Crucifixion

Well there's a crucifixion in The Drive-In by Joe R. Landsdale, three of them to be exact, but I don't think that's what you're looking for.

Actually, Stephen King did use a form of crucifixion in Gerald's Game. It really bothered me... I felt my own breathing start to become labored. It was weird....

TheRob1 said:

crucifixion was a widely used punishment in roman times. I've been re-watching the HBO series ROME recently and in the first episode they have a crucifixion scene and in other episodes characters say things like "If Caesar finds out we'll both be crucified!"

Click to expand...

Crucifixion wasn't as common in Ancient Rome as people believe. It was a punishment for treason, and crimes against the state. You were more likely to be beheaded, than crucified. As for soldiers, again beheading, decimation and stoning far more common.

As a soldier, I think I would have been more worried about being bludgeoned by my mates in my cohort than crucifixion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion#Ancient_Rome

Crucifixion was used for slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. It was considered a most shameful and disgraceful way to die. Condemned Roman citizens were usually exempt from crucifixion (like feudal nobles from hanging, dying more honorably by decapitation) except for major crimes against the state, such as high treason.[citation needed]
Notorious mass crucifixions followed the Third Servile War in 73–71 BC (the slave rebellion under Spartacus), other Roman civil wars in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. To frighten other slaves from revolting, Crassus crucified 6,000 of Spartacus' men along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome.[citation needed] Josephus tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. He also says that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions. In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned could take up to a few days to die. The dead body was left up for vultures and other birds to consume.[citation needed]
Under ancient Roman penal practice, crucifixion was also a means of exhibiting the criminal’s low social status. It was the most dishonourable death imaginable, originally reserved for slaves, hence still called "supplicium servile" by Seneca, later extended to provincial freedmen of obscure station ('humiles').[citation needed] The citizen class of Roman society were almost never subject to capital punishments; instead, they were fined or exiled. Josephus mentions Jews of high rank who were crucified, but this was to point out that their status had been taken away from them. The Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually forbade burial.

Click to expand...

You don't want to take Rome too seriously.

I think most writers want to avoid crucifixion if only to avoid the religious implications of it. And of course, a crucifixion is incredibly brutal - I can't imagine too many stories where a fully depicted crucifixion would 'fit in' with the mood/descriptors. The only time I can remember seeing someone crucified was in non-book media, i.e. a manga and a comic.

In Fullmetal Alchemist someone is crucified with swords to a cross-shaped stone and then lowered into acid. This is only in the Japanese version, though, as in America they changed it to a simple block of stone. The comic book is X-Men under the authorship of Chuck Austen. It featured an issue that had several young mutant children crucifixed on the front lawn of the mansion. That was one of the lesser egregious things in that arc.

I agree with the previous poster.

Unfortunately the inevitable Christ analogies would be drawn into the whole characterisation of whoever is being crucified, whether negatively or positively.

If this is the intention then fine of course. But the nature of society, certainly within the Western hemisphere, is the inevitable connection between the two.

R Scott Bakker crucifies Kelhus (who survives because it's fantasy) who is using his powers to become more than a living god. Maybe not on a T shaped cross, but something much the same.

I know I've seen similar things in other books, can't come up with names though.

Neil Gaiman hung Shadow on the World Tree (which amounts to the Norse version of crucifixion) in American Gods, and there's a scene at the end of one of Guy Gavriel Kay's early novels, too.

Evaine said:

Neil Gaiman hung Shadow on the World Tree (which amounts to the Norse version of crucifixion) in American Gods, and there's a scene at the end of one of Guy Gavriel Kay's early novels, too.

Click to expand...

Forgot about that one, but the whole idea is a bit different. Odin sacrifices himself to himself, and Shadow was basically doing the same without really understanding.

Because my fantasy takes place on another world that is similar to earth, but not earth, I don't use crucifiction as a form of punishment.

Even though crucifiction was around before Christianity, I want to avoid any Christian images or themes...

thothguard51 said:

Because my fantasy takes place on another world that is similar to earth, but not earth, I don't use crucifiction as a form of punishment.

Even though crucifiction was around before Christianity, I want to avoid any Christian images or themes...

Click to expand...

It's difficult if you want to elicit some of those images, but without the religous connotations.

I'd sure like to crucify a character, but I might just settle for impalement.

Generally, crucification was a slow death. You can still achieve this slow death by hanging someone by their arms or feet...

Glen Cook mentions it occasionally in his Black Company (?) novels, mainly as a form of execution for enemy soldiers, political prisoners, and slaves.

TheRob1 said:

So, do any of you know examples of crucifixion in fantasy literature or have you used it yourself?

Click to expand...

There's a good one in The New Testament, but it might be considered high fantasy and hard to believe by the way it's presented.

I agree with other posters who just would not go there. Using crucifixion is so full of unwanted pitfalls - if you just want to use it as a method of killing a character - that the disadvantages aren't worth the dramatic effect.

You probably can't escape the Christian connotations. But if you want to use crucifixion in writing, I think you shouldn't let that put you off. Nobody owns it; it's a historical fact that it was done to lots of people who weren't Jesus, and before Christianity was even thought of.

Just be prepared for people's reactions.

I'm pretty sure there was a scene in the Quickening series by Fiona McIntosh, though I don't know which book in the trilogy.

And wasn't there a story abouy how Julius Caesar was captured by pirates, and then later returned to find them and had them crucified?

And honestly, Crucifixions were not done the way Jesus was crucified normally. They were hung upside down, but the connection would still be there regardless, I'm sure.

TheRob1 said:

So, do any of you know examples of crucifixion in fantasy literature or have you used it yourself?

crucifixion was a widely used punishment in roman times. I've been re-watching the HBO series ROME recently and in the first episode they have a crucifixion scene and in other episodes characters say things like "If Caesar finds out we'll both be crucified!"

The only example I can think of is the old Conan movie when Thulsa Doom says "Crucify him on the tree of woe!"

Click to expand...

The crucifixion scene in the 1982 Conan movie was inspired by a similar scene in "A Witch Shall be Born" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, Dec. 1934). You can find it in The Bloody Crown of Conan as well as many other Conan anthologies.

Not so much fantasy crucifixion, of course Odin was speared to a tree to grasp the runes. There were crucifixions in Shogun and The Sand Pebbles, but they were epic, Westerner-in-the-Far-East novels.

I had people broken on a wheel in Crazy Greta, but it's not quite the same.

Wait! I just remembered, The Man Who Would be King! Kipling knew how to do a good crucifixion scene.
http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=221

The David Eddings trilogy with Belgarion as hero had a country where they crucified people.

TheRob1 said:

So, do any of you know examples of crucifixion in fantasy literature or have you used it yourself?

crucifixion was a widely used punishment in roman times. I've been re-watching the HBO series ROME recently and in the first episode they have a crucifixion scene and in other episodes characters say things like "If Caesar finds out we'll both be crucified!"

The only example I can think of is the old Conan movie when Thulsa Doom says "Crucify him on the tree of woe!"

Click to expand...

I think it's fairly rare because of the connection crucifixion has with Christ. It can work with Roman-themed stories or fantasy worlds, but showing a cross in any form will evoke a very specific image in the minds of the readers.

The Angel is crucified in the film Barbarella. If I remember correctly his wings have the nails through them.