# The most interesting heaven or hell **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098 "2005-01-28T12:57:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/1 "2005-01-28T12:57:13Z")
What is the most interesting or creative version of heaven or hell in fiction (including comics, TV, books, movies and computer games)? How does it differ from the standard “cloudscape/lake of fire” afterlives? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/2 "2005-01-28T13:23:32Z")
_The Twighlight Zone_ had a few ideas… 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/3 "2005-01-28T13:24:33Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > _The Twighlight Zone_ had a few ideas… 🆒 I meant “Twilight Zone”. :o ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/4 "2005-01-28T14:05:43Z")
You gotta give high marks to Dante, of course, the prime cartographer of Hell. But my personal favorite is George Bernard Shaw’s vision in the “Don Juan in Hell” sequence in **Man and Superman**. C.S. Lewis criticized this, and presented his own odd vision of the afterlife, in **The Great Divorce**. Highly rccommended : **The History of Hell**. (I forget the author’s name) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/5 "2005-01-28T15:48:09Z")
Mark Twain’s [Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven](http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/cptsf10.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/6 "2005-01-28T16:04:29Z")
The vision of Hell imagined in Vertigo Comics (originally by Neil Gaiman) is pretty interesting. It’s the standard Milton-derived Hell we’re familiar with, only Lucifer quits and leaves, and is replaced (to everyone’s dismay) by two “unfallen” angels from Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/7 "2005-01-28T16:04:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You gotta give high marks to Dante, of course, the prime cartographer of Hell. But my personal favorite is George Bernard Shaw’s vision in the “Don Juan in Hell” sequence in **Man and Superman**. Just what I came here to mention. Both of them. beyond that if we’re incuding comic books, the whole Vertigo take on it…now specifically Lucifer…is pretty interesting. Particularly the angels who took it over. And the fact that it was that idea of hell that provided me with a profound insight…“You don’t have to stay anywhere forever”. But I think the bigger question is has anyone come up with a really compelling conception of Heaven? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/8 "2005-01-28T16:07:47Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > The vision of Hell imagined in Vertigo Comics (originally by Neil Gaiman) is pretty interesting. It’s the standard Milton-derived Hell we’re familiar with, only Lucifer quits and leaves, and is replaced (to everyone’s dismay) by two “unfallen” angels from Heaven. Interesting similpost 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/9 "2005-01-28T16:25:35Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > But I think the bigger question is has anyone come up with a really compelling conception of Heaven? I don’t think so. Yeah, Heaven’s a lot harder to make interesting, perhaps because part of the premise of Heaven is that there wouldn’t be any conflict or strife. Harps and wings would get really boring really fast. Albert Brooks maybe gets close to making it interesting in his good, but flawed film, _Defending Your Life,_ but I don’t know if his afterlife world could be called Heaven. Movies such as _Here Comes Mr. Jordan,_ _The Horn Blows At Midnight,_ _Wings of Desire_ and _It’s a Wonderful Life_ feature Heaven, but are about Earth, so maybe they don’t fit in this thread. Diane Keaton made a movie about cinematic depictions of Heaven. It was a documentary, but I don’t remember much about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/10 "2005-01-28T16:36:50Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > The vision of Hell imagined in Vertigo Comics (originally by Neil Gaiman) is pretty interesting. It’s the standard Milton-derived Hell we’re familiar with, only Lucifer quits and leaves, and is replaced (to everyone’s dismay) by two “unfallen” angels from Heaven. That’s the one I came into mention. I’ll just add that there’s a non-Gaiman spin-off series about Lucifer’s post Hell adventures (he owns a dance club called LUX) and that a keypoint of the plot of the movie DOGMA was borrowed (with acknowledgement) by Kevin Smith from the Sandman Hell. The Muslim concept of Hell is particularly scary- it’s such an awful place that even the devil and demons don’t want to go anywhere near it. On the up-side, Allah has mercy and does not send all non-believers and sinners there forever. Hermann Göring once lamented about being from the only race of people who ever devised a Depressing Heaven. I love Milton’s descriptions of hell in _Paradise Lost_: the Palace, the cities, etc… I’ve yet to read Dante but would love to see an update (i.e. people used as examples that you don’t have to be a medieval Florentine to know, though Judas and Brutus and Cassius are still on the villain’s list). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/11 "2005-01-28T16:42:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Hermann Göring once lamented about being from the only race of people who ever devised a Depressing Heaven. He doesn’t need to worry about it… ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/12 "2005-01-28T16:53:53Z")
Niven & Pournelles _Inferno_ is pretty interesting. It is Dante’s Inferno, peopled with modern souls. The key is that a soul, once it has come to grips with its shortcomings, can leave Hell and move on to Purgatory. Hell is described as “the violent ward for the theologically insane”. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/13 "2005-01-28T17:05:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The Muslim concept of Hell is particularly scary- it’s such an awful place that even the devil and demons don’t want to go anywhere near it. Well, that’s the impression you get reading Revelations too… > [@](#): > > Hermann Göring once lamented about being from the only race of people who ever devised a Depressing Heaven. I feel bad because I thought that was funny… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/14 "2005-01-28T17:09:22Z")
[FENG-DU: The Realm of the Dead, containing all the Chinese Hells.](http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=FENG-DU) Very similar to Dante’s conception of hell in many ways, but with unique features. A paradise is mentioned but no description of it is given. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/15 "2005-01-28T17:14:23Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Very similar to Dante’s conception of hell in many ways, but with unique features. A paradise is mentioned but no description of it is given. Darn you to heck, I’d just researched the same site for Chinese Hells. > [@From site](#): > > The Ten Courts of Chinese Hell > Court 1: Mirror of Retribution. Ruled by QIN-GUANG-WANG. > Court 2: The Pool of Filth and the Hell of Ice. Ruled by QU-JIANG-WANG. > Court 3: Black Rope Hell and the Upside-Down Prison. Ruled by SONG-DI-WANG. > Court 4: The Lake of Blood and the terrible Bee Torture. Ruled by WU-GUAN-WANG. > Court 5: Sixteen Departments of Heart Gouging. Ruled by YEN-LO-WANG. > Court 6: Screaming Torture and Administrative Errors. Ruled by BIAN-CHENG-WANG. > Court 7: Torture by Mincing Machine. Ruled by TAI-SHAN-WANG. > Court 8: Hot Suffocation Hell. Ruled by DU-SHI-WANG. > Court 9: Iron Web and Office of Fair Trading. Ruled by PING-DENG-WANG. > Court 10: The Wheel of Rebirth. Ruled by ZHUANG-LUN-WANG. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/16 "2005-01-28T17:26:49Z")
[http://www.pholph.com/index.php?Strip=1](http://www.pholph.com/index.php?Strip=1) Warning: this is a webcomic with a MATURE rating. Graphic language, violence, nudity, sex, and… …furries. Bunnies, puppies, kittens, foxes, skunks, raccoons, etc. cussing, and murdering, and raping, and dying, and going to hell. But surprisingly, even in hell, you can still find redemption and be saved. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/17 "2005-01-28T17:38:30Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > He doesn’t need to worry about it… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/18 "2005-01-28T17:39:15Z")
_Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey_! ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/19 "2005-01-28T17:51:35Z")
There’s a Chinese Hell? I thought the Chinese were Buddhists. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098/20 "2005-01-28T17:58:39Z")
From the cite: > [@](#): > > Like so many other concepts in Chinese mythology, the Underworld is a tangled mix of DAOist, Buddhist and traditional folk legend. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-interesting-heaven-or-hell/287098.md?page=2)