Since Stephen’s newest novella, Urban Gothic was just released at the beginning of March, I was asked to re-publish this post (not by Stephen or Kyanite Press, but by others who are interested in his writing). I have a copy of Urban Gothic and plan to do a full review at the end of March. Stay tuned. But for now, here is my review of his short story…
Two things came to mind as I began to read Stephen Coghlan’s: Last Ride of the Inferno Train from the Kyanite Press Winter Digest
https://kyanitepublishing.com/product/kyanitepresswinterdigest18/
“I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.” -J Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita
John Fogerty-Train of Fools
This train left the station
Quarter past midnight
A hundred souls taking their last ride
Each of them a traveler
Drifting through this life
Silent shadows passing in the night
Ride ride ride train of fools
One will take a journey
With eyes that cannot see
Nothing’s gonna get to him today
One will use her beauty
And take just what she please
She’ll lose it all when beauty fades away
Ride ride ride train of fools
Ride ride ride train of fools
One will be a rich man
At least that’s what he’ll say
Waste his life chasing after gold
One will be addicted
Chained to the devils cross
That one’s gonna die before he’s old
Ride ride ride
Train of fools
This one is a victim
A lost and broken child
Soon enough he’ll be a man to hate
And those that point the finger
We’ll also share the blame
No one leaves this train judgment day
Ride ride ride train of fools
Ride ride ride train of fools
Rather than a fairytale, Stephen Coghlan’s: The Last Ride of the Inferno Train, is a unique cross-section of Christian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Modern Mythologies. My quote at the beginning may not make much sense at the moment, but it will as the reader travels on the Coghlan’s Inferno Train. The last train bringing the souls of the damned into hell after the destruction of the earth and mankind.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!
The first gates of the inferno, Dante’s Divine Comedy
http://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-dantes-divine-comedy-84603
Coghlan does an excellent job of modernizing Dante’s Divine Comedy as we ride this nightmare train with the character the conductor, Charon has dubbed “Mr. VIP.” For those who have never read the Divine Comedy, I will give a basic summary of the Nine levels of Hell below
The train leaves Acheron Station, after having to wait for more cars, and makes the steep descent into the bowels of hell. In contrast to Alighieri’s Comedy, where the Poet Virgil is the guide through hell, he chooses Charon, a figure from Greek mythology to be the conductor of the train. Either way, it is interesting that a highly Christian text would choose non-Christian figures as guides for sinners into the underworld.
In traditional mythology, coins are used to pay the ferryman for passage to the underworld, else the soul is doomed to wander the earthy side of Acheron for eternity as a ghost. Coglan twists the tale here. Instead, Charon reaches in and rips out the heart of each passenger determining which stop the passenger must alight (or be plucked). This is a nod to Egyptian Mythology and the weighing of the heart by Anubis in the underworld.
In Egyptian mythology, when you died, you passed through the hall of Maat. Anubis weighed your heart against a feather while Ammut (with the head of a crocodile) stood by watching. If it was light, you passed. If it was heavy from the sins of your life, Ammut swooped in and gobbled up your soul.
https://egypt.mrdonn.org/weighingheart.html
As previously mentioned, Coghlan paints a dark and vivid picture of the nine levels of hell as witness by our narrator, Mr. VIP. I highly enjoyed the modern twists and gut-wrenching descriptions of Coglan’s version of hell. I included a link and a summary of the general description of the nine circles (levels) of hell.
https://bigthink.com/tatiana-kiryuhina/dantes-the-divine-comedy-images-of-the-9-circles-of-hell
- 1st Limbo-Unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians
- 2nd Lustful
- 3rd Gluttony
- 4th Greed
- 5th Wrath
- 6th Heresy
- 7th Violence
- 8th Fraudulent
- 9th Traitors, Betrayers, Mutineers
In addition to his descriptions, Coghlan’s use of dark and snarky humor on the part of Charon I found highly entertaining.
“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!” A woman near the back of the car starts saying.
Charon sneers, “Now, now, it’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
But as the train finally derails in the lowest level of hell, Charon takes the arm of our narrator, guiding him towards his ultimate fate. Why was he special? Why was this the LAST ride of the train?
Above all, I hear the conductor sigh, “Well it’s retirement for me, whatever will I do with myself?”
Humanity has ended, on the slope down into hell, this train passed the forest of the suicides without stopping. Why? No one on the train perished by their own hand. One man was responsible, our narrator. He unleashed the ultimate weapon, the one we all dread, The firebomb that destroyed the world.
This has special meaning to me, having studied physics extensively and worked in the nuclear field on the power side of things. Reading about the Manhattan Project and the scientists who created the atomic bomb, their humility, fear and sometimes loathing at what they had done humbles me. These were some of the brightest minds not only of the time, but possibly ever assembled. They created this monster, this ultimate Frankenstein because they felt they had to. They knew that the Nazi’s had just as capable and brilliant scientists and the race was on to see who could get it first. It is truly terrifying to realize how close we came to losing the race. But then, like the creatures in Pandora’s box, once opened it cannot be merely forgotten and put back away where no one can access it. In a terrifying twist, it is not the brilliant minds who created it, who understand the power of what they have done that control this weapon. It is now the politicians and the warmongers, fingers twitching for more power. Eager to threaten to hit the button, not understanding the magnitude of what can be unleashed.
I have included the interview of J Robert
Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac
And this link to an article on Oppenheimer and the context of his words in this video.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer
“In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humour, no overstatements can quite extinguish,” he said two years after the Trinity explosion, “the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.” – J Robert Oppenheimer
At the end I have to ask myself, what is worse? The leaders eager for more power? Or we the people, who sit by indifferent and give it to them, thinking the responsibility for the consequences are someone else’s problem.
A fantastic and thought provoking read. I can’t wait to dig into some of his other work. I have included a link to his website below.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy reading his story.
