Monday, October 23, 2006

h. e. double toothpicks

Salt Lake City is hosting a conference this week on hell. (People fond of alcohol are probably thinking that Salt Lake City is always hosting hell, but that’s another issue). I know about the conference only because Ethan got to the newspaper before me yesterday and began crossing out all the “swear words” on the page, of which there were many because the article described the various perspectives on hell throughout religious history and popular culture.

This led me and Ethan into a somewhat futile discussion about how one differentiates between hell the swear word and hell the it’s okay to say it since it’s a place where bad people go (and giggle because it feels like you’re getting away with something) word.

Ethan – who is hoping for a logical hard-fast rule, and is also currently reviewing parts of speech in school – asks, “So is it swearing if you use hell as a noun but not if it’s an adjective or adverb?”

“Well, no. Because some people say hell fire! and that’s swearing.”

“Okay. How about this one – it’s not swearing if you’re talking about the place called hell.”

“Sure. That sounds reasonable.”

But then Ethan discovers the loophole: “Hey, what about when people say Go to.…!”

“Oh, right.” I am as much baffled by the policy as he is.

In the end, my less-than-brilliant explanation was that if the sentence in which you are using “hell” would end with an exclamation point, it’s probably swearing. This may not win a prize in the logic hall of fame, but it worked for us.

Speaking of hell (*tee hee*), I’m surprised that it has taken me this long to return to Bosch. Always a delightfully bizarre fellow, he ought to provide me with a lifetime of blog material. Here’s the panel depicting hell from his painting Garden of Earthly Delights. Bosch includes all the familiar images of hell – the darkened sky, the smoking fire pits, the menacing figure of Satan who sits upon a throne eating sinners for lunch, the giant severed ears, the hollow-bodied tree man with plate and bagpipe on head, the really scary bunny rabbits, the people who vomit coins into cesspools. You know, the typical Biblical stuff.

I’ve always preferred the realism of Dante’s vision of hell. He wrote about the center of hell as a frozen wasteland. The worst sinners are submerged to their necks in a pitch-black lake of ice and tormented by winds so cold that their tears freeze to their cheeks. This is an appropriate hell to Dante since at the opposite end of the universe, heaven is full of light and warmth and the kinds of indescribable beauties that only come from closeness to the presence of God. Sure, I agree with Dante’s symbolism. I also think an icy hell is far more believable than a hot one. This is because (as my husband / opponent-of-the-thermostat-wars can attest) I really hate being cold. Given a choice between playing harps in the crispy climes of high-elevation clouds and roasting for eternity in a fiery pit, I’m afraid I’d say, "Save me a spot next to the bunny. And pass the marshmallows.”


7 comments:

meno said...

I am with you on the cold thing. I am always sneaking around turning up the thermostats.

Rock Hammer said...

The most interesting bit of trivia on hell I can think of is that sulfur, brimstone if you're a Baptist, when subjected to a flame hot enough to make it burn, burns bright blue. Thus, hell is not a place of drab reds and yellows, but a very brilliant cobalt.

I hate to get really dorky about all this, but the Bible rarely mentions Hell. It's left out of the old testament entirely (don't try to pull that Sheol crap on me, theology majors), and in the new testament, Hell is a place of death, not a place for permenant torture. Sinners are pretty much just wiped out wholesale without respect to just desert.

Your Dante Hell is pretty much the only Hell. He basically invented it.

Lara said...

THat is so weird! I have that exact painting hanging on the wall next to the Bountiful Temple!

You're going to have to ammend your rule. I read a hell! today in second Nephi. So any hell that's not followed by ! unless it's in the scriptures.

Scribbit said...

Yea, the only time I'm not cold is when I'm pregnant. It's almost enough to make me want to stay pregant. Not quite though.

Bill C said...

I'm thinking those marshmallows will be cotton balls at best. Or worse.

Also I think "a conference on hell" is a seriously juicy, ripe for riffing topic. How does someone announce such a thing with a straight face? Granted it's a serious topic for most faith-oriented circles and mindsets, but still. I mean, reviews, summaries, analyses - at least the opening and closing paragraphs - pretty much write themselves for anyone with even a slight sense of humor.

If I attended they'd kick me out I'm sure, for just the look on my face if nothing else.
;-)

Julie Q. said...

Meno
Yes, sneaking is good. Or when hubbie is out of town, bask in the 80 degree temp for a few days.

Casey
Good point about the lack of hell in the Bible too. Revelation does mention a lake and fire that awaits the sinners after judgement day. No mention if it's blue or not.

Lara
You make me laugh.

Michelle
Me too. This was Ken's favorite part about my pregnancies. No more thermostat wars.

Jam
I agree. It's hard to resist the many jokes to be told. The newspaper even had one headline that said "What the....?"

Anonymous said...

This is a very late reply, but I had to chuckle because when I was in the Primary Presidency one of the program scriptures had the word "hell" in it and our Primary President's son didn't want to read it because he didn't want to get in trouble. It was cute and, frankly, refreshing.