My thoughts on the Metaphysics of S3

I think that arguing that the planets Water and Fire are not Heaven and Hell is interesting, but ultimately wrong-headed. I mean, if the Beans did not intend the two planets to be seen as representations of the two afterlife destinations, they wouldn’t have titled the concluding episode of Season 3 “Heaven and Hell.” If you wanted to take a post-modern stance and argue that the intent of the artist is of no consequence, and that it’s the viewer’s interpretation that is paramount, then you could make the point, but I think it’s fairly clear what the Beans’ intentions were. I think that their actual and more detailed intent, though, was not to make a literal translation of what most religions believe the afterlife to be, but to give their own take on the subject.

Now, as I’ve said before, Heaven is *not* a place of everlasting joy and absence of stress. If that were the case, then there would never have been an uprising against the throne, and Lucifer would have never been cast out. As this was, according to the mythology, a great war, we can assume that casualties were heavy on both sides. Pain was inflicted, angels were killed, bad stuff went down. This war between the planes dovetails nicely with the eternal war between Fire and Water. As it can be said that there is an eternal struggle between good and evil, it stands to reason that an eternal struggle between Fire and Water would take place (and the “reincarnation” bit makes sense there as well…if someone there gets “killed,” they return in roughly the same place they were before). Prince is able to approach (though we never see him land, we can assume that he *can* set foot there) water in the same way that Satan is able to confer with YHVH from time to time. For instance, Satan approaches YHVH regarding the Job situation, and his malleable nature allows for things like this to take place (I mean, for a while, he’s YHVH’s henchman and doing his dirty work, then he’s imprisoned in Hell, then he’s able to come to Earth whenever he wants in whatever form he chooses, etc.).
As for Hogtown, it could be that it’s not the adjucationists’ punishment that we’re looking at, but those subject *to* the adjucation. It’s Hell for those who hate the Department of Motor Vehicles or visiting their insurance agency. The adjucationists are the *administrators* of the punishment, much in the way that Prince is (though they’d be subservient to Prince, like Azazel or Beelzebub is to Satan).
As for the statements about Prince judging people, or sending Stan to Fire, as well as the question of the presence of “mistakes” in placement (the Girls of Girltown and Fifi in Gametown), here’s my take: Prince doesn’t judge anyone. In the cosmology of Season 3, there is no supreme judge aside from one’s own self. Prince merely acts as a prosecuting attorney. If the subject believes (as Stan ultimately did) that he or she was deserving only of punishment, then they were placed on Fire. The Girls may have concealed some self-loathing regarding themselves, believing themselves to be guilty of violating some sin, while Schlemmi may have been completely convinced of his own righteousness and was able to convince himself (in white) that he belonged on Water. In this way, it’s like the depiction of Hell in Neil Gaiman’s [i]Sandman[/i] comics: Hell exists for those who believe in it, and those who believe that they belong there are damned (and Heaven isn’t painted that prettily either, now that I think about it).
Now, about Water, there isn’t a God figure because the Beans may believe that a true paradise doesn’t require supervision (I mean, really, why would it?). All of the needs of the denizens are provided by people whose love is to provide those needs, and if they’re killed, they come back in paradise again with no memory of being killed. The residents of Garden love to, well, garden. Those in Gametown love to play. Those in Boomtown love to…well…you get the picture. Sure, they face threats, but in this cosmology (and taking into account the Great War), it makes some kind of sense.

Anyway, just random rambling now that I’m back from vacation.

–Aleck