Yria, mermaid, has been baptized and has become Margrete, mortal. Ingeborg, mortal prostitute, addressing Tauno, merman, compares their three fates:
"'For the price of her past, and of growing old, ugly, dead in less than a hundred years, [Yria/Margrete] gains eternity in Paradise. You may live a long while, but when you die you'll be done, a blown-out candle flame. Myself, I'll live beyond my body, most likely in Hell. Which of us three is luckiest?'" (p. 35)
I am sure that many people, not just myself, have problems with this passage. I expect everyone to be blown out like a candle flame. That is a good description of death. I do not think that a prostitute or anyone else deserves Hell. I do not think that individual consciousness can continue forever. However, Paradise and Hell are premises of this fantasy novel. Within the parameters of this particular fictional narrative, we have to accept that Ingeborg's account is accurate. But we do not have to like the idea of Hell, even within fiction.
10 comments:
Viewpoints differ.
Kaor, Paul!
As Stirling said, viewpoints differ from yours.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, of course viewpoints differ from mine! I am only stating mine.
Kaor, Paul!
And I believe you to be seriously mistaken.
Ad astra! Sean
I believe you to be mistaken.
I am not *expecting* any sort of afterlife, but I can contemplate the idea, and think about whether it would be worth having.
Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle" suggests an afterlife that would be worth having.
Jim,
Life is local, temporary negative entropy.
Energized complex molecules changed randomly until one became self-replicating.
Natural selection generated multi-cellular organisms.
Naturally selected organismic sensitivity to environmental alterations quantitatively increased until it was qualitatively transformed into conscious sensation.
Pleasure and pain have survival value and require consciousness.
Consciousness is a by-product of natural selection and a property of organisms with central nervous systems.
An organism's properties end when the organism ends. The matter in the organism's body returns to an inorganic and therefore also unconscious state.
Paul.
Kaor, Jim!
Good, I'm glad you read even some of Tolkien's minor works. Altho JRRT disliked allegories "Leaf by Niggle" is allegorical, and partly at his own expense. But the story should be understood as how Niggle, and his bothersome neighbor, Parish, slowly became better men, assisted by God. Niggle's illness and stay and long labor in the Workhouse refers to his death and gradual purification in Purgatory. When ready both he and Parish left the Workhouse for the distant mountains, God.
The story is better than what this hasty and bald summary can convey.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: it would be more accurate to say that life is parasitic on downward energy flows -- it captures some of them.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
We, personally, should be glad of that! (Laughs)
Ad astra! Sean
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