ayase
State Alchemist
I'm enjoying reading everyone's thoughts even if I'm not really contributing very much (I'd like more posts but I'm not a big liker, ironically the more quality posts in a thread the less likely I become to like them, because I end up liking every post and then I just look like I'm being loose with my likes and their value goes down 
). Typically, today Netflix decided to offer me another free trial, I've clearly been unsubscribed long enough for them to start begging for my money again. Shame it wasn't a couple of weeks earlier. I probably will give Eva another watch since I know I've forgotten a lot and would like to see it in something approximating HD, but I'll probably be too late to join episode specific discussion (unless I watch it non-stop overnight... Tempting).
"the essence of a double bind is two conflicting demands, each on a different logical level, neither of which can be ignored or escaped. This leaves the subject torn both ways, so that whichever demand they try to meet, the other demand cannot be met. "I must do it, but I can't do it" is a typical description of the double-bind experience."
Which sounds a lot like the position Gendo has put Shinji in regarding piloting the Eva, doesn't it?
Apologies for the infodump which may have veered slightly off-topic, but this is the stuff I find so interesting about Eva.
*Edit, with potential Episode 22 spoilers: I feel like Asuka's early dislike of Rei is tied to her mother's apparent rejection and replacement of her with a doll - A silent and compliant child surrogate, which are of course things Asuka takes great pride in being anything but, but Rei would appear to any outside observer to embody (and in fact to Gendo that's pretty much exactly what she is, at least in the beginning). Seeing her mother idolise something so different from her and then seeing that again in Rei (and potentially in Rei and Gendo's relationship as well, it may be that she sees a parallel between her and Shinji's situations because of that) was bound to trigger some unpleasant memories.
). Typically, today Netflix decided to offer me another free trial, I've clearly been unsubscribed long enough for them to start begging for my money again. Shame it wasn't a couple of weeks earlier. I probably will give Eva another watch since I know I've forgotten a lot and would like to see it in something approximating HD, but I'll probably be too late to join episode specific discussion (unless I watch it non-stop overnight... Tempting).You probably don't have to look much further than when the show references the Hedgehog's Dilemma. I don't know (or can't remember) if Anno was familiar with the work of Gregory Bateson or R.D. Laing, but his exploration of people and their relationships with one another by way of Jung and Freud seems to have led Eva to make some similar observations; That people and their behaviours are by and large a product of their early relationships and environments and that ultimately, there are understandable reasons for people's mental states that need to be faced and addressed - Essentially, they f*ck you up, your mum and dad*, something which is very explicitly true of all of Eva's "Children" (and probably most everyone else in the show - Heaven only knows what Gendo's parents were like). It's interesting Rei was mentioned as schizophrenic character earlier - Bateson theorized that schizophrenia originated from double binds:I also wonder what Anno's mindset on relationships was at the time.
"the essence of a double bind is two conflicting demands, each on a different logical level, neither of which can be ignored or escaped. This leaves the subject torn both ways, so that whichever demand they try to meet, the other demand cannot be met. "I must do it, but I can't do it" is a typical description of the double-bind experience."
Which sounds a lot like the position Gendo has put Shinji in regarding piloting the Eva, doesn't it?
Apologies for the infodump which may have veered slightly off-topic, but this is the stuff I find so interesting about Eva.
*Edit, with potential Episode 22 spoilers: I feel like Asuka's early dislike of Rei is tied to her mother's apparent rejection and replacement of her with a doll - A silent and compliant child surrogate, which are of course things Asuka takes great pride in being anything but, but Rei would appear to any outside observer to embody (and in fact to Gendo that's pretty much exactly what she is, at least in the beginning). Seeing her mother idolise something so different from her and then seeing that again in Rei (and potentially in Rei and Gendo's relationship as well, it may be that she sees a parallel between her and Shinji's situations because of that) was bound to trigger some unpleasant memories.
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