24 June 2008
h is for hell
[my, these objects are cheery. Instead of a golden, humanist organ beaming rays of hope to the world, anyone would think I had a dead, shrivelled rat for a heart]
This woman is burning in hell as part of an extended Nativity scene. I bought her in Naples, but her head fell off a couple of years ago. She is a presepe, a curious combination of Catholicism, animism and craft that demonstrates just what is up with both demented forms of religion and representation in general. Of course, for slightly pasty Northern Europeans (particularly those apparently allergic to the sun), Naples is a deeply alarming place, filled with skull-heads on posts and kitschy death on every corner. It's a far cry from the disinfected passing aways and the quiet phone-call of puritan finitude.
Whilst most precepi are characters from the Nativity, many are more secular icons: politicians, celebrities. The woman burning in hell (has she committed fornication? And/or used a condom? Forgotten to thank her Mother-in-Law for the pasta she made?) is clearly not someone you would shove next to the Baby Jesus in a touching celebration of the virgin birth. Figures like this one appear in little glass boxes around Naples, usually accompanied by burning Priests, who have presumably been very, very bad indeed.
I am always amused and impressed by the optimism of the human spirit when I read that more people believe in heaven than believe in hell. Does anyone these days think they are destined for an eternity of sulphur-showers and being eaten by devil-worms? Cinema's obsession with apocalypse might indicate that whatever 'hell' is, it'll probably be brought on by us rather than waiting there for us, which would make us all Horseman trying to mount our own backs.
