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A hellscape is a harsh environment, an unpleasant place, or a scene thought to resemble
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
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict 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
A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econ ...
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
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
, 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 change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
have been described by journalists as hellscapes.
The usage of recreational drugs such as heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and bro ...
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 '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
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 dolls.
'' Vox'' wrote that postmodern philosophers have predicted a post-truth
Post-truth is a term that refers to the 21st century widespread documentation of and concern about disputes over public truth claims.
The term's academic development refers to the theories and research that explain the historically specific cause ...
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 B ...
stated that it couldn't become "a free-for-all hellscape".
In movies
Inmovies
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
, depictions of hellscapes are common.
'' Apocalypse Now'' depicts earthly hellscapes, during war. Other notable examples in cinema include ''Blade Runner 2049
''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. A sequel to the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'', the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, ...
,'' ''Alien
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
,'' '' Mad Max: Fury Road'', as well as all of the '' Mad Max'' series.
In art
Hieronymus Bosch's '' The Last Judgement'' depicts a religious hellscape. Other examples areJan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. A ...
's '' Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych'', and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's '' Dull Gret''.
In literature
Dante Alighieri's '' 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 feedbac ...
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