Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Revised: Reponse Paper


The Bitter Side of Unrequited Romance

Many of us have been in love before, tried to make compromises in relationships, and had our hearts broken. As Charlie Brown once said, “Nothing quite takes the taste out of peanut butter like unrequited love.” In the television show Californication, unrequited love is a theme that recurs in each season. The main character, Hank Moody, is still in-love with his long time off-and-on girlfriend, Karen, who is about to get married. The show Californication and the novel The Rules of Attraction are similar in that unrequited love is one of the main motifs of the two. Another similarity between the book and TV show is that this is a critique on the upper class of society and the amount of sex that occurs parallels that of The Rules of Attraction.

First, the theme of unrequited love is important because not only does it pertain to our class theme of the radical romance, but this constant pursuit of something that is unattainable feeds into unhealthy obsessions. By not obtaining something you are constantly thinking about you build up an expectation of this great thing and when you finally get it you are let down, because it is not as perfect as you made it out to be. In The Rules of Attraction each character pursues someone who is not interested in them and when they finally get closer to that person, they are let down. Unreal expectations are one of the best ways to get let down and detach yourself from reality, like the characters in The Rules of Attraction did. In Californication, Moody has the opportunity to be with his ex-girlfriend but during the second season, he realizes that it may not work out between them and is actually willing to let her go, after already spending so much time going crazy over her during the first season. One reason that I believe he was so persistent in going after his ex; even though she was going to be married was that he had a child with her, and he never really had the chance to marry her. The main reason was probably BECAUSE she was going to be married and he would have had to fight to win her over. According to the Barker text, “men are held to be more ‘naturally domineering,’ hierarchically oriented and power-hungry…” (Barker 285) This ties in with Californication, in that, Moody viewed his daughter almost as “property” and therefore could not leave his daughter, and ex behind. He would not allow another man to take them away from him and felt challenged by Bill Lewis, Karen’s fiancĂ©. Sean, from The Rules of Attraction, also exhibited this behavior in that he viewed women as commodities and displayed that he was “hierarchically oriented” by only sleeping with women who were attractive, popular and dressed nicely.

Another theme that these two works had in common was that of shrugging their responsibilities. In the novel, Sean did not pay for the abortion and Moody has free sex without worrying about the repercussions of his actions. In season two, just as Moody, Karen and their daughter Becca are all starting their new, happy lives together, Moody learns that Sonja- a woman he had a one night stand with- may be pregnant on the same day that he proposes to Karen. Upon hearing that he may have gotten another woman pregnant, Karen declines Moody’s proposal and it is then that he decides that it won’t work out between them.

Finally, the critique on the upper class and analysis of the sex that occurs in The Rules of Attraction, and Californication as an important concept within the two mediums. The Rules of Attraction is a social critique on the upper class because it illustrates ‘80’s nihilism and what college students do when they have too much time and money on their hands. For example, the students of Camden College know that they will never lose the support of their parents, so they take their relationships with their parents for granted and continue to use them for their money which they splurge because they do not know what else to do with it. They have an overabundance much like the characters in Californication. Moody, although he is losing his job as a writer takes his lifestyle for granted and spends a lot of money on weed. He does not pay rent at the places he lives, but they are always lavishly decorated, beautiful places in California or New York. The women he sleeps with are also wealthy and have a certain look. Moreover, the portrayal of sex in both of these acts makes it seem as though sex is something causal. The characters in The Rules of Attraction sleep with as many people as they can just because. They are not seeking a meaningful relationship with his person, just some fun. Moody looks for one night stands in order to try to forget about losing his ex to someone else. After he gets back together with ex, he stops looking at other women and focuses on her which is interesting. After the character in The Rules of Attraction get what they truly want, and if they are not tired of them, they actually seem truly happy. According to a study done by the founder of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, Dr. Joe McIlhaney and Dr. Freda McKissic Bush, “humans are the healthiest and happiest when they engage in sex only with the one who is their mate for a lifetime...[due to the fact that] the most important sex organ is the brain.” This research may explain why the students of Camden are so unhappy and depressed, because they are just having meaningless sex. Their acts are solely physical and have no intellectual or emotional connection. Secondly this could also explain why the people in solid relationships in Californication (although minor characters) have happy and productive lives, because they have happy and productive marriages.

Works Cited

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2008.

McDowell, Sean. "Why Evolutionary Theory is Wrong about Sex." Worldview Times – Home,

29 April 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2009.

<http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-4853/Brannon-Howse/Sean-

McDowell>.