Monday, February 13, 2012

which is worse?

It occurred to me today while we were reading No Exit that, at least to me, hell-hotel would be ten times worse without other people there. Maybe it's because I missed something or maybe because I'm personally not an existentialist but it seem like hell would be way worse if you had to sit in your room by yourself. I'd rather be in hell-hotel than swap places with Gregor for instance, who has to sit alone in the dark as a large bug while his family slowly grow to hate his very existence. Hell-hotel doesn't seem all that bad to me, it's incredibly awkward and I definalty wouldn't want to check in there, but it seems a little more like a never-ending Coen brothers movie than eternal condemnation...

(Barton Fink, a Coen Bros movie, is set partly in this hellish Hotel so hot that the wall paper glue kind of melts and the paper slides all over the place. Eventually the entire place sort of becomes an inferno literally and figuratively. Even though Sartre is an incredibly writer and play write, and even though I really liked No Exit, I can't think hell-hotel without a visual of John Goodman... that's not to say I didn't think No Exit was the bomb though.)

3 comments:

Shaina Lu said...

Hmmm... Sara, that's a really good point. As much as Hell is other people, I do agree it might be worse to be by yourself and forced to think even more about your choices and bad faith in life. I think you're right, I would rather have other people.

mere said...

I agree. Hell is not only other people, it is also yourself. You can seriously torture yourself when your left for eternity to contemplate you're faults. At least with other people you can have an outlet or someone else to blame.

alyb said...

I would much rather be in the hell hotel than Gregor's situation! I think that hell is other people in the sense that they make you percieve yourself differently or by their standards. Being in an eternal "solitary confinement" would be much worse than being confined to one space with other people.