Ten Things I Hate About Lacan

I just came across another great song for thinking through Lacan. I last heard it in the film Ten Things I Hate About You (hence this post's title). Other than the obvious Hegelian connection that "desire is the desire of the other," its Lacanian in that the I who is desiring is put into question because of the eternal exteriority through which its interiority relies upon. The use of "need" to compliment and complicate the "want" shows the lack that both the I and the other share, which doesn't complete them, but merely constitues them and forever connects them.

But the section on crying reveals that love is possible despite this apparent rift. Love happens, we can connect to the other, but not through pre-packaged romance and the realization of social fantasies about the other's magical qualities, but instead when the facade does break down and when the curtain of fantasy is lifted away. When we experience that hysterical moment where the fantasy frame through which we hold the other in attraction experiences a glitch as we perceive a glitch, a piece of the other's Real. It is often momentary, and often disbelieved or rejected, such as the lyrics which repeat in different ways a strange disbelief over whether or not the other is crying. When the other is broken down to something like this, which sticks out of joint, whether its a look aside during sex, a laugh which seems to come from nowhere, a statement with an uncertain author, or even tugap or do'do', it is only here that love is possible.



I WANT YOU TO WANT ME

* I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I'd love you to love me
I'm beggin' you to beg me
I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I'd love you to love me
I'll shine up my old brown shoes
Put on a brand new shirt
Get home early from work
If you say that you love me
Didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'
Oh, do not I, do not I, do not I see you cryin'
Feeling all alone without a friend you know you feel like dying
Oh, do not I, do not I, do not I see you cryin'

[Repeat *]
I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I'd love you to love me
I'm beggin' you to beg me
I want you to want me
I want you to want me
I want you to want me
I want you to want me

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