![]() When everyone thinks of Heaven and Hell, the typical thought placement occurs. As Heaven being a bright, blissful, the city above the clouds kind of scenery. Hell is viewed in the opposite fashion of a rotting version of earth with fire and destruction covering everywhere you look. It's rare to not find this sort of vision of the afterlife and whilst there is some that look at it as the reckoning of the end or the heroes motivation to lead a better life on Earth, some tend to take a different approach... One of the main components as to why Heaven and Hell are visioned so much in films and in so many different ways is because their existence is questioned. No one knows if these places beyond death exist because the only way to discover if they are is if you die which is ironic because if Heaven or Hell are places in which you are guided to after you die, doesn't that mean that they can't be real anyway because they aren't witnessed in the midst of reality? More on that later. For now, let's focus on the visual interpretations of the afterlife in multiple entertainment mediums. ![]() Origins and Ideas of Heaven In terms of when these two concepts got their origin, every religion has their different beliefs on this. Christianity first believed that the dead would be resurrected after a period of slumber at the Second Coming until the concept of the Kingdom of God arose. In the 1st Century, Christians viewed The Kingdom of Heaven as a divine place that would come to Earth in their lifetimes and thus produce a beautiful picture of Earth in the "near" future. When the Kingdom of God didn't arrive, Christians refined their hopes into this place being a reward after death and put their beliefs into Heaven. Christianity believed Heaven was split into 3 separate layers. One layer being Heaven, the second being Paradise and the third being known as The City. God would distribute the dead into one of these "districts" and live a long and peaceful life in one of them which eventually moulded the concept of Heaven we have today. As in Christianity, they view Heaven as the reward after death whilst other religions like Islam, believe heaven is a place held with happy and immortal life where every wish is immediately fulfilled when asked. Judaism has a much more broader aspect of Heaven with it being a topic that isn't discussed very often within their religion. The belief of life after death is often argued over two ideas among the Jewish faith; one being the resurrection of the dead and the other being the idea of the immortal soul returning to it's creators body. Whilst many faiths have different opinions and beliefs on the vision of Heaven or even the existence of Heaven itself, most religions come to the conclusion that Heaven represents peace after death and that for their righteous ways on Earth, they are rewarded by being awaited in Heaven with the rest of their loved ones and forgotten dreams. Hell is the complete opposite... ![]() Origins and Ideas of Hell Almost every religion that believes in the concept of Hell has a similar perception of it even though the concept came much later on in religious history. Hell is conceived as a place that inhabits demons and souls of the dead lives who have sinned and had no forgiveness from God. With Heaven being foreseen as a reward, Hell was foreseen as a punishment. Even though Hell was a common belief, it mainly grew after the creation of a fable folklore known as Allegory of the Long Spoons which is represent in the image on the left. The Allegory of the Long Spoons is an instructive story created by Rabbi Haim of Romshishok representing the difference between Heaven and Hell with Heaven at the top, life on Earth in the middle and Hell at the bottom. In Hell, people are unable eat with the cutlery they possess and are starving whilst Heaven is calm and everyone is seated whilst eating their food in an orderly fashion. The story was originally erected to generate the idea of encouraging kindness and it suggests that people are given the opportunity to use what they are given (the long spoons in the image) to help nourish and provide care for each other and whilst there are many variants of the story, the message is the same. ![]() Hell is a fiery and painful depiction that inflicts suffering on the guilty souls that inhabit the land for eternity although a different portrayal of Hell exists in a common religion, Buddhism. The Buddhist tradition portrays Hell as cold. Tibetan Buddhist Descriptions of hell feature equal numbers of hot and cold Hells which is an idea that has also jumped over to Christianity as the infamous Dante's Inferno depicts the circle of Hell being a frozen lake of blood known as Cocytus (shown on the right) and sparked cold playing a dominant part in early Christianity also. ![]() Another piece of Hell that relates to cold is the first known image of Satan. Held in the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Church in Ravenna, Italy, this mosaic depicts two angels at either side of Jesus Christ with one in red and the other in blue. In todays culture, I think most of us would view the red angel as the depiction of Satan but it is actually the angel dressed in blue that is Satan in the mosaic. In the 6th Century when this mosaic was constructed, blue was globally known as a sinister colour as oppose to red. With Hell being viewed as an image of anarchy and death, it is deceptive to see Hell fool us with it's features of the cold and now-a-days, very bright and blissful colours. ![]() Dante's Divine Comedy Consider to be and most likely the greatest works of World Religion Literature in history is Dante's Divine Comedy. It is a representative of the medieval world view in which the poem depicts an imaginative vision of the afterlife. Whilst it is written in the Tuscan Language, the poem contributed to the transformation of the Tuscan Language to the well known Italian Language. The poem is split into three parts which defined our visual and literary outlook of the afterlife we know of today which are:
Purgatory The latest and in my opinion, the most interesting idea of the afterlife is Purgatory. Although the idea of Purgatory was established in the early middle ages, the idea was only embraced by the Catholic Church in 1253. The idea depicts a period between death and Heaven in which a soul is left in an intermediate state where the soul has to go under purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter Heaven. You can not got to Hell or remain in Purgatory forever but only those who died in the state of grace (assists from God) but have not yet suffered temporal punishment for their sins can go to Purgatory and wait for their punishments to be fulfilled. Even though Purgatory is a vision of the last stage to Heaven for some people and isn't close to Hell, it still can take on the imagery of Hell with depictions of Purgatory being similar to Hell that it is fiery and dark. Once the fulfilment of a souls sins have been complete, they are guided into Heaven. Depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Entertainment Mediums Due to the argument of whether these places after death exist, it has left many creative minds the opportunity to explore and often exploit these beliefs and have even left room for writers and directors to come up with their own visions as to what life after death looks like. Film like Always (Steven Spielberg, 1989) and Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009) and Video Games such as Dante's Inferno (Electronic Arts, 2010) and Saints Row: Gat out of Hell (Volition, 2015) have played with the concepts of Heaven and Hell being sufficient backgrounds and settings for their platforms but TV has recently taken an amazing frame of depth when it comes to exploring life after death. The couple listed are known for being genius, controversial and talked about a lot to this day about their references ![]() San Junipero - Black Mirror (SPOILERS) Translating to Saint Juniper (Saint Junipero Serra), who was a Roman Catholic Spanish Priest and founded the a mission (religious outpost) in Baja, California. This episode of the critically acclaimed Netflix show, Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011 - ) has been talked about and idolised for it's genius and unique portrayal of life after death. Rather than focusing on the afterlife being something magical and mythical to a sense, this episode takes it to a new genre and depicts the afterlife as being a man-made simulation. The episode first starts out at a vibrant, 80's-looking Californian beach resort town called San Junipero. It follows a shy, young women named Yorkie venturing this town and seeing the bright and nostalgic look of the town and she ends up meeting a vivacious young women named Kelly and it the story of the episode just follows them and their relationship as a young, reclusively gay, couple. The most interesting and gripping thing about this whole episode is that the whole setting of San Junipero is a simulation in which elderly citizens can access this by placing a chip onto their temporal bone that connects them to their brain to create this augmented reality. This allows them to travel back through time to when they were young and live out a few days over a period of time in this augmented reality and meet others who have done the same. After they die in reality, they are given an option to either just die and have their life ended or have their brain data activity transferred onto the chip and have it stored away (as seen above) so they can continue living their past life in a virtual simulation whilst meeting new people and literally living forever young. What I love about this so much is the uniqueness of the idea. Rather than go along the route of a natural Heaven and Hell depiction, Charlie Brooker (writer) decided to give Heaven an unnatural appearance and give every dying elderly person a heavy desire, to go back to when they were young and live out their lives that way. Heaven was once known as just Paradise and they give off that exact same image through this episode. It screams the word PARADISE at you and is even referenced in the club that the two main characters meet in. I also find it interesting how they live out their lives as a homosexual couple in a time period (1987) where that was often frowned upon. It almost gives the hint that this isn't a simulation of the past but almost an alternative past where homosexuality is accepted but we always see them express their love for each other in secluded areas where only they matter and no one else can bother them so maybe it is just how it was in the past. Also the music used in this episode is obviously very 1980's but is placed in very smart areas. For example, at the end, when the Yorkie and Kelly are finally together and happy that way, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle plays which is great symbolism for both paradise (Heaven) and acceptance. This episode proves that you not only can make a depiction of life after death unique but you can also reshape it. You don't have to stick to a certain formula just as long as the narrative makes sense and flows well with the message you're trying to portray. South Park (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1997 - ) If you're known as the most controversial cartoon show in TV history, most likely it's going to feature some punches towards religion and the afterlife as a whole. When it comes to depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, no one does it more insultingly funny as South Park does. From God's of all religious groups forming a superhero alliance called Super Best Friends to stop evil to having insane backlash from the show NEARLY showing the image of Muhammed in their 201 episode special. From Satan having a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein to Heaven being portrayed as a place full of nude women. From identifying Jesus as a ninja assassin to expressing Scientology as a greedy and conspiritual excuse of a religion. It's hard to beat this show when it comes to mocking religion...and also raising important view points on it too. Where some have viewed South Park as a show that's just there for shock value and to insult others "greater" than it, most (even the people that South Park made jokes at) have viewed it as the most important show in TV history. What the creators show in terms of visual humour towards Hell, Heaven and Purgatory, they make up for with the simple use of subtle subtext. ![]() Purgatory: Dead Celebrities (Season 13 Episode 8) South Park picture Purgatory as a train full of celebrities waiting to go to Heaven because Michael Jackson (who they are waiting for) has taken the embodiment of Ike, a 5 year old child to fulfil his dream of becoming a kid and winning a pageant. When Michael achieves his dream, they take of to Heaven but instead go to Hell. This episode represents purgatory as the place which the souls of the dead are allowed to roam free on Earth as ghosts since Ike complains about seeing dead celebrities. Since Purgatory is the place before heaven where you have to go through fulfilment of your sins, that's what Michael Jackson and all these celebrities supposedly do not do. In real life, Michael Jackson was accused of harassing children which he continues to do in Purgatory. Billy Mays promotes and advertises his products and he still does that in Purgatory which is represented as a sin. These dead celebrities are still committing their sins that they committed on Earth whilst in Purgatory which leads them to Hell...but I thought you couldn't go from Purgatory to Hell? South Park's take on mis-advertisement of religion and their beliefs. ![]() Hell: South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1999) In the shows attempt at a feature length film, South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut heavily centres around Satan and Hell. After Kenny dies (for good) and steps into Hell, he gets an inside look into Satan's life which isn't what you would suspect unless you're a fan of South Park. Satan is revealed to have a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein and revealed to hate living at Hell and expresses how he wants to break out of Hell itself. Hell is symbolised as the prison of your own insecurities and unwilling to express your true self in a society that is filled with hatred and conflict. Even though it is seemed as inappropriate, portraying Satan as a homosexual has a deep message behind it that even happiness and confidence can change evil and if you've seen the film, it's weird how a character like Satan that has been blasted with evil and hatred can be portrayed in such a caring and pitiful way. ![]() Heaven: A Ladder to Heaven (Season 6 Episode 12) After the boys are struggling to deal with the loss of their friend Kenny, they decide to build a ladder to Heaven that gets national attention on the news and even gets the attention of the US Military to fund the ladder to Heaven which quickly becomes a replication of the race to the Moon in the 1960's as other nations try to become the first to Heaven. The most important part of this episode is it's take on government greed and seeing religion as a competition. Much like the school system, it portrays religion as a competition to the top of the money and popularity chart which has been debated over and people have been attempting to expose religion as just that. This also gets copied over to the government as they reveal the reason why they funded the Ladder to Heaven was because they believed Saddam Hussein to be holding refuge there to produce weapons of mass destruction similar to the reasoning for the Iraq War. This depicts the governmental conspiracies allegedly hosted by todays military. Conclusion What I've researched and learned from this blog has been extremely helpful. I have been fascinated with the interesting uses of religious beliefs in multiple mediums and their history as a whole. I loved the interesting use of religion and censorship and how subtext can be used to change the outlook of the show. I wouldn't like to use subtext in a comedic way but defiantly contribute it to the work with my visualisation of Upstairs.
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