“Heaven is the Bullseye and I’ve been reduced to the Lounge!”

It’s November, so I’ve been thinking about Hell a lot. Good thing that I read Paradise Lost in my English 103 class last year because now I am an expert on Hell. My Expert status is deserved mostly because I made it through that class. Anyhow, here are some ways that Kenyon resembles Hell.

1. “Yet from those flames/ No light, but rather darkness visible.” (1.62-63) I mean, when was the last time you spent any time in the sun? Sometimes I see it through the windows in Olin. But even then, I’m not sure it’s anything but an illusion cast by the immortal night that has taken over Gambier.
2. “Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace/ And rest can never dwell, hope never comes/ That comes at all.” (1.65-67) Doesn’t this sound just like Gund Commons at 1 AM? The haggard look of your fellow students as they try to complete one more problem set… The reflection of your own face against the dark panes of glass with glossy, tired eyes, knowing that until your reading on Abstract Expressionism is done, there is no way out.
3. “Long is the way/ And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.” (2.432-433) And when it’s dark out here, the lack of sidewalks means that you’ll probably get hit by a car.
4. “Pandemonium, city and proud seat/ Of Lucifer.” (10.424-425) I’m not trying to imply that the PEEPS lounge on a Saturday night is Pandemonium incarnate. But I am implying that the PEEPS lounge on a Saturday night is Pandemonium incarnate and that whomever is bar tending holds control over the entire campus.
5. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” (1. 254-255) Maybe we all need to take a look around and remember that, even though our lives may seem to be falling apart, we probably have free will and the power to get help or help ourselves. So get out there and do your best, Kenyon! Or don’t. Bad grades and Netflix is a valid life decision, too.