This is not another book about the damning effects of climate change, but it does turn the heat up on our fragile souls. Doomed to eternal damnation are those who accede to an irrepressible calling to comprehend the incomprehensible, thus defying the dicta that cautions us to allow the sleeping dogs of hell to sleep undisturbed. Seymour Chwast and I decided to throw caution to the warm wind and take readers on a tour through the hottest places in the mind and spirit.
We call it Hell: The People and Places, and it is out today.
In devising this book, we, as Virgil, decided to take the perilous journey through a portal most dangerous—through the gates of hell. Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Inferno and dozens of other guides and manuals, secular and religious, we sought to find, if possible, how many underworlds exist or have existed in the extra-dimensional and intra-spiritual worlds that hold sway over body and mind. We accepted this mission with full acknowledgment of the possible consequences—of becoming forever imprisoned by Garm and Lucifer (or whatever one chooses to call the guardians of these many underworlds).
Like the universe, hell is infinite. Like a planet, hell nonetheless has shape and form. Hell is beyond comprehension—not all hell is the same. There are multiple hells that fit different demographics—different hells have different rituals. Not every sentient being (or thing?) perceives the exact same grand plan for an afterlife, although there are plenty of similarities between them all. Not all hells are hidden from view or covered in smoke and flame. Some are in full view, and admission is free.
Hell: The People and Places (PAPress) conceived and illustrated by Chwast, with words and sentences (and quoted) by me, is a sampler of these underworlds that emanate from the depth of humans’ fears and situate geographically in the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Our Hell is not a travelogue, but a mind map to realms no tourist should dare to go.
