Hell ain't a bad place.

[davywavy]

In Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit three people locked in a hotel room slowly but surely come to the realisation that they are dead and in Hell, and that their hell is each other. The skill in the allocation of this Hell is not putting three people who will loath and rage at each other in a room together; instead it's just guaging it so the people will spend all eternity just ticking each other off.
There's a great deal of catharsis in outright anger and fury or rage, but they will be denied that. Instead the three characters will just spend all eternity bloody irritated and bickering.

I was trying to think last night who my two people would be were I in a similar situation. Being a fellow of mighty passions, I don't get irritated much so finding a couple of people who just irritate me without reducing me to a killing fury in short order might be difficult. But what about you? Who would you have to be stuck in a room with to put your back up for all eternity?

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

A former housemate called Claire and, hmm, probably my friend Ross if we're in there for eternity with no one else around.

Although I'm pretty sure that even in that situation I'd eventually either try to fix things or cave in one or both of their skulls. Once you're in hell, I guess the point is that things can't get any worse, right?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

And the point is that your personal development stops at death - so you couldn't get round to fixing things. If you didn't do it in your life, it's too laaaate noooooow...

Ineffable, innit?

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

I guess I find it hard to comprehend that I might be in a situation where I might be supernaturally precluded from doing the sensible thing (in this case, defusing differences and plotting escape). But then I guess that's how the Church has traded all these years ;-)

Re: Ineffable, innit?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, by your own admission you haven't been supernaturally precluded from doing the sensible thing up until now, but that hasn't stopped you :p

Re: Ineffable, innit?

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course. I only ever do the awesome thing ;-)

Re: Ineffable, innit?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

That's one word for it, but a few moments with a thesaurus would have provided you with a bevy of superior alternatives.

[(Anonymous)]

To some extent this sort of describes my job.

H

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It describes my childhood.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

So Hell is Big Brother? That makes perfect sense to me.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

My immediate thought was that my Hell would be two people like Jacqui Smith and Polly Toynbee, but I quickly realised that the stench of self-righteous hypocrisy drifting from their corner would taunt me into a killing rage within minutes and I'd spend the rest of eternity in solitary.
It's a tough one, I think.

[scarletdemon.livejournal.com]

Sue Pollard and Robert Killroy-Silk.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Ahh....No Exit.

My life philosophy is based around the key line from that play:

"l'enfer, c'est les autres"

So true. So true.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I rather think that other people can be either Hell or Heaven, and it is our own attitudes which make them so.

So by my reasoning, Hell (or Heaven) is oneself.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

At least if john was in the room we could be sure it was jolly tidy.