Mmkay so, uh, you've probably seen me talk about Angelverse, a universe I have with my boyfriend. I love this thing. But every so often I get insecure about it, and this time I have decided to actually ask people about the insecurity rather than stew in it. So, Angelverse, as you might have guessed, involves a lot of angels. Angels live in Heaven. So do dead people (well, not all of them, but a lot of them). A few dead people are also major characters. Heaven is, being Heaven, a very nice place to be. What worries me a bit is that for a few characters, things like romantic relationships and families, and mental healing and such don't happen until after they're dead. And I really don't want to be giving the impression that it's better to be dead. To go into slightly more detail... only one person actually commits suicide, and it's Vincent van Gogh so one can't really avoid that (I know about the theory that he was actually shot by some kids larking about, but I am sort of dubious on it, not really done enough research on it). A couple of people die relatively young, but we're talking like. Early forties young, and both of them are killed by accidents. It's folks like Alfie that mildly concern me. He lives to his eighties, has a good job and is happy in life, but it's only after he's dead that he reconnects with his soul-mate (if you want to use that term) and ends up in a happy stable romantic relationship. Same for Dana, who only has a child after she's dead (not that she really wanted any particularly while she was alive). I just. I suppose worry that by portraying the afterlife as generally so positive...?
Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much. People will read what they want to read. You can't really control it. The afterlife is a theme that a lot of people like to explore. If I'm understanding you correctly, not everyone has a wonderful grand time. You aren't portraying a magical wonderful place that fixes everyone and lets all join because life is great! You have some people healing and growing, and I think heaven is an excellent place to show it happen. Also peoples' ideas of heaven are very different. I personally can't envision a heaven in which drama happens, therefor any story that portrays that wouldn't feel like heaven to me. It feels more like setting/place than as a plausible afterlife scenerio. But, yeah, some of the things you are concerned about is why there is the belief/rule/doctrine that if you kill yourself, you can't make it to heaven. So, hopefully some food for thought?
You could use grief as a way to emphasize that dying doesn't fix things. A direct illustration might be something like "friend of person who committed suicide dies as well and it's obvious the suicide really hurt them." A character might have been left to clean up the fallout, leading to anger or resentment, or maybe they've been blaming themselves for the suicide and are finally able to ask why. In your setting, you can't avoid social consequences in death, and you can demonstrate that.
That's a point. I mean... we're definitely not going 'this is definitely what will happen when you die'. It's just what happens in this story when you die. And a lot of people go to Purgatory first (which does not involve any torture. It's a place that just encourages Thought and Reflection, so people can rethink prejudices and suchlike that they held in life, since being mean to folks for who they are is Not Encouraged in Heaven). I don't know. Wait, is Purgatory a good idea? Is that fucked up somehow? Good idea! ...Ah, uh. We do have a bit where... one of the characters has three very close angel friends, and they have to watch her descend into dementia and not recognise them any more and such as she ages, and they hate it, and they know it'll be reversed once she dies, but they also know that living is precious? This is probably bad isn't it. But I like that idea, it's a good one.
A nice movie to help you get ideas if you want, because it deals with exactly that kind of conflict: Wings of Desire. One of the most beautiful movies ever made. Also, I think Purgatory is a great idea! It means that you can be wrong without being an Evil Horrible Person Deserving of Eternal Torture.
I might have a look, thanks. =) And good! That was sort of the idea, I think. Lots of people have prejudices- pretty much everyone- and not all of them are easy to overcome but it doesn't mean they're bad people, but it also doesn't mean they deserve to be thrown into Hell (not that our Hell involves torture either. The souls in Hell are blank and emotionless, they don't feel or think... Some people even choose to go there).
@TwoBrokenMirrors Neil Gaiman and Jill Thompson's Death - At Death's Door briefly touches on the premise that everyone chooses Heaven or Hell. Which also means there's a lot of injustice in the process. So Hell is full of, say, abused children who think if they just weren't so obviously horrible, mommy wouldn't hit them as much. Or people who did things in pursuit of happiness that we think are OK but which, according to their culture and values system, are unforgiveable. It's a very interesting concept.
@wixbloom Yeah, we had that system at first and we sort of realised it'd end up like that after the aforementioned character with the angel friends tended up sending herself to Hell because of unresolved and somewhat heavily suppressed self-esteem issues. xP We've sort of shuffled it a bit- you can still choose, but the angels of Death (a short mousy-goth woman, her beanpole son, and a Star Trek nerd who looks permanently babyfaced 18. xP) know where you're supposed to go, and will try and persuade you one way or another.
A purgatory which encourages thought and reflection can very well be equal to hellfire for people who refuse to acknowledge that they have done any wrong, while it's more of a place of sorting and coming clear for others. I like it.
Hah, yes. One of my characters' father ended up there when he died and he's probably not enjoying it at all. But the point is kind of that people get a chance to rethink things. They stay in Purgatory as long as it takes, and only if they've been given every chance and stayed there for a long, long time and have shown precisely zero evidence of improvement do they get shuffled down to Hell, where, as said before, they aren't tortured, they're just stripped of thought and emotion. It's probably the case that quite a few people get sent up to Heaven before they've fully improved, even, because they showed a great deal of willingness to improve and it can be easier to improve when you're surrounded by other people and can see that they're Just People.
