One role of references to a hereafter is to comment on the here and now or on a life that has just been completed. Thus, Luz inwardly expresses the hope that a Chinese bodyguard who died in the line of duty will pass swiftly and easily "through the Courts of Diyu" (p. 174) but says "Amen" (p. 191) when a policeman of Irish descent voices a pious hope about heaven. There are works of fantasy in which people of different belief-systems survive into their appropriately diverse hereafters but perhaps not many of us would claim that that is literally the case? Again, I think that meditation is beneficial here and now but do not buy into reincarnation or rebirth. My sympathies are with Poul Anderson's Ythrian character who expresses incredulity and even incomprehension when informed of the Christian belief in a soul surviving the body and going elsewhere.
4 comments:
"There are works of fantasy in which people of different belief-systems survive into their appropriately diverse hereafters but perhaps not many of us would claim that that is literally the case?"
Here is a short animation that plays with that idea. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU
Except that the Ythrian pagan "Old Faith" has exactly that belief -- note the occasional pagan referrijng to "hell-wind" to blow the soul to the afterlife.
Indeed. I think that detracts from the force of the incomprehension expressed by the character in "The Problem of Pain."
Note that carnivores (like the Ythrians) are not less afraid of death/nonexistence than herbivores or omnivores. I doubt intelligent ones would be either.
In point of fact, carnivores usually carefully pick the least dangerous prey. Their main cause of violent death is each other.
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