plato 's myth of the cave melded with dante 's inferno , a vast empty chasm of quiet , shadows , and the occasional lick of the flame of pain.felix had no concept of how long he had been suspended in nothing ... whether a day or a month or a year he could n't say , only that he was slowly and increasingly going mad , like camille had in the torture of her grief , every second an agonizing suspension of time , every moment endless in its nothingness .