¶ … Monologue, a Dialogue with the Self: Reflections on "No Exit" by Sartre
The Self: There is "No Exit" from hell -- not in Christian, theological terms, but by the terms set by Sartre's play of the same name, there is no exit from the self. The varieties of characters that populate the waiting room of hell are condemned for all eternity to examine and reexamine their lives. Socrates may have said that the unexamined life is not worth living, but the over-examined life, when imposed upon the human psyche by reading too much philosophy and self-improvement literature or self-imposed as the result of egocentrism, can be equally eviscerating.
Hell is other people, says the author. Imagine one's self with two individuals one despises, and then one has "No Exit" -- or imagine one's self alone, in a waiting room, locked with the personifications, all of the absurd worries and obsessions of the thoughts collected over a lifetime. That truly would be hell, for even to be locked in a room of hatred beings would at least expose one to the relief of other people's neurotic obsessions.
Descartes said 'I think therefore I am,' locating the human person in the 'I' of thought. But this egocentric I of Western philosophy, created out of ruminative thought, can be a terrible consciousness, a terrible awareness of one's freedom, limits, and ultimately one's mortality. The height of human aspirations in the mind constantly clashes with the limits of human action in the world. One may be dreaming of great achievements, yet find one in a waiting room of a doctor's office for an appointment one does not want, thumbing through a magazine one does not to read -- that is life, that is hell if it is lived in a state of constant presence of mind and awareness of the futility of life and of keeping the body alive -- for what?
The only thing worse is to be in that waiting room alone, alone with one's thoughts -- better to be waiting with a hated 'other' than to be waiting in the prison of the mind, in a state of examination of body, soul, spirit, and cerebral matter.
Winter Dreams" of F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Flowering Judas of Katherine Anne Porter" Cool. Dispassionate. Masters of the art of literary artifice, lies, and characters who wear masks rather than their true selves. Although one author deploys an almost newspaper-like dispassionate style, and the other is more poetic in her use of the language, both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Katherine Anne Porter have been called by these appellations because of
Madame Merle's opening diatribe -- or at least, her lengthy monologue of dissatisfied pronouncements -- makes it clear that gender had a great deal to do with personal definition and constraint, in her view, and though Isabel protests it must be acknowledged that there is some truth to her assessment. At the same time, Madame Merle fully adopts and thus allows herself to be constrained by the notion that she
Modernism, and how the literature that is considered to be Modernist literature is representative of the period. Then explain how contemporary world literature comes from Modernism Discuss three Modernists and their work. Then discuss two contemporary authors. Explain how they represent NOW (or the contemporary world which is from 1968 on.) Then discuss the differences between Modernism and contemporary literature. James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and DH Lawrence are three examples of three different
Book of Job - Biblical Allegory Job's tale is one of the most accessible Biblical allegories. An honorable, just, pious man loses everything: his ten children, his wife, his entire estate, and on top of it all is inflicted with a horrendous skin disease that leaves him crippled. All this was done as a challenge and a test of his faith. The Book of Job opens with a conversation between God
Stacey's inner-monologues, which make up a majority of the narrative, illustrate how cut off she has become from intimate and meaningful relationships with those around her. Unable to speak in more than superficial terms with her husband, Mac, and facing a distant relationship with her sons and eldest daughter, Stacey only truly reveals herself through conversations with two-year-old Jen, who is non-verbal and thus unlikely to either interrupt or challenge
It emphasizes the intended meaning of the communicator and brings the listener away from listening to the message to focusing on the communicator him or herself. Communication is, therefore, committed to being with the other rather than being with the message and communication and communicator become separable one from the other. This provides a different perspective on participation where one person's message joins with that of another and the
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