How on earth does a person cope with the knowledge that this is the last time they’ll lie in a bed; and that when they wake up in the morning, it will be the last time they do that, too. And how do they deal mentally with the knowledge that in a few short hours they’ll be subjected to the most terrible physical agony, after which their life will cease?
It’s easy to imagine that the people of earlier times were somehow braver and more habituated to physical pain than we who live in what is generally a less brutal age. A letter I read that was written by one of Henry VIII’s victims suggests otherwise, and brutal executions still happen in some parts of the world.
So how do they deal with the night before?
11 comments:
Wow, this is a hard question. I would probably be too emotional to sleep. I would hope that the prison would let me stay up on the phone all night and talk to everyone I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to. Or maybe I would write last words out on a piece of paper. What would you do?
I'd like to state that yes, of course I know you weren't necessarily referring to the American prisons, where people can have phones and things like that. I have no idea how I would deal otherwise.
I was thinking more historically, Maria. I'd just watched a documentary about an episode in the life of Elizabeth I, when burnings and the like were common. What would I do? Not go to bed, I should think. What would be the point? It wouldn't exactly matter if I was tired the next day, would it? And how the hell could you sleep anyway, with something like that hanging over you?
Maybe we would dig ourselves out with spoons instead?
It it would be torturing execution, I think I would try committing suicide with less painful death.
Hopefully for those poor folks in Elizabethan and other historical times, the condemned tended to have strong beliefs in religion and some kind of an after-life. That may have taken the edge off, who knows. Personally, Jeff, I try not to think about drawing and quartering as it diminishes my rosy outlook on mankind and the world. Have you read the YA trilogy The Hunger Games b.t.w.? You're probably not reading a lot of YA, but you might find this interesting.
Maria: Don't be silly, dear. Spoons!
Mei-shan: They wouldn't allow you the chance. The body politic has to be seen to be exercising its authority, and the crowd must be allowed their recreation.
Della: Never heard of that trilogy. What's it about? (Briefly.)
It's not about anything you've talked about here, so I'm guilty of a wandering mind. And as neither the cover art nor the blurb on the back would probably interest you, you'll have to trust me when I say that a futuristic tale of a fight-to-the-death reality T.V. show is worth reading. It's the parallels to our current society which make it so provoking and interesting.
The plot sounds familiar, Della. Have they made a film of it? I'll look to see whether there's a 2nd hand copy on Amazon. The things that intrigue me about novels like that are:
How many people recognise the parallels?
Do they make any difference?
It makes me wonder whether the YA readership is the best one at which to aim novels with a message. I think older people tend to get too set in their perceptions and their attitudes. Thank you. That was 'thought for the day.'
Well, my son who is 12, read the book first and seemed to get all the same points intuitively. Of course, he doesn't know what the parallels really are – that's for older kids and adults to get, and yet the messages are essentially clear to him. It's not a film yet but will be – do look for a 2nd hand copy, I think you might like it (you'll at least have something intelligent to say about it :) As for your work, I think it has wide appeal including YA, whether or not there is a message.
My work? That doesn't have any messages. The novel sort of does. It's a Goddess's-guide-to-Vedic-spirituality-plus-a-bit-of-folklore-plus-a-bit-of-wildly-imagined-alternate-history. But it's unlikely ever to be read by anybody! I'm a bit too lightweight for messages. I'll let you know if I get a copy of the book. Sounds like something to read by the fire over the winter.
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