Views on the Short Story "Other People" by Neil Gaiman

by Kent Jestoni Q. Gabo    

  “Time is fluid here.”

     The short started and ended with this assertive statement. But it is what is in between that we then fully comprehend its underlying meaning.

     On the outset, we are right away introduced to the setting: Hell. But this is no ordinary hell, for there is no eternal fire, only a smoking brazier and a room that is long and with objects hanging on the walls; we do not see a multitude of sinners, only a man, who was not named, and a demon. What we know about this man is that he wears expensive clothes, which strongly suggests that he has quite a fortune while he was alive. We also know that he had sinned by sleeping with his wife’s sister. What we know about the demon is that it appears to be thin and badly scarred. The two do not address each other by name, but with the pronoun “you”. This tells us that the two are not in a close relationship with each other. However, it can be said that the demon is more manipulative and superior over the man, for it, in an instance commanded him to “Come close,” and he unhesitantly did so. Furthermore, the demon is referred to as an “it”, very suggestive of its nature which is all humanity stripped out of it.

 We are then told what those hanging objects, two hundred and eleven of them, are for. They were used to physically torture him, but the demon told him that he will even remember this “with fondness”. This posted a disagreement from him, calling it a liar. And the demon disagrees, for the next part, is sevenfold more painful, for he was made to experience all his atrocities on earth, that later he hoped that the demon will just torture him again physically. As we can see, the effective use of speech acts drastically developed the story’s plot and significantly put the conflict to stage, by showing us, the readers, that indeed, physical torture don’t hold a candle against that of emotional and experiential nature.

      We felt the excruciating pain, the feeling of helplessness, the desire to make all the torment stop. These we felt through the ingenious description of the torture’s repetitiveness, with the demon saying “Again” every thousand of years; the manner of its execution, it was too painful that the “physical torture had been kinder”; dynamic actions which usually refer to mental agony such as when the demon “stripped away the cover of forgetfulness… and it hurt more than anything”; and the excessive use of descriptions (“It was like peeling an onion”). The use of specialized vocabulary, such as “Lazarene’s Daughter” added to the occult atmosphere.

      At the end of the story, we saw how his agony stopped and an unprecedented turn of events happened. The one who tortures now becomes the torturer, which is highly suggested by the few final acts, as a new man who wears expensive clothes enters the room, and right there and then he understood.

       The short effuses that of self-reflection. For time is fluid there. The profoundness of this statement is measured by its ability to baffle us in the beginning, yet enlighten us in the end. Time there flows, like a cycle, telling us that not all the time do we suffer. Even if we are living in a hellish world, there will come a time that the tables will turn.