# Digest urth.v005.n042 *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 02 Nov 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Paul C Duggan *02 Nov 1997, 17:30* >> observation, after reading Cordwainer Smith's "A Planet Named Shayol," >> that where at one time people wrote gory descriptions of Hell with the >> purpose of putting a genuine fear of God into people, several modern >> science fiction writers have written gory stories about Hell with the >> (seemingly intended) effect of making the reader say, "surely this cannot >> be." > Who else? I'm curious. Niven's "Inferno"? "I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, | paul + | + elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I | --|-- have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die." | + | + -- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy | pduggan at world.std.com --- ### Michael Straight *03 Nov 1997, 08:32 · follows Paul C Duggan* > On Sun, 2 Nov 1997, Paul C Duggan wrote: > > [Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works] >>> observation, after reading Cordwainer Smith's "A Planet Named Shayol," >>> that where at one time people wrote gory descriptions of Hell with the >>> purpose of putting a genuine fear of God into people, several modern >>> science fiction writers have written gory stories about Hell with the >>> (seemingly intended) effect of making the reader say, "surely this cannot >>> be." >> Who else? I'm curious. > Niven's "Inferno"? Arguably, Harlan Elison's "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" can be read this way. -Rostrum ---