Years ago, in post-World War II France,
existentialist playwright Jean Paul Sartre shook the intellectual
world with his play called "Huis clos". About a decade ago, I was given the daunting
task of teaching this masterpiece to a mini group of very intellectually alert
students of 'Diplôme Supérieur' - a course that I was then teaching at the Alliance
Française de Kolkata. I did teach the course to the best of my ability after
painstakingly researching everything there was to research about it and its
author.But I continued to be intrigued by the fact that the title of the
book somehow became "In Camera" (a legal term, meaning a discussion
behind closed doors) in its American version, I could never figure out why this
name haunted me and disturbed me profoundly . In the over-anxious effort of
doing my 'job' well (and this continues to be an ongoing obsession) I
missed out one vital thing : I did not relate it to life
and therefore did not quite understand then, the implications of the American name
"In Camera".
The plot of the play , in brief, is a depiction of
the afterlife in which three deceased characters, Garcin, Inès and
Estelle, are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity.
These three damned souls are thrown together in a supposed 'hell' and each is
in denial of ever having committed a crime. They had all expected medieval
torture devices to punish them for eternity, but instead find a plain room
furnished in Second French Empire style. None of them will admit the
reason for their damnation: Garcin says that he was executed for being a
pacifist, while Estelle insists that a mistake has been made. Inès,
however, demands that they all stop lying to themselves and confess to their
crimes. She refuses to believe that they all ended up in the room by accident
and soon realizes that they have been placed together to make each other
miserable. [Plot synopsis: courtesy Wikipedia]
Then Life happened to me as it does to some
people. I say some people, and not everybody, for a reason. In my view most
people go through life as if on a journey, collecting tags on the
suitcase [name, education, profession, marital status, accomplishment and
so on] on the way. Very few, the 'some people' I referred to, are the chosen
few who look behind the curtains into the dark room to come face to face with
the horrors that you do not want to acknowledge even exist. The agony of
looking deep into the abyss happens due to what I now call perspective, for
want of a more appropriate word. This agony, as I now figure, was the central theme of Sartre's play "In Camera" that deluded me in my youth.
Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your
perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life
experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic
location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. It's like looking through a lens, that of a camera, the one that is in your hands as a composite factor of all of these experiences that have shaped your perspective.
My own perspective was predetermined by world history
as well as my family’s personal history. It has been molded since then by
living amongst different communities, speaking four languages and by
traveling to the extent that I did. As you go through life, you begin to have a
worldview. You mistake your version of reality for THE version
of reality. Each of us has a biased worldview because we are all
limited to a single camera perspective.
That is we can only see what comes before us, we can only hear what is around
us, and we can only read that which is in front of us. No one has the
definitive version of reality. The clash of perspectives happens when there are "others" participating in the same situations that you are a part of.
I look at people and am reminded of the metaphor of an
iceberg in relationship to culture. Only 10% of their cultural being is visible
to me above the water surface. The way they dress, the way they speak, their
food they eat, games they play, their literature, traditions and celebrations.
90% of who they are is below the surface: the concept of time, their
relationship to death, their rules of conduct, personal space, tolerance of
physical pain, roles in relationship to age, class, sex and kinship. People and cultures that are so different from my own have
taught me, if anything, to know that nothing is set in stone. Any “truth” you
hold dear, opinion, conviction which is shared with everyone around you in your
geographic location can make you an instant outsider when in another place or simply among a different group of people.
If, on the other hand, you put culture aside, and think only in terms of the 'being', even then every other 'being' is an outsider looking at you through the lens of her/his camera and therefore silently judging you or compelling you to judge yourself. This silent game of guilt, judgement, punishment and retribution goes on relentlessly. As humans we are social beings, but as Sartre showed more than half a century ago, as long as we remain "In Camera" there is no need to be banished to a geography called 'hell', we are carrying our 'hell' around us, right in the here and now. Incidentally the other versions of Sartre's masterpiece have also been called No Exit and Dead End.
If, on the other hand, you put culture aside, and think only in terms of the 'being', even then every other 'being' is an outsider looking at you through the lens of her/his camera and therefore silently judging you or compelling you to judge yourself. This silent game of guilt, judgement, punishment and retribution goes on relentlessly. As humans we are social beings, but as Sartre showed more than half a century ago, as long as we remain "In Camera" there is no need to be banished to a geography called 'hell', we are carrying our 'hell' around us, right in the here and now. Incidentally the other versions of Sartre's masterpiece have also been called No Exit and Dead End.
Easily one of your best pieces Sush! Enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shalini, I'm glad you appreciated it.
ReplyDelete