I just read Stephen L. Peck’s novella, A Short Stay in Hell. Soren Johansson, the main character, finds himself in Zoroastrian hell after mistakenly following the “wrong” religion his whole life (Mormonism).
This particular hell seems pretty tame compared to the fiery fantasies of Christianity. This hell is a huge library full of books. If you find the one with your life story in it, you get to leave.
Problem is, the library is so incredibly immense, it might as well be infinite.

There are so many possible letter combinations, just finding a book that makes sense could take eons.
That got me thinking about just how unprepared the human mind is to handle the concept of infinity. Even heaven would be torture if it was eternal – or so close to eternal as makes no difference.
I’m trying not to spoil the story, but let’s just say that hypothetically, you were alone in that scenario. How would you cope? Seems to me like you’d want to really lean into your imagination.
You’d create characters you could interact with. Over time they’d get more more elaborate. You’d make them unpredictable, because predictable is the last thing you’d want after a few billion years. Sooner or later you’d have a whole universe in your head.
Would those characters know you made them up? Are we a figment of somebody’s imagination?
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