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HAPPINESS IN DPS

I know how hard Mondays can be, so grab some joy <3

Have a nice day!

OMG they are sooo cute ❤️‍🩹

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I enjoy the amount of sweaters that can be seen in Dead Poets Society. I enjoy watching people wearing a cute sweater, or even a nice wool vest. It gives me good feelings. It brings me joy. It makes me feel warm. I am a wool enjoyer.

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traumacore edit about my mutual in law who doesn’t follow me

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Silly anderperry drawing

I tried so hard to make them look alike 😭 Well, hope you like these cuties!!

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a "chaste romance" - happiness & partnership politics in 8x09, "better half"

house and wilson made another intricate ritual, spurred by another subtextual comphet moment. i'll expound:

*important to note that this episode seeks to invalidate asexuality, which i vehemently disagree with. i'm suspending my disbelief here, but ofc asexuality is real and valid! love ya'll <3

summary: wilson encounters an asexual patient in the clinic, and he's immediately keen on understanding her identity. house completely refutes it and makes a $100 bet that he kind find a medical reason for her not having sex. he does, of course, and determines that her husband has a tumor that's wrecking his libido. when wilson explains this to husband and wife, she admits that she's had sex before, but was willing to go without because she loved her husband. wilson therefore loses the bet.

as per usual, house and wilson immediately game-ify this medical question. they're making yet another ritual that revolves around interpersonal relationships & sexual politics. but when wilson starts getting uncomfortable with house's insistence that there's an underlying medical reason at play, house makes a very good point:

"you wanted me to meddle! because no matter how much you wanted to believe in this chaste romance, you didn't buy it either."

bemused and probably a little disappointed in himself, wilson wordlessly acquiesces:

after confirming the tumor, the ritual almost comes to a close. wilson reluctantly hands house his prize, and makes his final declaration - "i think they were happy, even if it was based on lies."

this idea is very in-character for the entire show so far. relationships frequently operate on unspoken secrets, questions unasked, etc., and when any notes of truth come to the surface, it usually spells total ruin for whoever is involved. characters from wilson himself all the way to taub speak to this. but house, of all people, refutes this motif in the episode's last few minutes.

he agrees, at first, stating that "most happiness" is based on lies, but then he undoes the initial premise of their ritual by burning the $100 bill.

the ritual was predicated on dissolving the couple's happiness by forcing the facade out into the open. relinquishing the money confirms this premise until house burns it, thus burning the bet, the facade, and the claim that happiness is a farce. wilson calls attention to this:

"we can't smoke in here."

to which house replies,

"we also can't summon people into the clinic based on a lie motivated by a petty bet. and yet it happens! it's an imperfect world."

translation: you just said we can't undo the farce, but now you're insisting that a core part of your pessimistic belief system is breaking down. and now you're symbolically demonstrating this right before my eyes. we're engaging in sincere happiness right now.

then comes the most intricate ritual: the masculine, homoerotic nature of puffing on a cigar with your bro.

together, they deconstruct what's always been sacred to house and wilson: the games. it's no longer just a ritual between them but an admittance that happiness can actually exist organically. when asked about the cigar, what symbolizes this thematic shift, wilson replies with "disgustingly satisfying."

and this episode asks another question of house and wilson. can partnership exist without sex?

throughout, wilson is pretty insistent on YES, it can. he spends time reading scientific articles on how asexuality is a very real sexual identity. and even when he's forced to admit the opposite, he imagines that there can be some contentment in the lie. he believes that a heterosexual partnership can exist just fine without sex, which is especially pertinent this season, since wilson has been alone post-sam for a long time now. with house finally back from prison, we can assume that their resumed friendship is his first return to any sort of partnership in a while.

to complement that idea with a very phallic scene is certainly a script-writing choice :)

the combined revelations that wilson can conceptualize a heterosexual marriage without sex and that happiness can exist organically create a new realm of partnership for wilson and, by extension, house. by dissolving their ritual, house creates real happiness with wilson in a dynamic beyond the heteronormative/sexual. their relationship supersedes the initial premise of the episode entirely.

what confirms outright that house md's philosophy on happines & lies has changed is what happens next - foreman agrees to take off house's ankle monitor. he's been given freedom - freedom to move about openly, to enjoy partnership unencumbered, freedom to smoke in wilson's office because the parole officer doesn't care about the cigar smoke.

it's been a hot minute since we've got an intricate ritual of this magnitude, and it's all the better because it falls apart. house md is moving toward genuine happiness, and i'll pretend that i don't know the story reason behind that decision...

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old man yugioh or wgatever its called

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The guys in the backround are playing ball. Todd is meeting the man that will change the trajectory of his life forever and they are both meeting the boy they will fall in love with and the guys in the backround are just playing ball. Unbelievable.

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did someone say happy and healthy Todd and Jeff sibling relationship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I WANT TO PUT TODD ANDERSON IN MY POCKET AND BAKE HIM COOKIES AND TAKE HIM TO THE BOOKSTORE

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I CAN’T ☹️☹️

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The misunderstanding of carpe diem + physical harm in dps makes me absolutely crazy

Knox stalks a girl, doesn’t take no for an answer and gets hurt because of it (gets punched by Chet). He deals with physical harm. He ends up getting the girl, but he had a price to pay, a punishment to endure. Chet threatened him, he could have been in danger. Knox didn’t think he did anything wrong. He apologized to Chris, but with the stalking and such, it never went through his head “hey this might be kinda fucked up” while he was doing it.

That’s not what Keating said. He didn’t told them to be careless and act on their impulses even if that might get them in danger.

Charlie pulls his “phone call from god” prank and many things happen. One, when he first published the article he revealed the club (although not its members or activities) without anyone else’s permission. Two, he could have gotten expelled. Three, he got hit by Nolan, a physical punishment. Just like knox, he dealt with physical harm and risked expulsion. Charlie didn’t think he did anything wrong.

Keating himself told him that he flew too close to the sun, than he didn’t mean that in his lessons. Carpe diem is not choking on the bone.

Neil seemed to understand Carpe Diem, he was just desperate. It’s not than he was impulsive, or careless, he was just incredibly desperate, and that’s somehow worse. Neil goes behind his father’s back and joins a play. He writes a letter pretending to be him, sneaks off to rehearsal. When his father finds out, he has a price to pay (his father enrolling him on military school and forcing him to stop acting) and ends up dying by shooting himself (physical harm). Neil definitely knew, and thought about what would happen if his father discovered, but he was so desperate to live, to do something he wanted for once, he didn’t care, he began hoping he would manage to keep it hidden. Neil thought he was in the right (which, honestly, he was). He didn’t see anything wrong in what he did, simply wanted to fulfill his passion, passion than didn’t hurt anyone, passion than didn’t involve anyone else other than himself. The contrast with Charlie/Knox and yet, still having the same consequences… Peter Weir I’m hunting you down.

This is not what Keating encouraged. Remember how Keating asked him to talk to his father? Remember how he asked him if he talked to him (and Neil lied and said yes) and he was very happy and supported his decision about the play? Remember how, before knowing his father “agreed” Keating didn’t tell Neil “oh you’re already in the play, go through with it, carpe diem, who cares what your father says?” but instead told him “talk to your father. If he says yes then you can continue with the play with no worries, and if he says no then wait until you’re out of school and he won’t be able to control you as much anymore. You have options, this is not the end of the world. Either talk to him and come to an agreement or wait.” Remember that? Keating didn’t want Neil to go behind his father’s back, because he knew the consequences this would have.

(Interesting how, out of all the physical harm than the misunderstanding of carpe diem caused, Neil’s is the only one inflicted by himself to his own body. I’m definitely very normal about this.)

Charlie, again. He punched Cameron. Acted on impulse, didn’t think of the consequences punching another student on school grounds, on school hours, actually meant. He got expelled. He suffered a punishment. But now he didn’t receive any physical harm, but rather caused it. To Cameron. He didn’t think he did anything wrong, he thought Cameron deserved it.

Cameron. He’s the hardest to understand. He wants to seize the day, in his own way. After all, he joins the club despite not really having to, but he simply seems too scared to actually carpe that diem. He ends up seeing this as dangerous. After what happened to Neil (dead), and after seeing what happened to Charlie (almost expelled) and Knox (ended up with a bloody face) he gets scared. Damn, this might actually be dangerous. It’s a good reasoning. 3/7 members got hurt. Not half of them, but almost. He misunderstood carpe diem based on the consequences seizing the day had in the others (the others who misunderstood what it actually meant) and so he snitched to nolan. And this is what causes him physical harm, what causes him to be punched by Charlie. He loses something (his friendship with the other poets) and gets physically hurt. So, so, sooo interesting how despite this being considered the complete opposite to seizing the day, it’s framed in the exact same way as all the other instances where carpe diem takes part. He suffers the same consequences as everyone else. He believed himself to be doing the right thing, to be saving the others’ academic lives and doing now what he couldn’t have done for Neil before (protecting others from keating’s influence).

Keating never meant for carpe diem to be dangerous, or hurtful, or scary.

But then Todd.

Todd’s carpe diem is just becoming more confident. Reading his poems aloud, becoming more sociable and comfortable around his friends, accepting than he’s allowed to receive love, to rely on others, to believe in himself, to stand up for himself and his beliefs (refusing to sign the paper and saying no to his parents and nolan).

His final stand, his seize the day moment, is at the end of the film. He’s the first one to stand on the desk. This is the perfect rebellion. Meaningful, happens for a reason (Keating getting unfairly fired), doesn’t harm anyone else and doesn’t harm himself (doesn’t cause him nor anyone else physical pain). No danger (he might get in trouble, but I doubt he could face expulsion for standing on a desk). Charlie’s act on Neil/Keating’s memory was one of anger, impulsive, one that drew blood and ended in expulsion. Todd’s was one of defiance, impulsive, but that hurt no one and ended well. It’s more, it caused happiness (Keating felt better, saw his contributions).

The one who felt more scared to go through with it at first is the only one who truly understood it.

Then with Meeks/Pitts idk honestly. They don’t really have a big moment. I guess at the end, standing on the desks, but they’re not the ones who start it or are particularly important in that scene. The radio scene, perhaps, but I don’t really see what was stopping them from building a radio before. If the radio scene was their carpe diem, though, then another example of someone understanding what it truly meant. The scene ended well, didn’t hurt anyone or involved anyone who was unwilling, they didn’t get any punishment after, etc.

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These scenes are contrasts btw

Knox goes into Chris’ school to willingly read a poem he wrote. / Todd is already at his school when he’s forced to recite a poem he just improvised.

Knox entered the class with the whole purpose of reading it. / Todd entered class with absolutely no intention to recite anything.

Chris was… not impressed. / Neil, on the other hand, was.

(Chris covering her head and face, refusing to look at Knox. / Neil staring directly at Todd, unabashedly.)

Kids were laughing at Knox. / Kids were laughing at Todd at first, but then they stopped and became impressed, and clapped.

Knox looks at his audience (the students). Several times, in fact. / Todd’s eyes are closed. Just when he’s about to look at the class, Keating makes it a point to stop him, tell him to not do it, to keep his eyes closed.

Chris tried to discourage Knox from reading the poem and failed. / Mr Keating tried to encourage Todd into making up a poem and succeed (after basically forcing him to, but well).

Both read it in front of the class aswell

(Also, Chris begins not being interested on Knox while Knox is super interested, slowly Chris warms up to him and they date vs Neil begins very interested on Todd and always trying to include him but Todd is reluctant at first and avoidant, but slowly warms up and then Neil dies)

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I want to squish him ouh...

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we don’t talk about this enough!!!!!!!!!

sleepy bedhead?!! his morning voice!!! “happy time”!??!!! “think of this as a dream…”!??!!!!???? his lips wanting more as she pulls away?!!? i -

(from House, MD episode 06x19 “the choice”)

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feels like these shots are on purpose…

tears in my chameron eyes

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but i was going to say i think charlie often sees his worst traits reflected in him and really is more aware than he wants to be. its most obvious to me when neil tells him he shouldnt have published the article, he says "but do we really mean what we say?" he says theyre just "messing around" but thats. just charlie. he's talking about himself. he's the one messing around and saying things he doesnt really mean. he doesnt really grasp keatings teachings, he only sees the outer shell of it and wants to be that, but so much of it is hollow. that's why he snaps at neil.

i also think this is why he hates cameron so much!! cameron and charlie do have similarities actually - the biggest one being that they never want to give up on something. thats why cameron tried to stay with the poets till literally the very end, even when he started realizing they were being cruel to him. he knew he shouldve left. charlie knew he shouldnt have published the paper, he knows hes reckless. and they both want approval from people they respect - the difference is who gets it. neither of them really know what theyre doing or what they want to do, either. and i think charlie sees those aspects of himself in cameron and thats why he's so cruel to him. not out of a desire to hurt.

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BONK!💥