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499 - Graham - Koestler

© Robert Graham
The Dog-Eared Page

The Cell Door Closes

Arthur Koestler • July 2017

It is a unique sound. A cell door has no handle, either outside or inside. It cannot be shut except by being slammed. It is made of massive steel and concrete, about four inches thick, and every time it falls to there is a resounding crash just as though a shot has been fired. But this report dies away without an echo. Prison sounds are echoless and bleak.

  • Culture and Society
  • Incarceration
  • Arthur Koestler

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