Hell: Favorite Depictions

[Elheru Aran]

How's everybody this fine morning?

Recently while faffing around I found Wayne Barlowe's page. You may remember him as the artist who did a fun book of extraterrestrials back in the 80s. Apparently one of his recent interests has been Hell, and he did a book on it (illustrated novel? not sure). Some pretty gorgeous imagery and a fairly interesting take on it.
https://waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/artwork/hell/





Historically there's stuff like the Inferno (from Dante's Divine Comedy), Paradise Lost by Milton, Hieronymus Bosch's paintings, and what not.

Then you have more modern stuff that either goes funny (Satan as a bureaucrat), over the top (the Dante's Inferno game... apparently Barlowe did some design work for that, actually), traditional (DC Comics'/ Vertigo's depiction of Lucifer, Etrigan, etc)...

What do you enjoy? Anything that has stood out to you lately? Books that you would recommend? Philosophical thoughts?

[Borgholio]

Well if anything, hell would probably be tailored to your own fears. I can see a unique vision of hell for each person. For instance, this would be MY hell:

[Purple]

Call me old fashioned but I prefer the good old fire and brimstone, devil with pitchfork, spit roast, sea of lava, being eaten alive and excreted to be eaten again kind of hell. There is just something so stimulating about the thought of there being a place where medieval torture practices were not abandoned but were indeed perfected and brought to their most ultimate conclusion. And that everyone gets to visit that place and stay forever.

[Iroscato]

Call me old fashioned but I prefer the good old fire and brimstone, devil with pitchfork, spit roast, sea of lava, being eaten alive and excreted to be eaten again kind of hell. There is just something so stimulating about the thought of there being a place where medieval torture practices were not abandoned but were indeed perfected and brought to their most ultimate conclusion. And that everyone gets to visit that place and stay forever.

You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

[Purple]

Call me old fashioned but I prefer the good old fire and brimstone, devil with pitchfork, spit roast, sea of lava, being eaten alive and excreted to be eaten again kind of hell. There is just something so stimulating about the thought of there being a place where medieval torture practices were not abandoned but were indeed perfected and brought to their most ultimate conclusion. And that everyone gets to visit that place and stay forever.

You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

Well I meant all that purely in the intellectual sense. Don't get me wrong. I am no sadist.

[Guardsman Bass]

I like the depiction of Hell in Tad Williams' Bobby Dollar Trilogy. Imagine a cylindrical tube through rock, infinitely deep but with different levels that have very high vaulted ceilings and glowing hot rock veins that provide some ambient light (the rest is provided by giant lanterns on each level operated by the Lords of Hell). A river runs down through each level, allowing a means of water transport between them even if it's dangerous because of the creatures that dwell within it.

New souls end up at the bottom of the food chain, serving as slaves (at best) to existing powers-that-be unless they can ruthlessly climb the social ladder and/or bureaucracy of Hell. The whole society is fiercely competitive and treacherous, since this is Hell we're talking about - your trust in people can only go so far, and a lot depends on getting dirt on other people to make deals that improve your lot. You can't really die, but you can be dismembered and trapped somewhere.

I'm also a fan of "cold" Hells, like C.S. Lewis' idea of Hell as a rainy, dreary, gray city.

[Terralthra]

I like Hell as depicted in Event Horizon.

[Borgholio]

I like Hell as depicted in Event Horizon.

"Where we're going, you don't need eyes to see..."

[Ahriman238]

Honestly? My favorite depiction of hell is where you get to see the universe in all it's wondrous complexity, God, what have you, just before being rejected by that reality and spending forever in the cold infinite darkness. Alone.

[Simon_Jester]

My favorite is the one portrayed here:

http://www.viruscomix.com/page545.html

You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

Well I meant all that purely in the intellectual sense. Don't get me wrong. I am no sadist.

Has anyone ever mentioned that you're about as believable as a cardboard cutout?

[Purple]

My favorite is the one portrayed here:

http://www.viruscomix.com/page545.html

You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

Well I meant all that purely in the intellectual sense. Don't get me wrong. I am no sadist.

Has anyone ever mentioned that you're about as believable as a cardboard cutout?

Believe what you wish. That is your right.

[Eleas]

I always found the cosmology of the 90's Swedish table-top rpg Kult mesmerizing. Basically, in it, the reality we know is just an illusion. You see, humanity are actually all divine beings trapped by the Demiurge (i.e. God) in a prison designed to keep us from regaining our former power. The interesting thing about Kult is that everything that we consider basic facts about the world -- our human vulnerability, the aging process, basic morality, and even such things as time and space are all (in Kult) shackles made to bind us.

So in Kult, "Hell" is a real place, and it's completely without hope, because when you manage to break free from the illusion enough to get to Hell, you'll do so knowing that it, and not reality, is what's actually real.

It's Lovecraftian with an extra dose of bleakness, which is probably why it's so unsettlingly fascinating.

[Elheru Aran]

Out of curiosity. Does anybody have a recommendation for Dante translations? I picked up the Ciardi today, it's supposed to be good. We'll see; I just wish it had illustrations, but it was annotations or illustrations and I'd rather know what the hell he's talking about than just have pretty pictures.

[FaxModem1]

I always found this version a bit fitting :



Honestly, I think taking away the boundaries of what's real and what's not to be the best. Repeatedly pointing out your flaws, failures and where you could have been better. Jacob's Ladder in a nutshell.

[Elheru Aran]

I guess it comes down to what one likes to consider Hell as-- a place of punishment... or a place of reform? Is the condemnation ever eternal? Do we truly get what we deserve, or do we just have to suck up what we get stuck with one way or the other? And so forth. Is it a delightful place that covers horrendous excesses or stark barrenness-- is it a place of torment or is it simple, soul-crushing dullness... it's much more interesting from a literary viewpoint than Heaven, which is either a place of clean, sterile happiness or hedonistic relaxations.

[Sinewmire]

Supernatural, seasons 3-5. I'm very fond of their version of Christian mythology.

Victims suspended by hooked chains in an apparently infinite abyss, populated only by webs of chains and the "flies" caught in them.

Dean explains that once every thirty years or so Alastair, his own personal demon, would stop torturing him, take him down and offer his one day of respite if he would torture another damned soul.
That is how humans become Demons.

"Dean: I saw Hellraiser, I get it.
Ruby: They got it close, except for all the custom leather."

[Sinewmire]

Supernatural, seasons 3-5. I'm very fond of their version of Christian mythology.

Victims suspended by hooked chains in an apparently infinite abyss, populated only by webs of chains and the "flies" caught in them.

Dean explains that once every thirty years or so Alastair, his own personal demon, would stop torturing him, take him down and offer his one day of respite if he would torture another damned soul.
That is how humans become Demons.

"Dean: I saw Hellraiser, I get it.
Ruby: They got it close, except for all the custom leather."

[Majin Gojira]

I got two:

One of them is from the Movie Frighteners. They remembered that a Hellmouth was originally portayed as an actual mouth. And all the little hook worms inside the massive hell-worm? Yeah, that's pretty nasty.

The other is that I'm partial to the Divine Comedy. Of the versions I've seen done (I just stumbled on a silent film version), one that stands out to me the most is the one done by Manga pioneer Go Nagai. He's a huge nerd on the whole thing and did a manga adaptation of the full Divine Comedy. Translation by fans stopped early in Purgatori, but the Inferno is the part everyone remembers and loves anyway.

Though Go does egg from Gustave Dore's artwork for big splash pages, because really, Dore's woodcuts are amazing.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Though not the only interpretation I like, I am partial to Planescape's. Not only does it employ the traditional Dante-style Judeo-Christian Hell (with a little artistic license, of course), but it also elegantly incorporates a whole host of other classic mythology, like Greek Hades and Norse Niflheim. I like that it allows the full range of Hell-concepts to co-exist; whatever your concept of what "Hell" should be, it probably exists (or could and therefore does exist, Planescape philosophy at its best). I'm particularly fond* of the Grey Wastes, a hell so despondently bleak and (literally) soul-crushingly awful that visitors soon no longer have the will to leave the source of their own misery, and can only sit in unresponsive, apathetic heaps as the infernal forces gradually transform the lost souls into chattel larvae to be bartered and consumed by demons, devils, and far worse entities.

*Dungeon Master's prerogative to be fond of that which brings your players pain and suffering. They deserve it, you know, raiding your immaculate dungeons with their filthy hands...

[Channel72]

Out of curiosity. Does anybody have a recommendation for Dante translations? I picked up the Ciardi today, it's supposed to be good. We'll see; I just wish it had illustrations, but it was annotations or illustrations and I'd rather know what the hell he's talking about than just have pretty pictures.

The classic Longfellow translation is pretty good, so is the one from Robert Durling. But Ciardi sucks - really, stay away from any translation which attempts to rhyme in English. Those end up sounding really... forced and cheesy. I mean, it's a lot easier to rhyme in Italian - so any English translation which attempts to mimic the Italian rhyming ends up reaching a lot, and often sounds ridiculous.

Everyone Dante meets in Hell is either someone he knew (like his homosexual professor or heretic friend), some Florentine politician involved in the forgotten politics of 13th century Florence (Guelphs vs Ghibellines, etc.), or classical figures like Oddyseus. Oh, and a bifurcated Mohammed as well. Take that, Islam!

[Elheru Aran]

Picked up Ciardi mostly because the edition I grabbed annotates a hell of a lot of stuff (pun not intended). So I thought that would be helpful. I don't care about the verse so that doesn't bother me. They did have the Longfellow translation and Robin Fitzpatrick's as well, but a lot of those were just the Inferno. I might pick up the UN-annotated edition that had the Dore illustrations, though.

Milton is also on the list. Paradise Lost. Gonna need an annotated edition on that one too...

[The Romulan Republic]

Their is no depiction I like. I find the concept of Hell profoundly disturbing, as its supposed to be.

Still, I guess if I had to pick... the version from the film What Dreams May Come.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Dreams_May_Come_(film)

Edit: I think what appeals to me most about it is that its something people damn themselves to rather than something the Devil or God damns them to.

[Batman]

The hell from Heinlein's 'Iob-A comedy of Justice'. Sure, it's not all that hellacious really, but that's the point-since chances are I'm going to Hell anyway I want all the creature comforts I can get.

[Zaune]

Hell as depicted in Old Harry's Game, hands down. Though the one from the comic Simon linked to is definitely a close second.

[Guardsman Bass]

Inspired by Elheru Aran, I looked more into the Wayne Barlowe work on hell, and ended up reading the novel he wrote in the setting (God's Demon).

It's now my second favorite version. Now only is it evocative, but it has its own internal logic that works for it. Hell was a place even before the Fallen Angels and their subordinates were banished to it by God (quite literally "falling" from the sky on fire before impacting), complete with its own ecology and even nomadic intelligent species. Damned souls started arriving shortly after they got sent there, and it's implied "damned" means "not being allowed into heaven" and thus ending up cast out into Hell. Given the sheer number of them there, it appears that most of humanity ends up in Hell after death. Demons only specifically torture some of them, usually the worst souls - the rest basically end up as slave work gangs and servants for demons, or as building/construction materials (demons can magically compact souls into "soul-bricks" that can be used for building, while still remaining alive and aware). Most of the infrastructure in Hell is built out of transformed souls in one fashion or another.