It does not logically follow that an afterlife, if one exists--and many different kinds of afterlives do not contradict logical axioms/truths, including the Christian afterlife which actually has genuine evidence in its favor--is not wildly different for various individuals in a sense beyond the exact experience or placement in a heaven or hell differing. Some people might even go to an afterlife while others will only cease to mentally exist altogether. Some might go to drastically different dimensions than others: as foreign to typical ideas about the afterlife as this is, things like this are absolutely logically possible because they do not contradict axioms or any other necessary truth stemming from them.
It is also possible, as unlikely as it seems, that an inescapable, non-theological hell awaits all people, with the beings inside of it suffering without relief or end. There is strong evidence to the contrary and no evidence even suggesting that this logical possibility is true, but it remains possible. In the same world as Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot, Stephen King's novel Revival provides a crushing but at least partly illusory or misunderstood glimpse into the afterlife of the Null, the dimension that is presided over by a supernatural being with an enormous, seemingly spider-like body called Mother. This fate is supposed to have nothing to do with justice or punishment rather than the pointless, extreme cruelty of cosmic horror entities.
The human protagonist (Jamie Morton) and antagonist (Charles Jacobs) are shown the Null when they attempt to resurrect a dead woman to ask her what the afterlife is like. When her body becomes a vessel for what appears to be Mother, an entity hinted at throughout the story, they see a massive line of people. Their naked bodies are herded by ant-like creatures and are attacked if they fall in their distress. Babies, teenagers, and people of other ages are there in the Null, forced onward by their tormentors. Just as the humans are under the yoke of the ant monsters, the ants seem to serve Mother and perhaps other eldritch beings more powerful than themselves under the strange, intense lights emanating from above a sky described as paper-like and torn in some areas.
Jamie assumes that all people are destined for this place upon death, though that is never actually even said by Mother. He simply sees a massive amount of people and believes this to be true. He also thinks of the Lovecraftian creatures as all-powerful after only seeing the Null for a few moments, but depending on what is meant, he is in error here again, as not even Mother or God could do that which is logically impossible. Limitless power to do every desired thing which is logically impossible is as close as she could get. Jamie also considers whether the humans are eventually eaten by Mother, fed to her by the ant-creatures, only for him to dwell on how consumption by eldritch beings might not end the suffering by killing someone forever.
There is the possibility, both on a purely logical level and in relation to other Stephen King novels, that the sights of the Null were only an illusion created by Mother to terrify Jamie and Charles, similar to how Pennywise can manipulate the sensory perceptions of his victims. Mother and It both have spider-esque physical forms, and It has already been shown to be an emotional vampire of sorts that gains from the terror of its victims. Unless Revival takes place in a separate world or entire universe/multiverse from King's other works, it would contradict the afterlife of The Shining, Doctor Sleep, or The Outsider, for example, if seeing Mother and the Null was the inevitable fate of every person. In each of these other works, deceased humans become spirits that can manifest to and communicate with the living. At most, it would seem that the people healed in Revival by the "secret electricity" utilized by Charles are metaphysically tied to the Null since this secret electricity feeds into an energy that manifests there.
There are no hints of a non-theological hell in those other stories, much less a universal and eternal one, yet the exact connection of Revival to King's grander multiverse is not made as clear as it could be in the text itself. What Mother and the Null accomplish despite how they do not have power over all humans in this (hopefully!) fictional universe is that they exemplify the very unconventional logical possibility of a non-theological hell. There is by necessity an uncaused cause, but not only does its existence not necessitate the existence of an afterlife, but if there post-mortem consciousness, it might not be in a realm of bliss or one where moral justice is enforced with the eventual death of the wicked (Matthew 10:28). Everything that is logically possible either is true or could have been true, and Revival intentionally or unintentionally touches upon one of the most horrific ramifications of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment