baby.) In a more black and white sense, what Mr. House did was wrong. It was wrong no matter how you look at it, I'm just saying it doesn't have the qualities of being unforgivable. There's a lot that will hold you back if you can't let it go.

...but I don't get the sense that anyone caught an inkling AND tried much to interfere or offer House any support. And I DON'T believe that what House told the rape victim was all there is to the story.

Aside from his mommy coddling him and telling him that he was the bestest boy in the whole wide world, yeah, I'm pretty sure no one tried to do anything about it. And yes, there's probably a lot more to that tale of woe. At least more dynamic, anyway.

His belief that people are essentially self-serving - up to, and especially including, their breaking point - goes way deeper than anything to do with the leg.

This is where his mindset at the time of the abuse takes over, and what he deduced from the event first-hand. I'm sure hearing things like "You'll thank me later" and knowing that his father thought he was doing what was good and noble while Greg himself was suffering inside... no wonder House has made anything emotional/physical meaningless. Like if he could somehow make all feelings meaningless, his immeasurable, irrational pain from childhood wouldn't be as unbearable. He's actually very brave and audacious in the mental leaps he creates. House is not perfectly logical, he's just made it his religion and like everyone else with a dogma, he hides behind it.