“Hell is other people” – and their taste in music…

THE FAMOUS EXISTENTIALIST’S OPINION: “Hell is other people.” (“L’enfer, c’est les Autres.”)        Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)        French existential philosopher and writer and Marxist social activist        This is the oft-quoted line from Sartre’s play No Exit (titled Huis Clos in French), spoken by the character Joseph Garcin. The play was first performed in French at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier theatre in Paris in May 1944. It was first performed in English at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City in 1946, using the translation by the renowned Beat writer and translator, Paul Bowles.          Bowles was a bit creative in his translation. “Huis clos” is a French idiomatic expression that’s similar to the English legal term “in camera,” meaning a judicial proceeding or discussion held in private. In fact, the play has sometimes been performed and filmed in English under the title In Camera.        A more literal translation of “Huis Clos” would be “behind closed doors.” However, the play is best known by the title Bowles came up with. Apparently, it was a hellish translation challenge for him. In the biography Paul Bowles: A Life, he is quoted as saying: “I’m not very good at titles. It took me six weeks to get No Exit out of Huis Clos.”        No Exit/Huis Clos is about the three doomed souls: a man, Joseph Garcin, and two women, Inès Serrano and Estelle Rigault. They are condemned to Hell for their sins. But instead of facing flames and torture, they are locked together in a room furnished in the Second French Empire style. (Hellish in itself!) There’s not much for them to do except talk about themselves and eventually deal with Estelle’s attempt to seduce Joseph.

THE DEVIL’S TAKE: “Have you heard the expression ‘Hell is other people’? This is true, especially if the other people are French.”        Satan (as quoted by writer David Katz)        In a humorous “interview” with the Lord of Hell, “What I’ve Learned: Satan,” published in Esquire magazine, January 2007.

T.S. ELIOT’S TAKE: “What is hell? Hell is oneself,   Hell is alone, the other figures in it   Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from   And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”        T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)        British poet and playwright        Said by the character Edward Chamberlayne in Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party, first performed in 1949. In the play, Edward makes amends with his wife Lavinia at a party, after they’d split due to his infidelity. It was the most popular of Eliot’s seven plays in his lifetime.

THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY VARIATION: “Hell isn’t other people; it’s other people when you’re sober.”        Marty Beckerman        American author        In his very funny book The Heming Way, which spoofs Ernest Hemingway’s uber-manly attitudes and behavior. The subtitle is How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested Retro-Sexual Legend Within, Just Like Papa!

THE POSITIVE SPIN VARIATION: “Hell may be other people, but they’re all we’ve got.”        Stephanie Zacharek        Film critic for Time magazine        Her encapsulation of the point of the movie Wilson (starring Woody Harrelson as the title character), in her review in Time, April 3, 2017. The film is based on the graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes.

THE MUSICAL TRUISM: “Hell is other people’s taste in music.”        David McGimpsey        Canadian poet and novelist        In his book of sonnets, Li’l Bastard (2011)

THE POLITICAL TRUISM “Hell is other people’s politics.”        John Guzlowski         Polish-born American writer and poet        His response on Twitter to a tweet by Quaint Magazine that said: “Throughout the next few days, we'll be reposting links to work we've published that speaks to the current political climate.”

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Related reading and stuff…

10 things that would have to be invented if they did not exist...

THE FAMOUS ORIGINAL QUOTE: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” (“Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.”)        Voltaire (the pen name of François-Marie Arouet; born 1694, died 1778)        French novelist, poet, historian, philosopher and social critic        This line, sometimes translated as “If God did not exist, he would have to be invented” or “If God did not exist, we would have to invent him,” appears several times in Voltaire’s writings. He first used it in a poem he wrote in 1768, titled Epître à l'auteur du livre des Trois imposteurs (“Epistle to the Author of the Book the Three Imposters”). The poem was a response to the anonymously-written work Traité sur les trois imposteurs (“The Treatise of the Three Impostors”), an early atheistic manuscript that denied the validity of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Voltaire was more of a Deist than a traditional Christian, but felt strongly that a belief in God and fear of God’s divine retribution against evildoers was necessary to deter crime, maintain social order and restrain excesses by those in power. In Epître à l'auteur du livre des Trois imposteurs, he argued:        “This sublime system is necessary to man.        It is the sacred tie that binds society,        The first foundation of holy equity,        The bridle to the wicked, the hope of the just.        If the heavens, stripped of his noble imprint,         Could ever cease to attest to his being,        If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.        Let the wise man announce him and kings fear him.” By 1770, the “If God did not exist...” aphorism had become one of Voltaire’s favorites. In a letter to a M. Saurin, dated November 10, 1770, Voltaire said of it: “I am rarely satisfied with my lines, but I confess that I have a father’s tenderness for that one.” That same month, in a letter to letter to Frederick William, Prince (later King) of Prussia, dated November 28, 1770, Voltaire wrote: “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist; that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.”

THE SKEPTIC’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Reason tells us that if the skeptic did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.”        Frater H.J. Hershenow, F.R.C.        20th Century Rosicrucian writer        In his essay “The Chess Players”        Rosicrucian Digest, June 1938

BOB DYLAN’S VERSION: “If I didn’t exist, someone would have to have invented me.”        Bob Dylan        In his autobiographical book Chronicles: Volume One (2004)

THE DOCTOR WHO VARIATION: “If heroes do not exist, it is necessary to invent them. Good for public morale.”        Cardinal Borusa (actor Angus MacKay)        In “The Deadly Assassin” episode of the Doctor Who TV series, first aired in four parts on BBC from October 30 to November 20, 1976.

LOUIS L’AMOUR’S VERSION: “Men strive for peace, but it is their enemies that give them strength, and I think if man no longer had enemies, he would have to invent them, for his strength only grows from struggle.”         Louis L’Amour (1908-1988)        In his historical novel The Lonesome Gods (1984)

THE RETAILERS’ VIEW OF CHRISTMAS: “From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”        Katharine Whitehorn        British journalist        In her book Roundabout (1962)

THE TRICKY DICK PRINCIPLE: “If Nixon did not exist, it would be necessary for Americans to invent him. He’s the Mount Rushmore of failed presidential ambitions.”        Martin Higgins        American filmmaker, writer and stand-up comic        In his compilation of political quotes The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans (2006)

THE SARAH PALIN PRINCIPLE: “A figure like Sarah Palin serves a need for both her followers and her detractors. Much as Voltaire famously said about God, if Sarah Palin did not exist, it would be necessary for someone to invent her.”        Blogger Kevin Camp        In a post on his blog Comrade Kevin’s Chrestomathy, November 17, 2010

SARTRE’S ANTI-SEMITE PRINCIPLE: “If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.”        Jean-Paul Sartre        French writer and existentialist        In his essay Anti-Semite and Jew (1946), originally titled: Réflexions sur la question juive (“Reflections on the Jewish Question”)

DENNIS HOPPER’S RESPONSE TO IT ALL: Captain America (Peter Fonda): (Reading a plaque on the wall of a New Orleans brothel) “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.” Billy (Dennis Hopper): “That’s a humdinger. I’m getting a little smashed, man.”        In their 1969 film Easy Rider (at about 1 hour, 16 minutes into the movie)        If Dennis Hopper had not existed and invented himself, could anyone else have invented him?

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Further reading: books of quotations about God by believers and non-believers: