Been thinking about the Rodrigo/Charlie "relationship" and remembered a Groucho Marx quote that Slavoj Zizek is fond of using:
Being so used to finding hidden meanings everywhere, ulterior motives and with a certain mass market psychoanalysis behind us, it is too easy to just say, "ah yes, their arguments are a classic case of repressed love." Why is it not possible for the opposite to be the case: that the moments of tenderness serve to disguise the truth of the moments of absolute hatred towards each other? In this version, Charlie and Rodrigo are trying to occupy the same place in the house - that of the joker, a role which can only be occupied by one person. All their arguments basically stem from jokes going too far, turning into violence. They are not trying to repress their true feelings at these points, rather these are the moments when their true feelings come out. The rest of the time the laws of society mean they have to repress these feelings: in the Big Brother house it is the emotion of hatred that is the main taboo, everyone has to get along, or at least create a semblance of getting along, so why should we imagine that it is love that is being repressed, rather than hatred?
"This man looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot - but this should in no way deceive you: he IS an idiot."Which applied to Charlie/Rodrigo would go something like this, "They look like they hate each other and act like they hate each other - but this should in no way deceive you: they DO hate each other." (Of course it can also be applied in its original form to David...)
Being so used to finding hidden meanings everywhere, ulterior motives and with a certain mass market psychoanalysis behind us, it is too easy to just say, "ah yes, their arguments are a classic case of repressed love." Why is it not possible for the opposite to be the case: that the moments of tenderness serve to disguise the truth of the moments of absolute hatred towards each other? In this version, Charlie and Rodrigo are trying to occupy the same place in the house - that of the joker, a role which can only be occupied by one person. All their arguments basically stem from jokes going too far, turning into violence. They are not trying to repress their true feelings at these points, rather these are the moments when their true feelings come out. The rest of the time the laws of society mean they have to repress these feelings: in the Big Brother house it is the emotion of hatred that is the main taboo, everyone has to get along, or at least create a semblance of getting along, so why should we imagine that it is love that is being repressed, rather than hatred?
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