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A hellscape is a harsh environment, an unpleasant place, or a scene thought to resemble hell. A depiction of hell in a work of art is called a hellscape."hellscape, n.". OED Online. December 2020. Oxford University Press.
The earliest known use of the term in print was in 1894.
Security robots break up homeless camps
Japan Sends Robot Into the Nuclear Hell of the Fukushima Reactor
Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they’ll share anything that confirms it
Nuclear winter in Beijing
If America becomes a dystopian hellscape, it might look like this
The Architects of Our Digital Hellscape Are Very Sorry
Astronomers discover hellscape planet that rains rocks, has lava seas
A Youtube video, ''Heroin Hellscape in Kensington, Philadelphia''
''Opinion: On the ground in Philly’s heroin scene''
Hell
A hellscape is a harsh environment, an unpleasant place, or a scene thought to resemble hell. A depiction of hell in a work of art is called a hellscape."hellscape, n.". OED Online. December 2020. Oxford University Press.
The earliest known use of the term in print was in 1894.
In real life
Writers have sometimes described wartime environments as hellscapes, and after theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
, the cities were defined as such by its survivors. Writers have also used ''hellscape'' to describe the scene of a natural disaster such as a drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
, plague, flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
, or wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
. Projections of the consequences of global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes ...
have been described by journalists as hellscapes.
The usage of recreational drugs such as heroin has been described by its users as creating hellscapes.
In the tech press, journalists have defined Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the ...
as a hellscape. Some have specluated the replacing of human labor with intelligent robots could lead to a future hellscape, as well as child sex doll
A sex doll (also love doll, fuck doll or blowup doll) is a type of anthropomorphic sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner. The sex doll may consist of an entire body, or just a head, pelvis, or other body part (vagina, anus, mouth, pe ...
s.
'' Vox'' wrote that postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
philosophers have predicted a post-truth hellscape.
In October 2022, after purchasing Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
stated that it couldn't become "a free-for-all hellscape".
In movies
In movies, depictions of hellscapes are common. ''Apocalypse Now
''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph C ...
'' depicts earthly hellscapes, during war. Other notable examples in cinema include '' Blade Runner 2049,'' '' Alien,'' '' Mad Max: Fury Road'', as well as all of the '' Mad Max'' series.
In art
Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...
's '' The Last Judgement'' depicts a religious hellscape. Other examples are Jan van Eyck's ''Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych
The ''Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych'' (or ''Diptych with Calvary and Last Judgement'')Vermij et al., 362 consists of two small painted panels attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, with areas finished by unidenti ...
'', and Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscapes and peas ...
's '' Dull Gret''.
In literature
Dante Alighieri's
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...
'' Inferno'' is one of the best-known examples of a hellscape. '' The Great Gatsby'' depicts the "Valley of the Ashes" as a hellscape.
In video games
A number ofvideo games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedb ...
depict hellscapes, including '' Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice''.
References
External links
{{wiktionary, hellscapeSecurity robots break up homeless camps
Japan Sends Robot Into the Nuclear Hell of the Fukushima Reactor
Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they’ll share anything that confirms it
Nuclear winter in Beijing
If America becomes a dystopian hellscape, it might look like this
The Architects of Our Digital Hellscape Are Very Sorry
Astronomers discover hellscape planet that rains rocks, has lava seas
A Youtube video, ''Heroin Hellscape in Kensington, Philadelphia''
''Opinion: On the ground in Philly’s heroin scene''
Hell