velocity

Well, it serves a number of different purposes depending on who you ask. First off, what is it? Once one defines Hell for oneself, we are a step closer to determining its status.

For me, Hell is a necessary component of literature. I mean, where would we be without Milton's Hell? "Tis' better to rule . . .," you know that jazz, right? In this instance, Hell is not so much a mythical, socially constructed landscape, but a private landscape defined by one's absolute determination, the power of being able to say "I'm not taking your shit, I'll fight to the last breath before I submit." It is the best and the worst of being human.

Or, you could look to Dante, who argued something along the same point when he put Ulysses in Hell. If Christianity (for instance) has its way, nearly everyone that we look up to in the past as a heroic figure would most likely have their own room in Hell.

Oh hell, I could go on forever.

It amuses me that Milton started popping up in conversation all over the site right when I started reading Paradise Lost again...