The Truly Good Place: A Fan-Fiction Tribute to The Good Place
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Notes: NBC's The Good Place, which ran from 2016 to 2020, is one of my all-time favorite shows. It's deeply engaging, funny, and touching. The characters are beautifully written and fleshed out, and the plot is tight, easy to follow, and has found a worldwide audience.
That said, the show was plagued by a profound structural cynicism that came to a jarring head at the series' concluding episode, one that apparently negatively affected many people, some quite seriously. I can understand why. I was spared that negativity by an act of rebellion deep, deep inside myself, one that I didn't consciously inspire. It gifted me a different way of interpreting the ending, one that eventually inspired this fan-fiction effort.
My spouse, Kye, wasn't so lucky. For weeks afterward, she groused about the ending. We often ended up in deep philosophical discussions regarding it.
Part of the show's writing team included two genuine Ph.D. philosophers, both materialists. Materialists don't believe in an afterlife. Materialists don't believe in the soul, or the self, or God. They don't believe consciousness exists. Some even want the word "imagination" outlawed. I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.
What the hell, you might ask, pun entirely intended, were materialists staffed as writers and consultants on a show about the afterlife? That's a great question. Their presence, as well as, I'm sure, the underlying philosophies of the actual writing staff, came into shocking relief with the series' conclusion.
Well, says I, I'm not going to just sit here and let a bunch of materialists tell me how things are! No sir! Hence the fan fiction, which starts below and runs ... I have no idea how many chapters it's going to run. I just know I'm going to have a great deal of fun writing and editing it. It's going to be my answer to that admittedly very moving but--and let's be honest here--pathetic and teleologically absurd ending.
I hope you enjoy it.
~~*~~
Synopsis: Eleanor Shellstrop is supposed to be dead. No, doubly dead. She died on Earth, went to what she was told was the Good Place, went through all sorts of bullshirt with her new friends as they found out it wasn't the Good Place but the Bad Place, and finally got admitted into the *real* Good Place. Except it really wasn't. Again.
Long story short, there is a door in that Good Place, one which, if walked through, will dissolve you from reality forever. The Oblivion Door. One by one, her friends and her lover, Chidi, walked through it. So, eventually, did she.
But she isn't gone! She still exists!
Holy motherforking shirtballs!
~~*~~
Please note: absolutely no AI was utilized in the creation of this content; the cover, however, utilized Night Cafe.
That said, the show was plagued by a profound structural cynicism that came to a jarring head at the series' concluding episode, one that apparently negatively affected many people, some quite seriously. I can understand why. I was spared that negativity by an act of rebellion deep, deep inside myself, one that I didn't consciously inspire. It gifted me a different way of interpreting the ending, one that eventually inspired this fan-fiction effort.
My spouse, Kye, wasn't so lucky. For weeks afterward, she groused about the ending. We often ended up in deep philosophical discussions regarding it.
Part of the show's writing team included two genuine Ph.D. philosophers, both materialists. Materialists don't believe in an afterlife. Materialists don't believe in the soul, or the self, or God. They don't believe consciousness exists. Some even want the word "imagination" outlawed. I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.
What the hell, you might ask, pun entirely intended, were materialists staffed as writers and consultants on a show about the afterlife? That's a great question. Their presence, as well as, I'm sure, the underlying philosophies of the actual writing staff, came into shocking relief with the series' conclusion.
Well, says I, I'm not going to just sit here and let a bunch of materialists tell me how things are! No sir! Hence the fan fiction, which starts below and runs ... I have no idea how many chapters it's going to run. I just know I'm going to have a great deal of fun writing and editing it. It's going to be my answer to that admittedly very moving but--and let's be honest here--pathetic and teleologically absurd ending.
I hope you enjoy it.
~~*~~
Synopsis: Eleanor Shellstrop is supposed to be dead. No, doubly dead. She died on Earth, went to what she was told was the Good Place, went through all sorts of bullshirt with her new friends as they found out it wasn't the Good Place but the Bad Place, and finally got admitted into the *real* Good Place. Except it really wasn't. Again.
Long story short, there is a door in that Good Place, one which, if walked through, will dissolve you from reality forever. The Oblivion Door. One by one, her friends and her lover, Chidi, walked through it. So, eventually, did she.
But she isn't gone! She still exists!
Holy motherforking shirtballs!
~~*~~
Please note: absolutely no AI was utilized in the creation of this content; the cover, however, utilized Night Cafe.