A set of articles I wrote a few years back about Hell on Earth. Cheery stuff.
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The First Circle of Hell - Leigh Delamere Services |
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Limbo is where the virtuous pagans and those that have not been baptised dwell. They didn't really do anything wrong, they just didn't worship the right guy. Leigh Delamere service station is full of people who didn't really do anything wrong, they just have the misfortune to be travelling on the M4. |
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The Second Circle of Hell - Valentines Day |
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Eternal dwelling place for those overcome by lust. Given the timing, it really had to be Valentines Day. It's not really a place as such, but I definitely think it should be marked with 'abandon hope' on the calendar. |
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The Third Circle of Hell - Iceland |
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Cerberus guards the gluttons in the third circle of hell, where they lie in the mud and consume their own excrement. By these standards maybe Iceland isn't so bad but the desire to stock up on emergency dinners can rapidly turn into a nightmare. |
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The Fourth Circle of Hell - Ikea |
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Wikipedia describes the 4th circle of hell thusly - Those whose concern for material goods deviated from the desired mean are punished in this circle. They include the avaricious or miserly, who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. Guarded by Plutus, each group pushes a great weight against the heavy weight of the other group. After the weights crash together the process starts over again. Now who doesn't read that and think of Ikea?! |
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The Fifth Circle of Hell - The Internet |
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From Wikipedia: In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the surface, and the sullen or slothful lie gurgling beneath the water. Wrathful and slothful... trolls and lurkers! The fifth circle of hell is the internet! |
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The Sixth Circle of Hell - Clothes Shops |
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The sixth circle of hell is actually assigned to heretics. A heretic is defined by Chambers as "someone who has views and opinions that conflict with those of the majority". From the designers who believe that there's no such thing as someone above a size 18, to the shop managers who believe that people want to buy swimwear in February, the people working in clothes shops seem to fit this description. Clothes are something that everyone (ish) wears everyday (ish) and purchasing them really shouldn't be the stuff epic poems are made of. |
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The Seventh Circle of Hell - Morning Commute on the Tube |
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The seventh circle of hell is home to the violent. While you may not consider yourself a violent person, by the time you've finally arrived at work following your morning commute you'll be wishing all kinds of violence on just about anyone that's crossed your path. |
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The Eigth Circle of Hell - Tabloids |
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The eighth circle of hell is home to the fraudulent, "those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil". At first I thought I was being a little harsh on tabloids, but having looked at The Daily Mail, Metro, London Lite and the Evening Standard as research for this, I feel quite vindicated. Dante divides his eight circle into ten bolgie (ditches) allocating charming individual punishments to each of the various types of evil doer. |
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The Ninth Circle of Hell - Customer Service Lines |
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We reach the innermost circle of hell, a space assigned to those who have betrayed people are close to. The traitors are punished by being buried in a frozen lake, the depth varying according to the severity of the betrayal, with Satan living at the very centre. To this region I am condemning all those companies that betray those they should in fact be thinking of above all others, their customers. How better to exemplify that then by labelling customer service lines as the 9th circle of hell. |
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