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Love

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Joe, Toren, and Kevin take a Caustic look at “love”. We discuss the obsessive “limerence”, Helen of Troy, Abelard & Heloise, Bosko & Admira, two horribly criminal plans to keep a lover In The News, plus Toren reads a portion of Larry Niven’s Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex in the style of David Attenborough.

Music: “Millionaire Girlfriend” by Jonathan Coulton

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26 Responses

  1. Prizzi’s Honor is a mob movie with another dark comic love story worth seeing. Jack Nicholson abd Angelica Houston turn in fantastic performances.

  4. Brokeback was actually less about their love and more about the homophobia that interfered with it both from outside and inside. Annie Proulx was inspired to write it when she pondered how the violent homophobia she noticed in Wyoming must affect the life and love of a cowboy she suspected was gay. to her chagrin, she has gotten many -sometimes pornographic- ‘helpful’ rewrites of her story from men who keep insisting she doesn’t know how to write a gay love-story and she head-desks and says ‘i didn’t! that’s not what it was about!’

    Also, i don’t think they are necessarily both bi, either. I know several elders of my LGBT community who grew up and got married and had families in towns where being in a same-sex relationship was just not even on the list of options back in the day (still aren’t in many places), and they don’t identify as bisexual. they certainly would say they felt some love and affection for their spouses (except for the ones that just got a girl pregnant while they were passing and had loveless marriages that eventually disintegrated) but it just wasn’t the same as what they felt with their same-sex partners. sometimes they were just going through the motions because that’s what everyone expected of them, and if they didn’t go along with that people would begin to suspect.

    one of my older lesbian friends told me she didn’t realize she was a lesbian until her mid 30s because she had been taught lesbians were butch, hated men but liked manly things, etc; ‘therefore’ she couldn’t be a lesbian because she liked lipstick, shoes and the color pink, and thus she had a husband and three kids with him. kinda like how both Ennis and Jack are quick to insist they aren’t ‘queer’ because of what that word implies to them. that may seem ridiculous today but that’s just how limiting, painful and mind-bending living in those conditions can be.

    i’ve seen a few more upbeat gay romances in my day, i think ‘Trick’ is probably one of my favorites.

    1. I am leaving this comment here because I seems to be in the same vein as this comment. A comment was made during the show about how there was an expectation of more violence against gays in Brokeback Mountain. I think what was said is aprox: ‘I was expecting more tragedy’ followed by a suggestions that the couple never get caught and beat up.

      Jack was murdered at the end of that movie for being believed to be gay.

      I would consider that to be pretty caustic.

      Anyway, I love you’re show and this is another great episode. But I do feel like you missed a bit there.

  5. When you finished talking about the Sarajevo Romeo and Juliet and the music started, I thought that you missed an opportunity to play Vrbana Bridge by Jill Sobule, which is about that incident. Although I liked the song you did play.

    Good show as always.

  6. Right then time to print up the Anti Valentines day cards.
    I’m thinking a big red heart with a jagged tear through it and the caption
    “I’ll always limerence you”

    You know adding this new word to my vocabulary suddenly makes life seem a lot more sinister.
    No longer was I in love or had a crush no, no such innocent terms are not for me.
    I was clearly Limerencing
    : (

  7. I noticed The War of the Roses had its screenplay written by Michael J Leeson… And it was Kevin who talked about it. Coinsidence???? I think yes.

    1. I didn’t even realize that!

      I’m aware of the writer Michael Leeson because he also created THE COSBY SHOW, so I saw his name pretty prominently displayed every week.

      Those are two very differently themed projects….

  9. I’ve been a fan of Hatoful Boyfriend since it came out, and it was the absolutely last thing I expected to come up when I listened to this episode. I didn’t know how badly I needed a Caustic Soda Let’s Play till now. You guys are hilarious.

  11. Continuing with my habit of adding comic books to the pop culture section, and thus cementing my reputation as a massive geek, the Superman Man of Steel, woman of Kleenex line actually appears in the comic Superman Year One.

    A young superman is entering into a relationship with a lovely young lady and just when things begin to get intimate he goes into a flash back.
    An even younger teenaged superman sits on his bed with pa kent.
    They are having “The Talk”
    “Now son as you get older your going to have certain urges….”
    “I know all this pa. We covered it in sex ed at school.”
    “Well son its just that given you special situation there are other concerns…”
    “Like what?”
    “Well I don’t quite know how to put this delicately….. but….. man of steel, woman of Kleenex.”
    A horrified teenage superman cuts to a twenty something superman who promptly makes his excuses and exits leaving a decidedly confused and frustrated woman behind him.

  12. Did “platonic love” get a guernsey? I missed it (unless it was known by another name).

    +1 for War of the Roses – I remember loving that film when it came out, and was later told that it was actually pretty hard to watch for some people who had actually experienced nasty divorces. I thought it was amusing though.

  13. Between Helen of Troy and the Sandman section, I was reminded of Queen Dido. Specifically the part of the Aeneid where she and Aeneas first sleep together:

    “Dido and the Trojan leader reach the very same cave.
    Primeval Earth and Juno of the Nuptials give their signal:
    lightning flashes, the heavens are party to their union,
    and the Nymphs howl on the mountain heights.
    That first day is the source of misfortune and death.
    Dido’s no longer troubled by appearances or reputation,
    she no longer thinks of a secret affair: she calls it marriage:
    and with that name disguises her sin.”

    Not quite as immediate as a meteor wiping out the city, but eventually killing herself and declaring eternal enmity between their two cities is still pretty extreme!

    Looking forward to watching the Hatoful video. I’d heard of it before, but know nothing else about it.

  14. Hello! Another great show from my tip top #1 fave podcast. I have heard every episode at least once.

    I notice a question Joe posed in the podcast hasn’t been answered yet, about whether or not Jaime & Circei Lannister’s children knew that they were born of incest. I haven’t read the books, though I do recall a scene somewhere in the third season where King Geoffrey tells his mother Cercei that he has been aware of the rumors being talked about everywhere, and pesters her to tell him if the rumors are true, which she (naturally) denies.

    I hope that helps. Cheers and keep Caustic, y’all! ^_^
    -Ken, Soda Jerk

  16. The video is the first time I see your faces and this is not how I imagined you at all.

  17. Very nice work on the episode!

    Though I must admit, watching the LP I was fairly disappointed you didn’t get Shuu (creepy partridge) to fall in love with you. I’m a fan of Hatoful Boyfriend, and I can confirm both of his endings are caustic. Though it probably would’ve required a lot more effort to put in editing wise — you have to raise your wisdom stat quite a bit. Maybe next time!

  18. “… still in a state of shock. On Friday they learned that the Lanesboro police chief had confessed to starting the fire to … <<>>”

  19. Philophobia… The fear of love.
    Phobophilia… The love of fear.

    Also “giant mingun”… awesome.

  22. I just needed to say…. funny is my top consideration in a man, to my own detriment at times, if you can’t make me laugh…. gtfo! I guess that’s why I listen you guys!