{"id":795,"date":"2021-04-11T16:27:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T16:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=795"},"modified":"2021-04-11T16:27:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T16:27:47","slug":"hell-is-an-octagonal-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/hell-is-an-octagonal-room\/795\/","title":{"rendered":"Hell is an Octagonal Room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My vision of hell is a high-ceilinged, octagonal room with eight doors. The room is exquisitely panelled in oak and all the doors are closed. Each door would open onto paths of opportunity, were it not firmly shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One feature of this beautiful room (in my imagining) is that one of the doors is always slightly ajar. There is the prospect of teasing it open to experience things to do, people to see, scents to smell, tastes to savour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite why the room is eight-sided I really can\u2019t say. Perhaps it adds to the grandeur and authority of hellishness. And quite why the hell-dweller so routinely returns to this world of diminished choices is also difficult to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore these matters, I\u2019ve started to try and represent elements of confinement. Not that I\u2019m an artist or anything, but it sometimes helps to try and make models of things you can\u2019t put into words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It is a real pity to spoil the loveliness of the room, but I have assembled a few of my \u2018artworks\u2019 to try and understand things better. I can tell you a bit about these if you have time to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest thing is a mural (it isn\u2019t really a mural, it\u2019s on a piece of lining paper so as not to damage the panelling) which shows a person in a group. She is part of the group, in fact she is the leader, yet really doesn\u2019t look as though she fully belongs. She is an imposter and seems to be working hard, yet eyes never quite meet hers and her efforts seem to be unappreciated. She looks very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s my model elephant made from cereal boxes and toilet roll middles. I spent a lot of my early life in very poor surroundings. People don\u2019t like to hear about poverty but it does confine the spirit and reduces your options, especially if you\u2019re a girl. So the elephant is about things I try not to mention in case someone gets embarrassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\u2019m working on a model of a tall steel spike, very sharp, to remind me of lucky escapes and near disasters but it\u2019s hard to find the right materials. I have finished a tangle of fine metal filaments – all jumbled up. This is the nightmare of things not yet done, emails unanswered, jobs promised but not yet completed, money owed. I call it \u2018stuff to do\u2019, and it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bed of nails over there \u2013 more of a chair really \u2013 asks a question: \u2018Why am I doing this to myself? Why not just settle for a quiet life?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last of all is an installation. A glass case houses a fireman\u2019s axe with a sign, \u2018in emergency, break glass\u2019. This is very comforting, the idea that doors can be attacked and broken down with a good axe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dwell on this a lot and, although it would be a shame to ruin the woodwork, I think this might be my best option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My vision of hell is a high-ceilinged, octagonal room with eight doors. The room is exquisitely panelled in oak and all the doors are closed. Each door would open onto paths of opportunity, were it not firmly shut. One feature of this beautiful room (in my imagining) is that one of the doors is always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A hellish vision from #SwanseaWriters:\n\"Hell is an Octagonal Room\"\n#flashfiction #hell","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[379,435],"tags":[453,454,456,455],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-april-2021-room","tag-hell-2","tag-elephant","tag-mural","tag-spike"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-cP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}