Hope Heaven Blacked Work — Full Version

"You should not have come here," the woman said, her voice like a winter breeze. "Hope is a fragile thing, and it has been...blacked."

There is a second, more subversive reading of the phrase, found in the ambiguity of the word "Blacked." In certain contexts, to "black out" is to lose consciousness, to escape the pain of the present through a total erasure of memory. In this reading, "Hope Heaven Blacked" suggests a mercy. If the ascent to Heaven is denied, perhaps the only solace is the darkness. If Hope is a torture because its object (Heaven) is unreachable, then the extinguishing of that Hope—blacking it out—becomes a form of relief. It is the serenity of the stoic who no longer expects the sunrise, and therefore is no longer afraid of the night. Hope Heaven Blacked