Re: Corpses (WAS: Arabic article (was: Corpses))

At 07:35 PM 11/10/03 -0600, you wrote:
>Isidora Zamora wrote:
> > I need to fix that, but so far I haven't been able to come up
> > with any good ideas for a culture whose primary deity is locked in a
> > struggle with Death.  They believe that the Sun is more powerful than
> > Death...but surely they cannot have failed to have noticed that every
> > single human being ever born dies.  What would such a culture believe about
> > the afterlife?
>
>Perhaps it would be something similar to the Christian idea of
>salvation.  Those who worship the Sun do not truly die.  They're
>reincarnated, or they're brought to the Land of the Sun, a land of
>eternal light and goodness.  Or even closer to Christianity, there will
>be a Resurrection Day at some point in the future.
>
>Of course, those heathens who reject the Sun, they perish when their
>bodies die.
My husband has also suggested that the Nidirino might believe that the
afterlife is a better place, because, if it weren't, that would mean that
Death wins.  That would be a refreshing change from both  the Trehelish,
who have no hope and whose afterlife is definitely a worse place, and from
the Tovláugad/Cwendaso who are fairly clueless as to the nature of the
afterlife, because they were never given any instruction in what most
cultures would consider matters of basic cosmology.  (Yes, that last
sentence was said with at least a hint of sarcasm in the voice.)

Everything that the Nidirino natively worship is visible in the heavens, so
it is not inconceivable that they might believe that they go there, too,
when they die.

Sorry, but having just used the word "inconceivable" in the previous
paragraph, I am sitting here laughing and can't stop, because we rented
_The Princess Bride_ last night.  I'm even having a hard time not hearing
the word "inconceivable" pronounced with a slight lisp.  It's
inconceivable, but Blockbuster actually had that movie filed under "Action"
instead of "Comedy."  My husband's comment was that he had a hard time
thinking of _The Princess Bride_ and _Die Hard_ as belonging to the same genre.

And I just love the subject line on this thread.  We're really into coming
full circle today, aren't we?

Isidora


"That word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
Fezzik in _The Princess Bride_