The depictions of Hell - or rather the top, least extreme level - from Nifft the Lean were pretty horrifying. Giant wasps laying eggs in people, people warped into undersea monstrosities mostly consisting of fans of exposed, tortured nerve endings, that sort of thing.
And there’s the artificial Hell created by the Queen of Pain ( an insane superbeing ) or rather the even worse place under it in the story Yes, Jolonah, There is a Hell.
That’s pretty extreme you have to admit.
I skimmed through the Purgatory as part of a Medieval Studies class. What I remember most is being tickled by the idea that the Slothful were forced to jog. Jogging was very popular at the time.
I found the Inferno more unappealing. Not least because it was supposed to be permanent and unchanging. You got to work your way up Mount Purgatory.
The thing that really repulsed me, though, was the idea of drinking the water of forgetfulness before entering heaven. If you’re taking my memory, what was the point of Purgatory? And why not just obliterate me entirely?
I don’t remember whether that last bit was at the end of Purgatory or at the beginning of Paradise.
When I was a teenager, Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle terrified me. Really, I had several nightmares related to it.
According to Amazon, it’s going to be re-issued in September, if anyone cares to check it out.
I thought the hell inhabited by the character of the wife who committed suicide after the deaths of her husband & children in What Dreams May Come was pretty disturbing.
That’s a good one.
One notable thing that has in common with “That Feeling . . . French”, IMO, is that of insanity and repetition brought on by one’s internal feelings of guilt. Also the atmosphere of a dream one can’t wake up from.
Less academic, to be sure, but this freaked me out when I was a kid:
The Sentinel
I don’t know who let me watch that one, but it was pretty horrifying.
As an overall movie, it has its problems, but some of the depictions of hell in What Dreams May Come were pretty disturbing. Especially the ‘sea’ made up of lost souls
Now just for once, and in a thread that touches tangentially on religion, Der and I are in complete agreement. I first read this nearly thirty years ago and it has stood many rereadings.
That was fine for the golem Anghammarad in Going Postal, but for Vorbis in Small Gods the major problem was that he was aware that there was judgment at the end of the desert, and he didn’t dare move from the spot he was in, frozen in terror. On arriving in the same place a century later, Brutha asks about this, and Death also mentions that not everyone perceives time in the same way.
Brutha: You mean a hundred years can pass like a few seconds?
Death: A HUNDRED YEARS CAN PASS LIKE INFINITY.
Rocko’s Modern Life had an oddly chilling one, way back when…one character’s [del]hell[/del] “Heck” was nothing more than a white nothingness (the fire and brimstone section of the underworld, which he actually passed through, was “just for tourists”), with an easy chair to sit in, and a television. The TV would show nothing but the character’s best friend slowly starving to death, because of the gluttony of the condemned fellow. In an endless loop.
Being the TV from Heck, of course, there was no remote.
I did not care much for the pictures in Barlowe’s Inferno, but he had an interesting interpretation of damnation:
Human souls are Hell’s raw material. If a demon wants to build a machine, he grabs a soul, shapes it into a cog, and uses it to build his machine. If a demon wants to build a house, he grabs a soul, shapes it into a brick, and uses it to build his house.
The demon does not know, or care, whether you were a mass murderer, or a petty thief.
You are not receiving any particular punishment for any particular sin.
It is all completely random and completely impersonal.
You simply don’t matter any more.
Think about it. Wayne Barlowe is an artist. What is the worst torment he can imagine? Being paint on someone else’s canvas.
And they have written a sequel which will be out soon…speaking of the tortures of the damned, and all.
From Revelation X: The “Bob” Apocryphon, Chapter 8: “Heaven and Hell”:
But there is hope! Now you can save your soul from Heaven! Just send it with $30 for shipping & handling costs to:
The Church of the SubGenius
c/o Reverend Ivan Stang
P.O. Box 181417
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118-1417
Eternal salvation guaranteed – OR TRIPLE YOUR MONEY BACK!
Petty crook (paraphrased): Gee, I thought only certain kinds of people made it here (still thinking it was a paradise) – like teachers.
Cabot-Satan: Oh, we have plenty of teachers here!
:eek:
Kinda’ makes you want to second-guess yourself about a teaching career. Or at least be very, very careful. 