13 KiB
Unsong Chapter 72: And Builds A Heaven In Hell’s Despair
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Author: u/Fredlage *
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URL: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-72-and-builds-a-heaven-in-hells-despair/
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Score: 123
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Created: 2017-05-15T00:13:34
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+43] *
That was quite possibly the weirdest piece of fiction I have ever read. And it was sort of perfect, in that. It managed to move me, atheist of atheist, materialist of materialist, to something of a religious exultation. Insofar as the context of fiction considered I can say: "The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him"
u/NotACauldronAgent [+37] Probably*
My opinion of Jewish/biblical mysticism went from that weird thing that Newton did to accidentally saying Aleph instead of Alpha in physics class and confusing all my Jewish classmates, and pressing people to connect Elvis to a sparrow for my crack Elvis=Other King theory.
u/None [+25] *
In English, I was reading a book that referenced Kabbalah, and I started mumbling under my breath uncontrollably. After class I was asked what I was saying by the teacher, and went on a two minute rant about the kabbalistic connection between kings and fools until she gave me a rather pleading look to stop.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+8] Probably*
It has, however, made it impossible for me to spell Kabbalah Qabalah. It seems so wrong now, for some reason.
u/gwern [+3] *
We just need to find a way to tie in Islam, then we can do proper Qaabalah (or should that be Ka'abalah?).
u/None [+8] *
There are some seals you do not breach. For example, the spelling debate about a certain Islamic holy book.
u/gwern [+27] *
I don't follow. Seals breach themselves all the time, just like porpoises or whales.
u/None [+10] *
I can't decide whether or not my desire to respond, "Well join the club" reflects poorly on my character.
u/swaskowi [+4] *
My Inuition says yes.
u/Blackdutchie [+7] *
SEALs are trained extensively for breaching, as opposed to whales, who come pre-loaded with breaching knowledge as well as underwater transport functionality.
u/saitselkis [+6] *
You're not supposed to breach them on porpoise.
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+14] *
What, the Cirronn?
u/None [+9] *
That appears to be an entirely new spelling, unattested in any language in any context that I can find, in my admittedly brief search. You win.
u/None [+14] *
Rearranging Presley gets you PSER LEY. PSER is of course Latin passer meaning sparrow. (Thanks Catullus!) LEY is the hard part, but the etymology of "lye" yields Old English leag. The Modern English "league" is phonetically similar. The archaic Japanese measurement sometimes called a "league", the ri, was 2.44 miles. 244 = 144 + 100. 100 = 10^2. 10 is the number of God's law, so 100 is God's Law multiplied by itself. 144 is a number that means a great multitude. Therefore the name "Presley," means a "sparrow who twists a great multitude of the Law back unto itself."
u/None [+10] *
[deleted]
u/None [+5] *
Ah! Good catch! That would have saved me 10 minutes of effort. I could have connected that to the idea of monuments, which of course stand as the last remnants of previous greatness.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+2] Probably*
Nice! Too bad it's gone now. Best theory lives on in my heart.
u/None [+6] *
u/NotACauldronAgent [+2] Probably*
[tag] (#s "All your dreams are true thanks to the power of what basically amounts to Multiverse Theory!")
u/None [+5] *
u/NotACauldronAgent [+6] Probably*
I like it! A motto to live by, except for the fact that it doesn't help here, so ends up being a platitude instead. I feel inspired.
u/avret [+19] SDHS rationalist*
Ugh. I mean, it was good, but anticlimactic. Also, does this mean Aaron's character arc just doesn't get a satisfying conclusion? Ana's did! TCK did! Sohu even got a crowning moment of awesome!
u/TK17Studios [+11] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning*
Yeah, this. It pretty strongly fails as a conclusion, in my opinion. It's also not very strong as a chapter? Zips too fast past moments that ought to have some weight to them? Like, even if you want to show things happening very quickly, you can still linger on impact, emotion, inner monologue, etc. Generally speaking, you want the climax to feel "worth" the words spent on it, and this was too little for me. I think it was nowhere near the high-quality-water-mark of the story overall.
u/avret [+6] SDHS rationalist*
Also, the last chapter basically all but ended with 'THIS NEXT BIT IS GONNA BE REAL COOL GUYS. TRUST ME I'M METATRON.' I.e. the author massively flashing climax lights at us, and this chapter did not live up to that.
u/himself_v [+2] *
What about the notebook :'(
u/ItsHalliday [+37] *
Whale, it's all over now. Edit: Fixed my most terrible of mistakes
u/gwern [+24] *
As with all long-running series, I feel hollow and devoid of porpoise at the killer fin.
u/None [+6] *
As far as endings go, I am happy that this is one that fulfilled the promise of the first chapter. Literary criticism is hardly my cetacean in life, but UNSONG will be fun to dissect for a long time hence.
u/GrecklePrime [+10] *
Whale, it's all over now. Fixed that for you, can't believe you forgot.
u/awesomeideas [+4] Dai stiho, cousin.*
It'll be over on hump(back) day.
u/waylandertheslayer [+17] *
I watched the live stream of this on Youtube and it was pretty good. Link to the video, starting at the pre-reading rendition of 'HaMephorash'. It's a shame the story's over, but on the other hand of course it was going to have 72 chapters.
u/None [+2] *
Thank you! I was looking for this earlier.
u/everything-narrative [+16] Coral, Abide with Rubicon!*
TREEITMTWCTSGSWRPWFBTWEACTBOSCTSBISCSBAHTCTTSCEURTWWASOGSWWIMIBSBGONTIOS
u/himself_v [+20] *
God's name reads like a bitcoin wallet private key.
u/waylandertheslayer [+19] *
That's fitting, since they're both about hidden value and power.
u/VivaLaPandaReddit [+3] *
But God is one, and cryptocurrencies are many.
u/waylandertheslayer [+3] *
God is a metaphor for cryptocurrency, but he's a metaphor for everything. That's the kaballah. Obviously cryptocurrencies aren't literally god, because only God can be God. God is one.
u/TheUtilitaria [+13] *
“God is One and His Name is One. God is One with His Name. People always say God isn’t a person, but then what is He? To me, He’s always been a sort of logical necessity. The necessity for everything in the cosmos to be as good as possible. Understand goodness and you understand God. Understand God and you understand His Name. Understand the Name and you can remake the world. That’s the kabbalah. The rest is just commentary. Excruciating, unbearable commentary that kills everyone you love.”
The final proof of God's omnipotence is that he doesn't have to exist in order to save everyone. And in the end, it turned out that God wasn't really aware at all, 'he's' just the abstract principle that whatever is best, must exist. Also known as Axiarchism. It is actually a legitimate position in non-religious metaphysics. All the instances of 'God' speaking were Metatron, who is just a more good aspect of our particular universe. If we call God a conscious being who created our universe by an act of will, in Unsong there is no God.
u/Arancaytar [+10] *
The final proof of God's omnipotence is that he doesn't have to exist in order to save everyone. (Also referenced here: http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/21/repost-the-demiurges-older-brother/ )
u/FeepingCreature [+5] GCV Literally The Entire Culture*
To be a conscious being and behold the horror of what one has to do to maximize goodness would be excruciating. As a result, a conscious omnibenevolent God is an contradiction - if He was omnibenevolent, He'd lobotomize Himself.
u/GlimmervoidG [+2] *
But No God is like Nogod which is like nougat. Nougat goes inside chocolate as a filling. Chocolate is sweet and can there for stand as a metaphor for goodness. The universe is good - see happiness maximizer god. There for the universe is filled with Nougat and hence God. The universe is in the shape of man and man is in the shape of the universe, so man is also filled with God. Hence, by there being no God, there is in fact a God within each of us.
u/themousehunter [+18] Sunshine Regiment*
This is kind of over-whale-ming. Must re-read.
u/Frommerman [+6] *
All good things must come to an end.
u/itisike [+22] Dragon Army*
as a corollary, the only way to live forever is by becoming evil
u/NotACauldronAgent [+8] Probably*
I feel like there is some flaw to this, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. Very well, carry on.
u/Slapdash17 [+7] *
"All good things must come to an end" does not necessarily mean "things that are not good do not have to come to an end"
u/itisike [+19] Dragon Army*
Just as "the only way to live forever is by becoming evil" does not necessarily mean "becoming evil guarantees you will live forever "
u/None [+6] *
But it has beter priors
u/NotACauldronAgent [+3] Probably*
Shh, is a joke :) I do know that you are not allowed to deny the antecedent.
u/None [+3] *
I hope not.
u/itisike [+10] Dragon Army*
God is One and His Name is One. God is One with His Name. People always say God isn’t a person, but then what is He? To me, He’s always been a sort of logical necessity. The necessity for everything in the cosmos to be as good as possible. Understand goodness and you understand God. Understand God and you understand His Name. Understand the Name and you can remake the world. Only 71 words. Was it supposed to be 72?
u/MereInterest [+9] *
From chapter 71:
THE REASON EVIL EXISTS IS TO MAXIMIZE THE WHOLE COSMOS’ TOTAL SUM GOODNESS. SUPPOSE WE RANK POSSIBLE WORLDS FROM BEST TO WORST. EVEN AFTER CREATING THE BEST, ONE SHOULD CREATE THE SECOND-BEST, BECAUSE IT STILL CONTAINS SOME BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS. THEN CONTINUE THROUGH THE SERIES, CREATING EACH UNTIL REACHING THOSE WHERE WICKEDNESS AND SUFFERING OUTWEIGH GOOD. SOME WORLDS WILL INCLUDE MUCH INIQUITY BUT STILL BE GOOD ON NET. THIS IS ONE SUCH. Compare the first letter of each word to the first letter of each chapter, and then also to the letters listed in the lyrics for "haMephoresh".
u/itisike [+2] Dragon Army*
yes I know, but the wording around the above made it sound like it would be a coded version of the Name
u/None [+1] *
TCK speaking the Name on Earth would destroy the world, so presumably it is not.
u/None [+8] *
Don't forget to vote for Unsong on topwebfiction!
u/fljared [+3] United Federation of Planets*
Interesting effect of the morality in the story: You're morally fine with not doing anything good, since somewhere else someone would do that good for you in a different universe if you didn't. Universes only exist when they are morally good on the net; thus nothing you do can be a net bad, across the board, since you can never do something bad that has a net effect on the sum good in the universe. Thus, striving towards whatever is best for you is morally ok, since none of your actions can produce a net moral good anyways.
u/TK17Studios [+12] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning*
... except for the bit about, if you're X amount of evil, you've ruled out an entire swath of other universes from being possible at all that would be possible if you were X minus ε.