Afterpants: Nether Regions pt 26 (Trope Episode)

The next Nether Region on wiki is Sheol. As I was reading about it, I thought about the idea of tropes and how (especially in stories) they can amusingly demonstrate ideas. So, this morning, I'm writing about the afterlife via tropes.

If you don't know what a trope is....

So we'll start with "The Underworld"

The 'trope' is that it is a place where people go when they die. There are many different types, heavens, hells, blah places, weird and wonderful places etc:

How do you get there? Usually...what's termed a "Psychopomp"

This is most often a supernatural being that either used to be human or has never been human. A Psychopomp is the guide to the underworld/afterlife etc...

(In the case of Spirited Away, the psychopomp is not a being, but a train)

Where is the Psychopomp taking you?

Well, most cultures have a set up wherein the dead person is "judged" in some way and their afterlife is determined by how they have lived their 'real' life.

There are some exceptions, obviously. The Ancient Egyptians believed that there WAS a judgement and trials etc...but...if one had the right spells and charms these could be avoided.

The Ancient Sumerians believed in an ethically ambivalent underworld called the Kur.

In Fiji, there were several trials along the way, but instead of being judged by your ethicallity,

you were judged by whether you were married or had money.

Then, there's the super-trope of "Heaven" and "Hell"

And pretty much all Western (read: Christianized) countries know but for reference:

Heaven is a place where good ppl go when they die.

Hell is the opposite.

But there are, in both mythology and modern storytelling, exceptions to the trope.

This is because one persons heaven could be another person's hell.

There are in-between places such as Purgatory/Limbo or more non-descript places like the train station in Harry Potter.

How long will this last?

Well, it depends...for some religions...eternity...others...not so much.

Is there an after-afterlife? Yes...sometimes.

(Watch the Robot Chicken clip....super funny!)

What sort of creatures live in the underworld?

Again, it depends on what culture you're dealing with

and what story you're telling.

What about ghosts?

Well...in many belief systems there are such things as the undead.

but the interpretations are so varied and the reasons for "undeath" so multifarious

we can't go into all of them here...but do check out the link. It's quite nice.

What sort of underwear do the dead wear?

Well, we can't say for sure...some people believe that the dead are nekkid in general,

others believe they are basically wearing what they wore at their funeral,

in Asian cultures, they believe in offering all sorts of material objects (including undies) and burning them in effigy so that the dead can have the use of those objects in the afterlife!

As far as the afterlife in general is concerned...I donno...if you check out the other blog posts, you'll see a wide variety of underworlds but I will say that I personally believe in the underworld (as a general truth) and that the trope is just lovely. I will liken the trope to a pair of mid-rise, colored briefs from Uniqlo. They fit almost perfectly and everyone should own at least one pair.

Afterpants awards the TROPE of afterlife 5 out of 5 Hellbriefs.