Trutharchivist

Well, I hoped for a discussion on the first post, but maybe it wasn't very discussable. Oh, well. BTW, I'm lucky that Connie didn't see it. Apparently I've accidentally wrote dicaussable instead of discussable. Probably she wouldn't have told me anything anyway because it's unfixable, but it's still embarrassing.

Anyway, the next part of the runt (now, that's probably the right name for it)!

I started to write about books that have a very definite afterlife. Out of those, only Elsewhere and Death Weavers don't have almost any kind of judgement. I'm really sorry that I wrote about books you didn't read, but you know what? With at least those two books, I really recommend reading them. Elsewhere is basically... how shall I put it? A story of someone in an afterlife, which gives you the feeling of a fully built world. The story seems like it could be the typical story of a teenager dying and arriving at this afterlife. It's a great story not necessarily because of it's plot, but the concept is great. Aaand I prove again how bad I am at describing things. I don't know how I'll manage to write a book, really.

Anyway, Elsewhere is cool because it's basically a life story, only the other way around in so many ways. First, in the afterlife if this book - called, of course, Elsewhere - people grow backwards, which is to say they become younger with time. Plus, there's the obvious fact that... Well... This is about an afterlife. You start with the heroine's death instead of birth, and she is actually reborn by the end, which makes it the exact reverse of living. I'm not sure if I can add much from this book, though it is a great one.

And now, I'll pass to the books with judgement in them - I mean, I will speak of Death Weavers eventually, because it has really cool concepts, but I'll keep it for later.

Now, judgement day has come! In the books the Amber Spyglass and the Black Reckoning both, the judgement is decided upon in the novel, while in the Last Battle the judgement is by connection to Aslan. In tLB, all of the inhabitants of Narnia go toward Aslan, and those of them who seem to like him (or something like that. I don't remember how exactly it was described, and I don't have the book right now). Since this is a very religious book it's judgement is based on Aslan - who is something of G-d in Narnia. The usual judgement, according to most religions, is about whether you served G-d's will or went against it, and so it is in Narnia, in a way, though it is important to note that G-d - Aslan - asks mainly for good intentions, rather than a belief in him. In Judaism (yay for all who waited for that! I'm not sure that it'll be accurate, but let's hope I'll do my belief justice) it can't work that way, because G-d, according to our belief, doesn't want only your heart or only your actions; he wants both, and any one without the other isn't enough. This is the general belief of the right way to live, but we are talking now about what happens after dying. Well, speaking of judgement, the Talmud says each person, upon arriving to be judged after death, is asked the following questions: did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate time for Torah study? Did you engage in procreation? Did you expect for salvation? (There are two more questions there that I didn't know of until today, and I don't want to copy their translation. Those are basically about learning wisdom.) This is at least one of the interesting sayings about that. Traditionally it is said that afterwards the deeds of the dead are than weighted, bad against good, and based on that it is decided whether he goes to heaven or hell. Now, the important thing to remember is that: a. According to some Jewish Rabbies, the really bad punishment is nonexistence, not hell. In addition, it is said that even the wicked don't stay in hell - known in Hebrew as Gehenom - for more than twelve months. There are sins that, as I said, are punished by destruction of the soul, which is the worst punishment possible. We also believe that someday in the future, all the Jews who once lived - except a few unusual cases - will rise to life again, though there are disagreements between some ancient Rabbies about whether they would rise to live forever, or they'll just die again after some time. Maimonides - who believes the rising again to life is temporal - strongly believes that the best for souls is to be without bodies, which is why he believes that the true reward for doing G-d's will is in the world of souls, though there are some Jewish Rabbies that disagree with him. Hope I explained enough, and didn't write anything wrong.

Anyway, the afterlife and judgement in both tAS and tBR are very interesting, in my opinion, because both are decided upon by humans. In TAS, the Authority (who is HDM supposed counterpart of G-d, though he isn't the Creator there. It's a book written by an atheist, so he is kind of the bad guy there. It's a little complicated) assigned the harpies to guard the dead in tWotD and pretty much left them alone. The harpies are fed by tormenting the dead with the sins they made while hey lived, and so, tWotD is... not a pleasant place. Then the heroine, Lyra "Silvertongue" Belacqua, comes with her friend with the intention of freeing the dead - a plan that the harpies resist to, as even though they don't practically like their present job, at least now they have a purpose, which they'll lose once the dead will go on - fading to the world, as they are said to when out of tWotD. Lyra then realizes that the harpies can feed on truths - through harsh experience, being a chronic liar. She then offers them the following deal: since the way out of tWotD is far from the entrance anyway, and so people will need guides - the harpies will serve this purpose, and in return the people will have to tell them about their lives, and the harpies will be obliged to take them out only if they either have something to tell or are too young to have something to tell. This basically kind of gives you Philip Pullman's view of what is important in life: to have something to talk about, true stories. Which makes me wonder: if a mass murderer tells the harpies about his murders, will they lead him outside? Maybe they are allowed to judge whether a man's deeds don't mark him unworthy to pass on. In TBR, a somewhat different approach of things: there, the heroine of this book - Emma - goes to tWotD, and is captured by the forces of the antagonist - the Dire Magnus - with a book that technically controls - and is responsible of the judgement of - the dead. She is the rightful owner of the book, in a way, and so it is her duty to judge the dead. She is given hints earlier on about what said judgement should be - which is love. Basically, this judgement isn't about passing on, but about memories. For that reason, it judges based on whether the dead ever had loved another in his life. Assuming I am right assuming that authors will base the judgement on their belief of what is important in life, it means that John Stephens believes that love is the most important thing in the world. This is not a unique opinion, since it seems nowadays most people believe in love as one of, if not the most important thing in life. A fair example is Harry Potter, where love is very powerful magically, so much so it can block Avada Kedavra.

Now, I'll go on to talk about Death Weavers, and then will end the current status update, because if I had something to say I don't remember it very well. Seriously, I'd like to have a discussion, even if all it would be about will be the fact you haven't read a single book of the ones I've listed.

Interesting concepts in DW include the very nature of the Outskirts, the world in which the book - and it's all series - take place. The thing is, att the beginning there were the Echolands - the afterlife. There, people had the power to Shape the world around them in multiple ways. The Echolands themselves were a world into itself, from which it was impossible to get out to other worlds, and where everyone was pulled towards unspecified something, called the Other - which seems very much like Sanderson's Beyond - by some music they can hear, called the Home Song, IIRC. Actually, everything, including echos - which are kind of the spirits of the living and dead - has a unique music, which changes a little according to moods and such things. One day, a few echos decided they wanted to create a world. They were very powerful and capable Shapers - which is a magic system useable in the Echolands - and so they actually did that, bringing living people from other worlds to inhabit it. After a few failed tries, they created the world with certain limitations, which in the end forced them to withdraw from this world, which is actually the Outskirts. The cool thing about the Outskirts is, beside it's in-between nature, the fact that it's actually inside he Echolands, which causes the interesting phenomenon of people forgetting about the existence of every person that entered the Outskirts, and of people being unable to permanently leave the Outskirts. Both are caused by the fact this world is part of the afterlife.

Seriously, I don't know if anyone actually reads this through, since I don't know if anyone who reads it have ever read all the books I've mentioned. Even if you read only some of them please tell me.

Thank you for reading! Do you think I should've tried to do this in a YouTube video?