History Literature / Inferno

* MyNaymeIs: Protagonist Allen Carpentier is really named "Carpenter". He added the extra "i" to sound more interesting and exotic. Towards the end, when Hell has stripped away his illusions and pretensions, he reverts to calling himself Carpenter. From then on, it's plot-relevant when a demon refers to him as [[MessianicArchetype Carpenter]].

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: By the time Carpentier believes he can help any soul redeem themselves and escape Hell, he's spelling it [[MessianicArchetype Carpenter]].]]
* MyNaymeIs: Protagonist Allen Carpentier is really named "Carpenter". He added the extra "i" to sound more interesting and exotic. Towards the end, when Hell has stripped away his illusions and pretensions, he reverts to calling himself Carpenter. From then on, it's plot-relevant when a demon refers to him as Carpentier.

* HeroicBSOD: Carpent(i)er starts going into hopeless despair at realizing he's really dead and in hell. Until he finds Creator/KurtVonnegut's Tomb with lavish decorations. Pure speechless rage actually saves him from being trapped there.

* DeconstructorFleet
* EarnYourHappyEnding

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Benny is really [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini]], seeking to redeem his sinful record as an EvilChancellor by guiding lost souls.

A sequel, ''Escape from Hell'', was published in 2009. Not to be confused with the second novel of the Literature/{{Indigo}} series, also called ''Inferno'', or the fourth novel in Creator/DanBrown's Robert Langdon series, likewise titled ''[[Literature/DanBrownsInferno Inferno]]''.

* HeroicBSOD: Carpent(i)er starts going into hopeless despair at realizing he's really dead and in hell. Until he finds KurtVonnegut's Tomb with lavish decorations. Pure speechless rage actually saves him from being trapped there.

* TakeThat: While (like the original) ''Inferno'' is full of this sort of thing, [[ChurchOfHappyology L. Ron Hubbard]] is [[{{Series/Firefly}} burning in a very special level of hell]]. KurtVonnegut has the biggest tomb in the 6th layer for heretics (due to the religious parodies in ''Literature/CatsCradle'' and ''Literature/TheSirensOfTitan''). That Carpentier makes no effort to hide how much he despises Vonnegut just adds to the TakeThat.

** "This has been willed where what is willed must be": From the original ''Literature/The DivineComedy'', this served to pass many barriers. Which makes sense because if you live in Hell, you really don't want to make waves with those serving the will of God or Heaven.

** Consider gluttony as described in ''TheScrewtapeLetters'' (where it's less about eating too much and more putting matters of the stomach over matters of the soul) and the health nut's situation makes much more sense. When the man tells Allen and Benito that he shouldn't be with the gluttons, Benito tells him "It is the fixation, not the amount."

** "This has been willed where what is willed must be": From the original ''Literature/DivineComedy'', this served to pass many barriers. Which makes sense because if you live in Hell, you really don't want to make waves with those serving the will of God or Heaven.

''Inferno'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, is a [[RecycledINSPACE modern retelling]] and {{Deconstruction}} of the first part of ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', with OntologicalMystery elements. The protagonist is a science-fiction author named Allen Carpentier (real name Carpenter - [[MyNaymeIs he added the "i" to sound more interesting]]), who finds himself consigned to Hell after drunkenly falling off a window ledge at a convention. A mysterious figure called Benito (whom he calls "Benny" for short) rescues him from imprisonment in a brass jar, and then begins leading him to the exit Dante used at the very center of Hell, which is supposed to lead to Purgatory.

''Inferno'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, is a [[RecycledINSPACE modern retelling]] and {{Deconstruction}} of the first part of ''The DivineComedy,'' with OntologicalMystery elements. The protagonist is a science-fiction author named Allen Carpentier (real name Carpenter - [[MyNaymeIs he added the "i" to sound more interesting]]), who finds himself consigned to Hell after drunkenly falling off a window ledge at a convention. A mysterious figure called Benito (whom he calls "Benny" for short) rescues him from imprisonment in a brass jar, and then begins leading him to the exit Dante used at the very center of Hell, which is supposed to lead to Purgatory.

** "This has been willed where what is willed must be": From the original DivineComedy, this served to pass many barriers. Which makes sense because if you live in Hell, you really don't want to make waves with those serving the will of God or Heaven.

''Inferno'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/JerryPournelle, is a [[RecycledINSPACE modern retelling]] and {{Deconstruction}} of the first part of ''The DivineComedy,'' with OntologicalMystery elements. The protagonist is a science-fiction author named Allen Carpentier (real name Carpenter - [[MyNaymeIs he added the "i" to sound more interesting]]), who finds himself consigned to Hell after drunkenly falling off a window ledge at a convention. A mysterious figure called Benito (whom he calls "Benny" for short) rescues him from imprisonment in a brass jar, and then begins leading him to the exit Dante used at the very center of Hell, which is supposed to lead to Purgatory.

* CulturalTranslation: Times have changed since the 14th century, so Niven and Pournelle's attitudes (and those of the society they live in) are different to Dante's. Hell is largely the same in geography, but the inhabitants that we see are different, and the place has changed with the world. This is most obvious in the Wood of Suicides, where, in Dante's time suicides were punished by being turned into trees that bled when broken, with a sideline in the profligate and "violently wasteful" being chased through the wood by wolves. Now, the wood is greatly reduced, but the profligate are much more numerous, and are hunted by sentient bulldozers.

* [[spoiler: EarnYourHappyEnding]]

* TakeThat: While (like the original) ''Inferno'' is full of this sort of thing, [[ChurchOfHappyology L. Ron Hubbard]] is [[{{Firefly}} burning in a very special level of hell]]. KurtVonnegut has the biggest tomb in the 6th layer for heretics (due to the religious parodies in ''Literature/CatsCradle'' and ''Literature/TheSirensOfTitan''). That Carpentier makes no effort to hide how much he despises Vonnegut just adds to the TakeThat.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Benny is really [[spoiler: BenitoMussolini]], seeking to redeem his sinful record as an EvilChancellor by guiding lost souls.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Among the souls encountered during the brief flight of the glider is a pilot of the Space Shuttle - who died, in Carpentier's future (it was written in 1976), when it suffered a failure of the heat shield, and well..."halfway down and going like a meteor when we got a burnthrough under the nose" took on terrifying truth in 2003.

* FunnyAneurysmMomment: Among the souls encountered during the brief flight of the glider is a pilot of the Space Shuttle - who died, in Carpentier's future (it was written in 1976), when it suffered a failure of the heat shield, and well..."halfway down and going like a meteor when we got a burnthrough under the nose" took on terrifying truth in 2003.

* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler: Lucifer, chewing legs like cigarettes makes eye contact:]]
--> [[spoiler: "Carpentier. What will you tell God when you see Him? Will you tell him that He could learn morality from Vlad the Impaler?"]]
* SoulJar: It seems self-centred, waffling unbelievers end up trapped inside metal "djinn bottles" in the Vestibule of Hell -- forever, unless they ask God to let them out. These also appear to have {{Hammerspace}} aspects, since to the soul inside they seem like an infinite void with nothing visible. A SubvertedTrope in that [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortality and invulnerability has long ceased to be an issue for these souls]].

A sequel, ''Escape From Hell'', was published in 2009. Not to be confused with the second novel of the ''Literature/{{Indigo}}'' series, also called ''Inferno'', or the fourth novel in Creator/DanBrown's Robert Langdon series, likewise titled ''[[Literature/DanBrownsInferno Inferno]]''.

A sequel, ''Escape From Hell'', was published in 2009. Not to be confused with the second novel of the ''Literature/{{Indigo}}'' series, also called ''Inferno'', or the fourth novel in Creator/DanBrown's Robert Langdon series, likewise titled ''Inferno''.

A sequel, ''Escape From Hell'', was published in 2009. Not to be confused with the second novel of the ''Literature/{{Indigo}}'' series, also called ''Inferno''.

A sequel, ''Escape From Hell'', was published in 2009. Not to be confused with the DarioArgento Film of the same name.

''Inferno'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/Jerry Pournelle, is a [[RecycledINSPACE modern retelling]] and {{Deconstruction}} of the first part of ''The DivineComedy,'' with OntologicalMystery elements. The protagonist is a science-fiction author named Allen Carpentier (real name Carpenter - [[MyNaymeIs he added the "i" to sound more interesting]]), who finds himself consigned to Hell after drunkenly falling off a window ledge at a convention. A mysterious figure called Benito (whom he calls "Benny" for short) rescues him from imprisonment in a brass jar, and then begins leading him to the exit Dante used at the very center of Hell, which is supposed to lead to Purgatory.

''Inferno'', by LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, is a [[RecycledINSPACE modern retelling]] and {{Deconstruction}} of the first part of ''The DivineComedy,'' with OntologicalMystery elements. The protagonist is a science-fiction author named Allen Carpentier (real name Carpenter - [[MyNaymeIs he added the "i" to sound more interesting]]), who finds himself consigned to Hell after drunkenly falling off a window ledge at a convention. A mysterious figure called Benito (whom he calls "Benny" for short) rescues him from imprisonment in a brass jar, and then begins leading him to the exit Dante used at the very center of Hell, which is supposed to lead to Purgatory.

[[redirect:Literature/TheDivineComedy]]