ABSTRACT
The dwelling is the perfect place to run to, and the ideal place to hide. Private dwelling does not necessitate seclusion and a turning away from the world. Without being too literal, we might see private dwelling as offering much of the ballast for this internal consistency: it is what helps to prevent ingress and so ensure that we are not challenged. This demonstrates the ambivalence of implacability, that it can keep us deluded just as readily as it keeps us safe and secure. This Chapter, mainly through the discussion of films: Gus Van Sant's Last Days, Gerry and Elephant. It explores these questions and suggests that what we need is some balance between looking in and looking out. It argues that this acceptance of dwelling as an accommodation of the other is therapeutic. Moreover, this does not involve a rejection of the implacable and exclusive nature of dwelling, but is rather to use them positively.
