How would you handle...

Knowing what happened when you die?

Just for a morality question, since I am trying to think of different ways different people would handle it.

Basically, you know that when you die, the most horrible place you go to, is basically a luxurious day spa where you receive therapy.

How do you think you might moralize death, if any differently at all?

Umm...

Death sucks because ghosts cannot be seen or heard or touched; they are tired but dare not sleep; they are hungry and thirsty but cannot eat or drink; they are always being hunted by the reapers; they cannot leave their remains, which smell terrible to them.

As time goes by, their sight and hearing deteriorate until they are blind and deaf. They hate the living and will try to steal their bodies. Ghosts feed on fear and use it to attack the living, hoping to knock their souls out of their bodies. Ghosts can be placated - a shaman can give a ghost temporary use of his body in exchange for vows of peace.

If you're a bad person, your ghost will smell bad and attract the reapers; if you're a good person, your ghost will smell pleasant and attract angels. If a ghost doesn't reincarnate within a century, he/she/it will simply cease to exist.

...I am referring to the reality of my story. Not yours.

edited 16th Dec '11 1:11:46 PM by fanty

Well, like I said, that's the worst possible outcome. But why?

The idea of life after death always struck me more as "boredom after death". For me, it's either immortality or dissipating into nothingness. I don't want to spend an eternity somewhere other than here.

That's nice, but it doesn't actually tell me what I'm looking for: the moralization of death.

There'd be a whole lot less execution as punishment, methinks.

Well, anyone with such knowledge of a guaranteed pleasant afterlife could easily leap into the (morally murky) waters of the Soul-Saving Crusader. They'd look like a murderous Heroic Sociopath, Knight Templar or even Omnicidal Maniac from the outside, though.

Note that I don't refer to my own reactions — I'm honestly not sure what I could do with such absolute certainty, but I don't think I'd come out sane by society's standards.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:13:17 PM by KillerClowns

KC: Yeah, outside society is mostly kept out of this, due to the nature of the story.

Basically, it's all inside society. It's not a huge group, but everyone around you also knows what you knows.

Why care if you die? If the worst that can happen is to get help, death becomes...rather meaningless, in context. Suicide is considerably more attractive. Dying for worthy cause is hardly a struggle at all. Execution as a punishment carries little weight.

In my thinking, 'death' means Cessation of Existence. Anything less than that, and it's not death, but merely some sort of weird transition—the analogy I've seen used is one-way voyage to Australia (pre-telecommunications, of course). Killing people is much less problematic. Just a forced journey to Australia, after all. Suicide is less problematic—hell, everything becomes much easier.

Life and death would be cheap, I guess.

I dunno. It's an interesting question. Perhaps you should make it a goal of your story to explore the implications as a theme: what would people do if death was literally meaningless?

The world would either become far better... or far, far worse...

I wouldn't say this renders death meaningless, exactly, because you've still got the basic issues of 1) it being a one-way trip and 2) the actual physical process of dying is still going to be unpleasant in most cases. But I take your meaning.

What's the best possible thing that can happen to you, if therapy is the worst?

We don't know. I like keeping heaven ambiguous. Because as fanty showed, everyone's idea of heaven is going to be different.

As for exploring the theme, I do have that, albeit a bit.

Basically it shows up in the form of "do you kill your former friend if it's going to save everyone else in the long run?"

It's a bit of a weak form of it, but it's there.

Point 1: How can you be 1000% sure you know about the afterlife? Even first-hand evidence can be explained away as a vivid dream/hallucination.

Point 2: How do you convince others of your received truth? Most people won't give up their belief systems even with solid proof.

Almost every religion has its theory. They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong. What matters is how you live.

Ralph: The main plot takes place in this place. They can't leave. Much like any fantasy story, after a while, convincing yourself nothing is real is just detrimental.

As for religion, thanks to plot gimmick/hook number 1, none of them remember what their own religion was, until much later.

Like I said, there are very few people out of the loop, due to the focus of the story.

edited 17th Dec '11 10:18:30 AM by AtticusFinch