Rambles on the Damnation Game

Nov 24 2008

Rambles on the Damnation Game

Published by Ilayda at 6:29 pm under Uncategorized

I’m posting this here so I can access it easier. And if anyone thinks a tangent seems interesting and I should expand, please tell me

-there’s a difference between terror and horror.

- worst punishment isn’t lakes of fire, etc. It’s the inconcievable, a vacuum. Nothing.

- not technically a vacuum because they are in it

- vacuum strips them of everything but fear?

- why?

- strips everything but the core of what humans are?

- are humans fear?
- “

In medieval Europe </wiki/Middle_Ages>, the Catholic Church held the idea of a vacuum to be immoral or even heretical. The absence of anything implied the absence of God </wiki/God>, and harkened back to the void prior to the creation story in the book of Genesis </wiki/Genesis>.”
- characters seem to be able to think in the void, so do their thoughts fill the void? No… is the void conscious? Does that make it not a void? Yes… then why do they only experience immense fear? Could happiness not fill the void? Because unknown?
- If the void is conscious/active enough to push out human happiness… Hell = oppression of every sense?

Void is bad because no God. Does that leave only the devil? Is the book not completely devoid of God/morality?

Alternatively…

- Make up a mythology using bits and pieces of religion. You don’t know why exactly you’re afraid, but you are because it seems like you learnt that this is bad and you shouldn’t do it a long time ago.
- use of symbolism to build terror.
- selling of soul idea to Devil-character plotline
- Is Mamoulian the Devil?
-

One response so far

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One Response to “Rambles on the Damnation Game”

# komox37on 04 Dec 2008 at 4:47 am

Ilayda,

the concept of the void stripping everything from you but fear is an excellent one. Being vs nothingness… why is the void so scary? Is it the absence of meaning? The fear of complete and utter solitude? this would be an excellent essay topic. Hell perhaps is the complete absence of meaningful input… perhaps the envelopement of noise but with noise the human will overlay meaning of our own creation (hallucination) using what is present to develop something (anything) meaningful. But the void… there is no input at all. Nothing upon which the human mind can work. Yes. That would be hell indeed, hence the fear.

Admittedly, this is a difficult thesis to tackle. East of Eden would present many easier alternatives.