Caelum est Conterrens: I frankly don't see how this is a horror story

chaosmage

So Eliezer said in his March 1st HPMOR progress report:

I recommend the recursive fanfic “Friendship is Optimal: Caelum est Conterrens” (Heaven Is Terrifying). This is the first and only effective horror novel I have ever read, since unlike Lovecraft, it contains things I actually find scary.

So I read that and it was certainly very much worth reading - thanks for the recommendation! Obviously, the following contains spoilers.

I'm confused about how the story is supposed to be "terrifying". I rarely find any fiction scary, but I suspect that this is about something else: I didn't think Failed Utopia #4-2 was "failed" either and in Three Worlds Collide, I thought the choice of the "Normal" ending made a lot more sense than choosing the "True" ending. The Optimalverse seems to me a fantastically fortunate universe, pretty much the best universe mammals could ever hope to end up in, and I honestly don't see how it is a horror novel, at all.

So, apparently there's something I'm not getting. Something that makes an individual's hard-to-define "free choice" more valuable than her much-easier-to-define happiness. Something like a paranoid schizophrenic's right not to be treated,

So I'd like the dumb version please. What's terrifying about the Optimalverse?

So Eliezer said in his March 1st HPMOR progress report:

I recommend the recursive fanfic “Friendship is Optimal: Caelum est Conterrens” (Heaven Is Terrifying). This is the first and only effective horror novel I have ever read, since unlike Lovecraft, it contains things I actually find scary.

So I read that and it was certainly very much worth reading - thanks for the recommendation! Obviously, the following contains spoilers.

So I'd like the dumb version please. What's terrifying about the Optimalverse?

(rot13) Nyvraf ner rvgure cbavsvrq be abg qrcraqvat ba jurgure fur erpbtavmrf gurz nf uhzna. Vg raqf jvgu ure svaqvat na rknzcyr bs nyvraf gung fur guvaxf ner uhzna, juvyr fgebatyl vzcylvat gung fur'f qrfgeblrq fbpvrgvrf jvgubhg rira abgvpvat ("Fur unq frra znal cynargf tvir bss pbzcyrk, aba-erthyne enqvb fvtanyf, ohg hcba vairfgvtngvba, abar bs gubfr cynargf unq uhzna yvsr, znxvat gurz fnsr gb erhfr nf enj zngrevny gb tebj Rdhrfgevn.")

That doesn't sound too terrible. There aren't that many aliens compared to ponies.

0ikrase13y

That sounds suspiciously like Mass Effect, in which the Reapers ner gur erfhyg bs n HSNV gung qrpvqrq gb znvagnva gur tnynkl naq fbyir gur ceboyrz bs (uhzna-yriry uhzna-yvxr) ebobg eroryyvbaf fhpu nf gur Trgu ol trabpvqvat nyy fcnprsnevat pvivyvmngvbaf rire 50X lrnef naq gura tebjvat vgf ahzoref ol hcybnqvat naq punatvat gur hgvyvgl shapgvbaf bs gur ivpgvzf, gura znxvat gurz vagb arj havgf.

0thescoundrel13y

If that's the case, then I stand by my original point, if not to its extreme conclusion.

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Caelum est Conterrens: I frankly don't see how this is a horror story

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Caelum est Conterrens: I frankly don't see how this is a horror story

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