#no exit
throwback to that time in my existentialism class where the professor asked ‘who thinks hell is other people’ and half the class slowly and meekly put their hand up
then the prof was like ‘…i mean who originally said it’
there are some posts that sound utterly made up for the joke or for the notes, but this one I whole heartedly believe
Sounds right to me…
That quote is amazing to me in that it’s quoted completely accurately and yet in a way that means something completely different from what it meant in context.
(Sartre was claiming that Hell was other people. He was not claiming that other people were hell.)
…I can’t actually tell what distinction you’re drawing there. Can you expand?
The line comes from No Exit, which is set in Hell. Spoilers for No Exit follow
In particular, three people who have been condemned to hell are trapped eternally in a room together. And at first they think they got off easy without any pitchforks or fiery lakes or anything. But over the course of the play they discover that they have been chosen very specifically to have neuroses and character flaws that interact with and torment each other.
Each one needs the approval of a second in an unstable RPS cycle so that any time one of them might be satisfied by a second, the third swoops in and ruins it.
And when they figure this out, one of the characters expresses his understanding, that hell isn’t physical torture. “Hell is just—other people.”
So the point isn’t that other people, generically, are hellish; it’s rather that you can build a hell out of other people.
But when I hear people quote it, it’s usually sort of an introvert-pride thing. “Other people are hell; you should spend time alone.” And that’s not the point at all. It’s a statement about how bad unhealthy relationships can be, not a statement about how all relationships are unhealthy!
See also Sartre’s own comment here:
“hell is other people” has always been misunderstood. It has been thought that what I meant by that was that our relations with other people are always poisoned, that they are invariably hellish relations. But what I really mean is something totally different. I mean that if relations with someone else are twisted, vitiated, then that other person can only be hell.
Reblogging for the original post which was hilarious and also for that explanation which is beautiful
And also the entire plot of The Good Place.
throwback to that time in my existentialism class where the professor asked ‘who thinks hell is other people’ and half the class slowly and meekly put their hand up
then the prof was like ‘…i mean who originally said it’
there are some posts that sound utterly made up for the joke or for the notes, but this one I whole heartedly believe
Sounds right to me…
That quote is amazing to me in that it’s quoted completely accurately and yet in a way that means something completely different from what it meant in context.
(Sartre was claiming that Hell was other people. He was not claiming that other people were hell.)
…I can’t actually tell what distinction you’re drawing there. Can you expand?
The line comes from No Exit, which is set in Hell. Spoilers for No Exit follow
In particular, three people who have been condemned to hell are trapped eternally in a room together. And at first they think they got off easy without any pitchforks or fiery lakes or anything. But over the course of the play they discover that they have been chosen very specifically to have neuroses and character flaws that interact with and torment each other.
Each one needs the approval of a second in an unstable RPS cycle so that any time one of them might be satisfied by a second, the third swoops in and ruins it.
And when they figure this out, one of the characters expresses his understanding, that hell isn’t physical torture. “Hell is just—other people.”
So the point isn’t that other people, generically, are hellish; it’s rather that you can build a hell out of other people.
But when I hear people quote it, it’s usually sort of an introvert-pride thing. “Other people are hell; you should spend time alone.” And that’s not the point at all. It’s a statement about how bad unhealthy relationships can be, not a statement about how all relationships are unhealthy!
See also Sartre’s own comment here:
“hell is other people” has always been misunderstood. It has been thought that what I meant by that was that our relations with other people are always poisoned, that they are invariably hellish relations. But what I really mean is something totally different. I mean that if relations with someone else are twisted, vitiated, then that other person can only be hell.
Shelf Sunday features the books I’m hoping to read this week! So excited to start my Hannibal Lecter Readathon!
Review of Taylor Adams’ No Exit -
10 Word Review: Woman stuck in blizzard at rest stop with four strangers!
Spoiler Free Review: This book was a non-stop thrill ride! It may be one of my new favorite thrillers ever. Just when you think you have a grasp on what’s going to happen, you realize you literally have no clue! There were so many WTF moments, but it never veers into the ridiculous, which can always ruin a good thriller for me. It’s also what I call a cinematic book, where it could literally be turned into a movie as is and is incredibly well paced. If you’re looking for a book you can read in a day and are looking to be highly entertained, definitely check it out!
Current Read is No Exit by Taylor Adams! This is a non-stop thrill ride!
A few days ago, I watched the chamber opera adaptation (written in 2008) of No Exit by Andy Vores. The opera comes from the famous philosophical play of the same name by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Plot: Three people (Estelle, Garcin, & Inez) have died & are put in one room in Hell. The door is locked and there are no reflective surfaces–they can only see themselves through the eyes of the other people in the room. Estelle, Garcin, & Inez are trying to figure out why they are in this room in Hell together. They realize that Hell is them emotionally torturing each other in this one room forever.
Music: This definitely is a minimalist opera musically with influences from Expressionist music, which I really love and is the PERFECT type of music for this type of plot. I also really liked that the composer also made dreamlike sounding music whenever the characters slipped into their memories of when they were alive. All of the singers in the production were excellent, especially the singer who portrayed Inez. Even though the production I watched didn’t have subtitles, the English diction was so clear from every singer that the lack of subtitles wasn’t much of an issue, & the full libretto is easily available online.
Visuals: The music, the plot, and the visuals are inseparably tied together. The singers faced the audience the whole time while behind them was a projection of their faces. The projections came from a camera held from the audience by a fourth character, The Valet. Those choices really accented what it means to only be viewed through the eyes of other people.
Is there representation of characters w/ marginalized identities?: Yes. Inez is lesbian and her attraction to Estelle is very important to the plot of No Exit. I need to be clear that ALL of the characters are in this one room in Hell for harm done when they were alive. The characters are meant to be complex representations of humanity that shows a lot of dark sides, not paragons of positive representation. There are moments where you empathize w/ her as well as feel frustrated w/ her AND she isn’t portrayed as worse or better than Estelle & Garcin, and Garcin & Estelle aren’t portrayed as worse or better than her either. Positive representation and complex darker representation (w/o falling into villain tropes) are both important.
Rating: 9/10, if you are interested in watching this opera, message me & I’ll send you the link to the opera & libretto~
Other variations on my twitter.
Nicolas Geiser - Destroyed in China (no way, no exit), 2021, assembled plexi, 61 x 61 cm
