He had painted the picture of nothing but a solitary teardrop on a piece of black carbon paper. On the other side of the paper he had laid down the river.
Night bloomed in the river, that morning. Reflected onto the air above. Paintbrushed into a random breeze.
She woke up that morning into the dark, tear-strained. She knew at the primacy of her senses, that this wasn’t an eclipse. It was blindness. One of those denser forms of darkness where you can’t see anything even when you close your eyes. For it pours into your nervous system. She’d never see him again.
Standing there on the riverbank, he realized she’d never be able to comprehend his gift. Or understand it.
He tore off his tear.
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Comments: 23
I'm beginning to get the picture here with your short posts. Most of them involve the contrasting realities of an artist or writer and the characters they have created. Do you have any plans to tie these snippets together, or are you just "musing" ?
Smile.
Smile.
Thanks a lot.
Indra's Net
I'll bet you've already felt in the Clown's writing, though. I felt it a long time ago, but only now could I put it into words.
Smile.
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Kat
The diversity of your interests and comments blows me away!
I only know the basic plot of No Exit-- tell me if I have this right. The story involves a group of people trapped together in a room expecting a torturer who never shows up. Instead, they end up torturing each other psychologically.
I think you have made an apt comparison. Indra's Net springs from Eastern philiosophy, in which there are generally no absolutes such as "right" and "wrong," or "good" and "bad."
In Indra's Net, each jewel (being) in the net reflects the whole of the net (the universe), but there is no judgement as to which reflections are good and which ones are bad.
But if you want to translate the concept into Western thinking and using it as a metaphor for hell, I think it works very well! I wonder if Satre had this in mind when he wrote No Exit?
I think The Clown and Boris G. are more familiar with Existentialism than I am, so perhaps they will add to my comments.
There's a concept in Eastern philosophy called "Maya" (which is quite familiar with western philosophers as well, these days). Maya. itself has two meanings - one (and more well known of the two) is "illusion". The mistaken identity of the room as a part of earth and as hell, and the illusory nature of the characters themselves, including their mood shifts in the play are all part of the illusory web. They are related to the deep questionings of the substance and the mind. And whether one is more illusory than the other.
The other meaning of Maya, more prominent in the work of the great Indian Sage Swami Vivekananda, is "a belonging to some deeper root". Maya is what makes any sort of leave-taking (including Death) more difficult. It's the quintessence of all human decision. Perhaps, more powerful than existence itself. Although Sartre most probably didn't write the play with any understanding of "Maya" what is more evident from the final part of the play, where the characters fail to leave the room despite the room giving them no respite, is more effectively connected with the concept of "Maya". It's less because of the fear of the unknown, of what lies beyond; but more to what has been left behind. Man is essentially an optimist who stands tied to his past. His source of optimism is more connected to the past than to the future, however bad the past might have been. That's exactly why the characters stay.
The concept of "Maya" is what possibly connects "Indra's Net" to "existentialism". Although there might be a hundred more readings into the play's philosophy.
Smile.
Old Habits Die Hard
Ann - I did study Sartre at university but alas, don't recall much nowadays.
Ann - thank you for the link.
btw, that famous quote "Hell is other people" comes from "No Exit".
Even I don't remember much of Sartre's non-fictional works. I only remember bits and parts of "No Exit" & "Nausea". But some of his ideas were striking enough to be forgotten by me.
Smile.