The Desert - Revision history

Old Dickens: "leave", I think

2022-04-11T01:04:23Z

"leave", I think

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:04, 11 April 2022
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	*[[Vorbis]] - for all his bluster and self-confidence - was too scared to walk it alone. One hundred human years later [[Brutha]] forgave and helped him ({{SG}}). And human years have no relevance. Vorbis may well have been there for eternity, trapped by his own revealed self-knowledge, and have been too frightened to face the judgment he expected.		*[[Vorbis]] - for all his bluster and self-confidence - was too scared to walk it alone. One hundred human years later [[Brutha]] forgave and helped him ({{SG}}). And human years have no relevance. Vorbis may well have been there for eternity, trapped by his own revealed self-knowledge, and have been too frightened to face the judgment he expected.
	*[[Anghammarad]] didn't want to ~~walk~~ the desert because in it he found perfect peace away from orders and commands. He was - finally - free, and he just wanted to stay ({{GP}}).		*[[Anghammarad]] didn't want to leave the desert because in it he found perfect peace away from orders and commands. He was - finally - free, and he just wanted to stay ({{GP}}).
	*[[Tiffany Aching]] took the [[Hiver]] to The Desert and set it free ({{HFOS}}). She escaped thanks to Granny Weatherwax.		*[[Tiffany Aching]] took the [[Hiver]] to The Desert and set it free ({{HFOS}}). She escaped thanks to Granny Weatherwax.
	*[[Granny Weatherwax]] - and many of the [[Witches\|witches]] - have been here before, to help others shuffle off their mortal coils, and have found their way back.		*[[Granny Weatherwax]] - and many of the [[Witches\|witches]] - have been here before, to help others shuffle off their mortal coils, and have found their way back.

Bs75660: Grammatical improvement

2013-04-13T12:04:25Z

Grammatical improvement

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:04, 13 April 2013
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	In other books, though (notably {{E}}), everybody seems to be in Hell (which also seems to be a corporeal place) after death. And in others there seem to be parallel dimensions where people in between exist: ghostly netherworlds, such as those inhabited by [[One-Man-Bucket]].		In other books, though (notably {{E}}), everybody seems to be in Hell (which also seems to be a corporeal place) after death. And in others there seem to be parallel dimensions where people in between exist: ghostly netherworlds, such as those inhabited by [[One-Man-Bucket]].

	And ~~in {{M!!!}},~~ what of the rat-catcher [[Pounder]] ~~and~~ in {{SM}} to [[Mr. Clete]], who on ~~his~~ death ~~does~~ not go to the Desert at all: ~~the~~ [[Death of Rats]] gleefully leads ~~him~~ to the revolving door marked ''Serially Reincarnate as Rat until further notice''?		And what of the rat-catcher [[Pounder]] in {{M!!!}} and [[Mr. Clete]] in {{SM}} , who on their death do not go to the Desert at all: The [[Death of Rats]] gleefully leads them to the revolving door marked ''Serially Reincarnate as Rat until further notice''?

	Warriors still bypass the Desert and go to [[Valhalla]] ( as seen in {{SM}}, {{IT}} and {{TLH}}), while the crew of the ship wantonly wrecked by [[Vorbis]] in {{SG}} proceed to sail a nautical equivalent of the Desert for all eternity.		Warriors still bypass the Desert and go to [[Valhalla]] ( as seen in {{SM}}, {{IT}} and {{TLH}}), while the crew of the ship wantonly wrecked by [[Vorbis]] in {{SG}} proceed to sail a nautical equivalent of the Desert for all eternity.

Osiris: 1 revision: Discworld import 2

2012-09-24T00:13:57Z

1 revision: Discworld import 2

← Older revision	Revision as of 00:13, 24 September 2012
(No difference)

Confusion at 01:09, 3 December 2011

2011-12-03T01:09:01Z

New page

The Desert is what each mortal soul must traverse after death. No-one knows what's at the end - and [[Death]] isn't saying, if he indeed knows. After all, he has never, in-fact, died. It would be immensely fascinating to find out what TP believes ''is'' over the desert, past the distant mountains.

The one tantalising clue that is left in a few of the books is that you get what you think you deserve. So [[Valhalla]] is available to [[Barbarian heroes]], paradise awaits [[Klatch|Klatchians]] and so on and so forth.

This seems to negate the possibility of a [[Hell]] or hells, although [[Rob Anybody|Rob Anybody Mac Feegle]] insists they've been to a few such places (and through various versions of [[Limbo|limbo]] too [so called - hilariously - because the door in was verrae low, ye ken?]). It seems that if you think you deserve hell you'll get it. Deeply unfairly, the only people who ever think they deserve hell are those poor worried souls who have always tried to do good and have always been meek but are afraid all their lives that they haven't done well enough. However fair this is, or seems, {{Death|There is no justice. There's just Me.}}
In other books, though (notably {{E}}), everybody seems to be in Hell (which also seems to be a corporeal place) after death. And in others there seem to be parallel dimensions where people in between exist: ghostly netherworlds, such as those inhabited by [[One-Man-Bucket]].

And in {{M!!!}}, what of the rat-catcher [[Pounder]] and in {{SM}} to [[Mr. Clete]], who on his death does not go to the Desert at all: the [[Death of Rats]] gleefully leads him to the revolving door marked ''Serially Reincarnate as Rat until further notice''?

Warriors still bypass the Desert and go to [[Valhalla]] ( as seen in {{SM}}, {{IT}} and {{TLH}}), while the crew of the ship wantonly wrecked by [[Vorbis]] in {{SG}} proceed to sail a nautical equivalent of the Desert for all eternity.

The possibility is there that this is the "default" afterlife for those who in life had no religious conviction, nor a religio-cultural inner picture of what form the Afterlife would take.

The Desert is of greyish-black sand, which fountains slowly through the air when disturbed. At the far end are distant mountains, under a starless sky. Everyone must walk it alone.

==Notable visits to The Desert==

*[[Vorbis]] - for all his bluster and self-confidence - was too scared to walk it alone. One hundred human years later [[Brutha]] forgave and helped him ({{SG}}). And human years have no relevance. Vorbis may well have been there for eternity, trapped by his own revealed self-knowledge, and have been too frightened to face the judgment he expected.
*[[Anghammarad]] didn't want to walk the desert because in it he found perfect peace away from orders and commands. He was - finally - free, and he just wanted to stay ({{GP}}).
*[[Tiffany Aching]] took the [[Hiver]] to The Desert and set it free ({{HFOS}}). She escaped thanks to Granny Weatherwax.
*[[Granny Weatherwax]] - and many of the [[Witches|witches]] - have been here before, to help others shuffle off their mortal coils, and have found their way back.
*[[Lord Hong]] - While his visit is not shown, it is mentioned that his desert contains a lot of angry ghosts, and that every person's desert is of varying distance.

== Annotation ==

''I have to walk that lonesome valley/I have to walk it all alone'' These are lines from a fundamentalist Christian hymn which occur in the book (the word "valley" in the original becomes "Desert" on the Discworld, though) when Brutha has to confront the idea of walking through the Desert (both on the physical Discworld and when ushered by Death into the Afterlife). It's certainly popular: a lyrics site lists sixty different recordings, perhaps the most prominent of which was by Elvis Presley:-[http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/Jesus-Walked-That-Lonesome-Valley-lyrics-Elvis-Presley/E0768A015892B53F482568740035BEA5]

In Robert Anton Wilson's '''''Illuminatus!''''' trilogy, the same verse of the same hymn is used when two of the principal characters are forced to question, challenge, and finally reject the Christian orthodoxy they have been brought up to believe in. Like Brutha, both Robert Putney Drake (villain) and Hagbard Celine (anti-hero) experience the absolute loneliness of being leaders, responsible not just for themselves but for the fortunes of others. Drake, like Vorbis, ends up in a Hell of his own making, while Celine finds a sort of inner peace based on his philosophy of "Think for yourself, schmuck!" - not a million miles away from the philosophy into which Brutha steers Omnianism.

[[Category:Discworld concepts|Desert,The]]