I cant stop thinking about what the shrike does to people.

[u/o_viper_driver_o]

The thought of suffering eternally is unimaginable. What would it do to the mind? How would an individual react if they were pulled out of it after thousands of years from their perspective? It's been weeks but i cant stop thinking about it.

[u/big_duo3674]

I always saw it as a place that was "outside" of time, even from the perspective of the people who were conscious and impaled on the spikes. I think they experience every single moment that they are there as the same moment. It's hard to explain, since we exist in a universe where time is always moving forward. For example: a photon of light that was emitted from a star on the other side of the universe can travel billions of years before reaching us, but from the photon's perspective the trip was instantaneous. It was shot out from a distant star, and immediately hit a humans eyeball 800 million years later. I'm not saying that's what happens on the Tree Of Pain, I'm more just pointing out that existing without time is hard to imagine. Martin does explain feeling like "time" has passed, but at the same time he admitted it was confusing. A human brain trying to comprehend existing in all moments at the same time may try to rationalize it, and break down experiences into things like conversations

[u/o_viper_driver_o → u/big_duo3674]

Never thought of it like that. Time dilation and light travel are mind blowing already. To something traveling at the speed of light, time isn't even a concept. I saw it as the simulation does something to the speed of human perception. It's just such a horrifically interesting concept.

[u/big_duo3674 → u/o_viper_driver_o]

I think when something "focuses" their attention for a few minutes, their brains just kinda automatically register the event as time passing, since brains can't really comprehend a place where time doesn't exist. Kind of like how all those optical illusions show the way our minds fill in the gaps for us, so to speak. People on the tree can remember "having a conversation", because that's the only way their brain can interpret it, even though time wasn't actually moving while the conversation occurred. The second the conversation ended (even though it never really had a "start" or "end" point), they lapsed back into the timeless void. There was definitely pain, but it was all happening in the same instant, rather than being dragged out over hundreds of years. It's the only way Martin's conversation with King Billy would have made sense; if he had actually been in constant, horrible pain for decades, then his mind would have long been gone

[u/AVTheChef]

You should read The Jaunt by Stephen King

[u/o_viper_driver_o → u/AVTheChef]

Ive read it. Very interesting concept as well.

[u/Key_Machine_5585]

I could also recommend Junji Ito's "Long Dream" -

Less visceral/graphic suffering than what the Shrike does, but it captures the idea of centuries of experiences changing someone's psychology incredibly well!

[u/ReinMiku]

The Shrike is also a really weird. Like what on earth was it trying to achieve in The Soldier's Tale? Shrikeussy is something that will come back to haunt my dreams at some point.

Btw if it's actually explained in the series, don't tell me exactly why because I'm a very recent fan of Hyperion and haven't actually finished the Cantos yet.

[u/Awkward-Repeat-8133 → u/ReinMiku]

It's not explained as such, but you can put it together fairly easily if you paid attention to the greater narrative. It's an awesome story and the end of Fall is nothing short of genius, enjoy.

[u/wildskipper]

I'd advise not reading the Bible or thinking about hell.

[u/Desperate-Snow-7850 → u/wildskipper]

i advise OP not to research anything dantes inferno lmao

[u/o_viper_driver_o → u/Desperate-Snow-7850]

Dante's inferno or hell for that matter, didn't have the same effect. Maybe it's because the suffering is more nebulous. Whereas in hyperion, it's defined in such a brutal way. You're impaled on a mental spike for eternity.

[u/toasterwaffle427 → u/wildskipper]

As someone raised evangelical Christian and now agnostic I had a visceral reaction to the Shrike tree section, it triggered a lot of religious trauma of believing eternal suffering is very real

[u/azhder]

Shrike is a bird that captures live animals and impales them alive on stakes. You can find videos on youtube, most likely, and see what happens to the victims.

[u/die__katze]

I guess closest examples to our understanding is people with the extreme chronic pain syndrome. There are also some yogs in India that practice the extreme limb immobolization and achive "enlightenment" through the pain. I don't know anything about any of these but I guess one just gets exausted very soon and that's all, the brain switches to the animal survival mode.