Jan van Eyck Diptych Crucifixion Right Detail 1

A hellscape is a harsh environment, an unpleasant place, or a scene thought to resemble

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

. 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

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

time environments as hellscapes, and after the

atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civili ...

, 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 very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

such as a

drought A drought is a period of 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, ...

, plague,

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, 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 of significant con ...

, or

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

. Projections of the consequences of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

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 morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

has been described by its users as creating hellscapes. In the tech press, journalists have defined

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, 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 ...

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

as a hellscape. Some have speculated the replacing of human labor with

intelligent robot Cognitive Robotics or Cognitive Technology is a subfield of robotics concerned with endowing a robot with intelligent behavior by providing it with a processing architecture that will allow it to learn and reason about how to behave in response t ...

s could lead to a future hellscape, as well as child sex dolls. '' Vox'' wrote that

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

philosophers have predicted a

post-truth Post-truth is a term that refers to the widespread documentation of, and concern about, disputes over public truth claims in the 21st century. The term's academic development refers to the theories and research that seek to explain the specific cau ...

hellscape. In October 2022, after purchasing

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

stated that it couldn't become "a free-for-all hellscape".

In war

The

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

has a significant drone program called “Replicator” to counter China’s military mass and capabilities. This program aims to create many thousands of low-cost, highly autonomous drones for deployment by the

United States Indo-Pacific Command The United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) is the unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Pacific, Indo-Pacific region. It is the oldest and largest of the unified combatant commands. Lead ...

in the Indo-Pacific theater by 2025. “Hellscape” refers not to the program itself but to the complex and intensely contested battlespace environment that these drones are intended to navigate and dominate. The strategic intent is to enable U.S. forces to quickly identify and engage up to 1,000 targets within 24 hours using a network of land, air, and sea drones. These drones are designed to enhance the U.S.‘s operational flexibility and deter potential Chinese military actions, particularly regarding Taiwan’s security against a Chinese invasion force.

In movies

movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

, depictions of hellscapes are common. ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American psychological epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkn ...

'' depicts earthly hellscapes, during war. Other notable examples in cinema include ''

Blade Runner 2049 ''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American Epic film, epic neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green (writer), Michael Green, based on a story by Fancher. A sequel to ''Blade ...

,'' '' Alien,'' '' Mad Max: Fury Road'', as well as all of the ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...

'' series.

In art

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter from Duchy of Brabant, Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, gene ...

's '' The Last Judgement'' depicts a religious hellscape. Other examples are

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish 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 Nort ...

'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 painting, Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, with ...

'', and

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...

's '' Dull Gret''.

In literature

Dante Alighieri's ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1980 film), an Italian ...

'' is one of the best-known examples of a hellscape. ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'' depicts the "Valley of the Ashes" as a hellscape.

In video games

A number of

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

depict hellscapes, including '' Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice''.

References

External links

{{wiktionary, hellscape
‘Hellscape’: DOD launches massive drone swarm program to counter China

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