The Bed Sitting Room

The Bed Sitting Roomⁱ is a surrealistic social satire the likes of which I've never seen.

You probably never heard of it on the grounds that unlike similar productions it neither allows "society" the easy excuse of blaming the stateⁱⁱ nor does it take refuge in pure absurdist estetism (Imaginarium) but moreover confronts the direct, uncomfortable, odorous elephant in the room : you. You stink. No "society", no "the Gestapo made me do it", no "I am merely interested in X, not politics", none of the usual bullshit people throw at the camera like so much sepia ink, to try and hide the fact that... well. They. Not Julia, and not the rat, and not O'Brien and not the room number or the time of day. They. They! theytheytheytheytheythey

When Washbourne delivers the epic

Well, you can't argue with it. I thought I was alive, but there it is in black and white... Do I lie down or something?

straight into the

The way, the way I'd like you to look at it is this. You may have lost a wife, sir, but you've gained a certificate. l expect you've got the set now, if you haven't been careless with them.

ace of trumps to Lowe's placidly idiotic inner warming...

Tell me, how many of you have lost a woman to gain a certificate ? Idiots. (No, not "society made you" do it. Idiots!) And no, "keeping cheerful" is no sort of substitute.

"We don't want to cause any trouble", is it then ? How about you go cause some trouble, instead. I know I am.

Кто ты по жизни ?

1. 1969, by Richard Lester, with Ralph Richardson (voice), Michael Hordern, Mona Washbourne, Arthur Lowe, Peter Cook. [↩]
2. Like say Brazil, which is a lot more popular specifically because it takes this ridiculous absurdity to heights not seen since 1984.

   Back at Reality Ranch, no state ever made anyone do anything they didn't WANT TO do in the first place, and wanted to do it to the degree of actually, deliberately hallucinating an imaginary state to "force them" do it. You know, like how prudes fuck. [↩]