"What Now" post-ep meta/crack.

[lit_luminary]

Title: Fourth Wall Cracked
Author: lit_luminary
Rating: PG-13
Characters: House, Chase (friendship).
Summary: A little crack, a little meta: characters in character watch their out-of-character counterparts. Cue the banter.
Warning: Spoilers for 7:01.

Comments

[cuddyclothes]

Poor House! Poor Chase! Forced to watch themselves be idiots. Especially House. Nicely done!

I have a rant over on my LJ directly from the mouth of House's leg--wait, it doesn't have a mouth--you know what I mean--I think I'm having an attack of Wilson.

[lit_luminary]

Thank you. I'd have liked to work Wilson in, too, but he wasn't present enough to have much to complain about, and his presence would have made for a very different plot.

And yes, poor House especially. If _I_ watched with a vague sense of nausea, it must have been so much worse for him. The least I could do was give him room to complain.

(I read the rant from the mouth of the leg, actually. Fabulous work, as ever, and the perfect complement to my own indignation over the issue. 'Hello! Chronic pain patient here! Anyone listening?' Oh--and the additional perspective of the neighboring territory was genius.)

[cuddyclothes]

Thank you! I'm not a chronic pain patient, but I have chronic conditions, and to see such an important one airily dismissed...I agree with the leg.

[lit_luminary]

I have no personal experience with that kind of pain, but a mentor I was very fond of deals with it every day, and I have friends with chronic conditions as well. And nothing annoys me more than when the House writers take a moment to point the Scolding Narrative Finger and go, "Addict!" or ignore the physical realities involved with said conditions: it's disrespectful not only to House and the story they're writing, but to all the people who can empathize with his experiences only too well.

All right, television isn't obligated to be completely realistic. But could we have a bit less blatant denial of medical fact, please?

[bedawyn]

Heh. I actually think House would be better with a kid than he thinks he would be, but otherwise I'm totally down with this. I especially liked Chase's cat line and "that explains a lot". :-)

[lit_luminary]

I happen to agree with you as far as House and children, but there's no way House himself would feel confident in his own ability to be an effective role model/parent, so I had to go with that.

Thanks for pointing out favorite lines, by the way; I love to know what worked for my readers. I'm so glad you enjoyed!

[lit_luminary]

Thanks so much for commenting! This was very much an experimental piece and quite different from anything I've ever written, so I'm glad to hear it worked for you.

As far as the show--suspension of disbelief is one thing; demanding we ignore total suspension of established characterization and medical reality is another. The whole thing felt like the writers had put someone's very bad romance fic onscreen, and I found myself utterly disgusted.

I'd prefer never to have cause to return to the universe of the viewing plane, but I suspect I'll have more than enough in the coming weeks.

[shezza_buttons]

I totally agree with you about this episode. If nothing else House is so far from being romantic he can barely see it on the horizon. Add in the chronic pain and this makes no sense what-so-ever. The only redeeming quality of this episode was the neurosurgeon who disliked his clothes (I thought he was hilarious).

This was my favourite bit: "And pain is not one of my turn-ons.” He pauses. “Kind of a shame, considering.”

“Not really, or you’d never get anything done."

P.S. I don't think I've commented on your stories before, but your deamonverse is what got me watching House in the first place- I read it because I love any stories with deamons from HDM, and just had to watch as much as I could get my hands on. I watched every season in a couple of weeks :)

[lit_luminary]

Thank you so much for commenting! I'm particularly honored to hear that the dæmonverse was your gateway to House; that gives me a certain glow of accomplishment.

Exactly: _how_ did anyone get the idea House could be a romantic? Very, very rarely, he can do something approaching the conventional definition of 'nice,' but that's about it. The only redeeming points were the stoned neurosurgeon (who I agree was hilarious in an episode that desperately needed the comic relief) and Wilson stuck in the window.

(I love it when readers quote favorite lines: it's always good to know what worked for them.)

[alternatealto]

This was delightful, in so many ways! I laughed all the way through, but completely lost it when Chase said “I was thinking of getting a cat, but-”.

So much fun!

[lit_luminary]

Thanks so much for commenting! I'm glad to know you found it funny, as I haven't written many pieces intended to be humorous in their entirety.

(I cracked up when that line popped into my head, too--it just seemed so appropriate, since most pets get more care than that baby does.)