“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…

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

THE ORIGIN OF THE FAMOUS MISQUOTE: “On resiste a l’invasion des armees; on ne resiste pas a l’invasion des idees.”        Victor Hugo (1802-1885)        French novelist, poet, playwright and historian        The French sentence above is from the final chapter of Hugo’s book Histoire d’un Crime (“The History of a Crime”), his account of the French coup d’état of 1851 that brought Napoleon III to power. It’s the origin of the famous quotation that is commonly, but erroneously attributed to Hugo: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” (Also cited as “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”) In reality, the literal English translation of the sentence from Hugo’s Histoire d’un Crime is: “One can resist the invasion of armies; one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.” The oft-cited English paraphrase versions were never spoken or written by Hugo.

EGYPT’S RECENT PROOF OF THE CONCEPT: “Victor Hugo once wrote: ‘No one can resist an idea whose time has come’...The times when Arab rulers could treat their people like naughty children are over.”        Ismail Serageldin        Director of The Library of Alexandria in Egypt and one of the country’s leading intellectuals        Quoted in a news story about the Egyptian people’s revolt on Speigel Online International, February, 2011

AN MLK SCHOLAR’S COMMENT ON EGYPT: “In Egypt we are witnessing the 24/7 validation of Victor Hugo's observation in the 1800s that ‘more powerful than the March of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.’ More importantly, we are witnessing the universal power of the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. – their commitment to non-violent civil disobedience as an instrument to successfully effect fundamental political change to peacefully achieve participatory democracy.”        Clarence B. Jones        Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University        In an opinion piece on The Huffington Post, February 8, 2011

MLK’S OWN OBSERVATION: “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”        Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)        American civil rights leader and clergyman        In his book Strength to Love (1963)

ALAIN’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.”        Alain (pen name of Emile Auguste Chartier; 1868-1951)        French philosopher, journalist, and pacifist          In his book Propos sur la religion (“Remarks on Religion,” 1938)

THE SERVICEMAN’S COUNTERQUOTE: “There is something more powerful than an idea whose time has come – the willingness to voluntarily risk your life for something beyond your self, a self-sacrifice that gives others freedoms to do things like sit around and freely express their thoughts about this and that.”        Blogger Brian Thomas        In a post about men and women who serve in the military, on his blog La Sensual Political, November 24, 2010

OSCAR WILDE’S OPINION: “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”        Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)        Irish writer, poet and wit        In his book The Critic as Artist (1891)        Later used by Elbert Hubbard in his magazine The Philistine

THE PRECONCEPTIONS PRINCIPLE: “There is something more powerful than an idea whose time has come, to wit, an idea which reinforces one’s preconceptions.”        Blogger Tom Maguire        On his blog Just One Minute, September 10, 2007

THE CAMPY MOVIE CRAP PRINCIPLE: “Teaching tolerance through broad humor and outrageous camp isn’t an idea whose time has come; it’s an idea whose time has passed.”        Stephanie Zacharek        Salon.com movie critic        In her review of the movie But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

WALLY’S CORPORATE BOSS PRINCIPLE: “Nothing is more dangerous than a boss with a spreadsheet.”        Wally         Corporate cube dweller and philosopher        In Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoon strip (1998)

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Further reading: books about great ideas…