Limbo

1.) In Dante's Divine Comedy, the first circle of Hell, wherein the Virtuous Pagans are kept.

2.) In the AD&D RPG, the Outer Plane of Chaotic Neutral alignment, inabited by slaads and such.

A way some folk vaguely describe the phenomenon of being between happenings; having completed or left one scenario but still in anticipation of another. Some even go so far as to say that your soul is in limbo once you die if you are not immediately allowed to enter heaven. I don't necessarily believe in that type of thing, and was referring more specifically to my life since I am now a college graduate but am not yet in the working world or doing anything else noteworthy, for that matter. Not to be confused with the phrase "in lingo" which is how one programs with Director and other applications.

Amiga Scene Groups

A small Amiga demo scene group from Finland, formed in early 1993 by Elvis (coder - formerly in Sacreds), Greippi (graphician) and Huru-Ukko (musician). The three were the only members ever in the group.

From the start, Limbo operated under a simple agenda of mixing Melon-style intro design with humor resembling Stellar's productions. But unlike many other "joke" teams, Limbo presented top quality programming and art while not taking things too seriously. This can be seen in their early titles like Three Men and a Glenz Vector and Hindun Tie Kehdosta Hautaan. Other small works included intros released around each members' birthdays.

Huru-Ukko quit the scene in 1995, but the remaining two members continued. They released two hilarious Amiga demos posing as animations made with Commodore 64's basic. One of these, 911, won first prize in the intro competition at Assembly'97. Some people were upset with this, because Limbo won by humor instead of hardcore coding.

The group has been extremely inactive for the last few years, but they did win the first place in the Amiga demo compo at Remedy'99 with Educational Sex Lesson. As far as I know, the group has never officially been declared dead.

Information came from my own memory, Limbo productions and Top Secret issue #15.
Some bits of data found in http://www.scenet.de/amp/ and http://exotica.fix.no/info/scenery/online/l.html

Limbo is a party game.

Music plays. At the end of a path are two vertical poles. These poles hold up a horizontal bar that can be raised or lowered. Players line up behind the bar and bend their bodies so as to cross under the bar. If they touch the bar, they lose; otherwise, they go to the end of the line as in a spelling bee. After each round, the MC lowers the bar a notch.

A common variation on limbo puts the players in roller skates. A further variation, often played in elementary school gymnasiums, gradually lowers the divider between the west and east gym and uses that as the bar; the players skate around four cones placed near the corners of the full gym.

It is commonly believed the Catholic Church maintains that unbaptized children and virtuous non-Christians go to limbo, and are deprived of the glory of heaven. Although some Catholic theologians have voiced this view (and it is found in Dante's Inferno), this is not the official view of the Church.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1260 "Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal Mystery." Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such pesons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

1261 As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them," allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not the prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.

The Catechism makes no mention of limbo (to my knowledge).

In the Marvel Comics universe, limbo is a sort of parallel dimension where time doesn't flow in quite the same way as elsewhere. Based loosely on the limbo of Catholic theology, it was ruled for a long time by a sorcerer/demon named Belasco, who held absolute power over the demons who lived there.

That changed when Belasco located Illyana Rasputin, the six-year-old sister of the X-Man Colossus. He used limbo's magical "stepping discs" to teleport her and a few of the X-Men to limbo. The X-Men rescued her, but not before Belasco gave her a magical pendant which he claimed would lead her to a powerful destiny as she grew older. The X-Men eventually escaped, but between their world and limbo they lost their grip on Illyana for a moment. When they grabbed her again and pulled her through, Illyana was a teenager, and soon began displaying her own mutant power to control limbo's stepping disks, giving her power over teleportation through space and, occasionally, through time.

During that moment Illyana was out of reach, she spent the rest of her childhood in limbo, sometimes with Belasco and sometimes with older versions of the X-Men who, in a branching timeline, failed to escape limbo themselves. (Again, time flows differently there, and sometimes loops back on itself.) Eventually the magic Belasco and others taught her gave Illyana the power to create a "soulsword" out of herself. This soulsword empowered her to drive Belasco out of limbo and take control of it herself. It was after this that she was able to return to earth with the X-Men.

From that point on, the soulsword became the figurative and literal symbol of the ruler of limbo. As long as it remained in limbo, Illyana retained power; when she took it to earth with her, other demons were able to exert their own influence. One, a former servant of Belasco named S'ym, eventually rallied the other demons to mutiny and was able to take the soulsword from Illyana. His goal was to permanently join earth and limbo; Illyana eventually stopped him by sacrificing herself and, through means never fully understood, reverting herself to a six-year-old child who had never grown up in limbo at all.

The soulsword continued to exist, and whoever wielded it was given power over limbo and all its denizens. When last it was seen, however, it had no owner.

In a less official sense, "limbo" is a term used by the fans of comic books and other storytelling universes to describe where a character is who hasn't been used in some time -- either because the writers have forgotten about him, they have him between adventures, or they just don't know what to do with him and have stuck him on the back burner for a while.

We'd be stranded before getting on our flight back. The snow fell around the airport heavily. We could see it out of the large glass walls swirling and settling on the runways.

After several hours of waiting, the standard chatter had died out. Even the messing around - racing trollies around the deserted car park, sitting on the luggage check-in conveyor belts - had become too much. Now we just sat huddled amongst coats and bags, and stared into space, trying to preserve ourselves. Heather, who had been particularly quiet and patient this whole time, sat looking into herself. I thought she may have been missing her boyfriend, who was not on the trip. He was fairly new. I went to get her some food from the shop, which was miraculously still open.

She had always been patient. Her internal quietness now couldn't have been more in contrast to the beginning of the holiday. Upon arrival, Heather had grabbed me and skittered off the train to catch a glimpse of the stuffed musk ox in the station, jumping and shouting to the mountains surrounding us. Like naughty children we'd been called back by the others, who wanted to book a Taxi. When we reached the large house where we were staying, I'd shown her around. She was so excited and had grasped my hand to drag me here and there, standing to examine something or rushing to the next room.

But we'd not spend a lot of the holiday time together. I had tried to avoid her. I was hopelessly in love, and had acute knowledge that she, in general, did not feel the same way. She knew about my feelings, and seeing my avoidance, had allowed herself to do the same. She cared about me in that way.

Eventually we were called up to the desk. The airline was going to attempt to find some way for us to get home. After a long search for possibilities a plan was formed. A taxi, followed by a ferry, followed by a train, would take us to Gothenburg, where by some of the group could fly home, while a few of us would continue to be stranded for a few days. Heather was flying home with the girls. Me and a couple of the boys would stay in Gothenburg. This separation suited me. The plan was decided and a taxi was called. It was going to be a long night.

At the ferry port Heather rested her head on my shoulder and we both attempted to sleep. Apart from having been up now for almost 24 hours, we were mildly contented. I slept well for an hour or so. The ferry arrived and we trailed onto it. Again Heather came to me, smiling to herself at the implicit request of my shoulder, which she was certain I would provide. I again tried to sleep, but my brain had been too stimulated by the host of new amusements on the ferry.

I resolved to go out briefly to the deck to refresh myself and to calm my mind. Heather came with me. The fog was so thick we couldn't see the water. We stood in silence and I felt the coldness envelop me. I tried to feel rested and wrapped myself in my limbs. The process of casting my eyes about the fog must have halted time. As the universe attempted to calculate the infinite trajectory of my vision into that white depth, it must have troubled itself, and eventually given up.

Heather was alongside, but apart from me, with her small hands clasping the railing.

Some time, almost a year after, I was reminded of this encounter by a mutual friend. This was to my great surprise, as we were the only ones on the deck. In conversation with Heather, the mutual friend had heard that time had halted. For apparently in that moment Heather had confessed that, although she hadn't said it, maybe she had been in love with me too.

This report I never verified.

Maybe she had. Maybe our thoughts had been the same. Touching that metal banister, had we bad both looked deeply into that whiteness, and made the best of our circumstances, as those tired, feeling powerless, will often do? In that fog, had we lived our happy lives out together? Had we had first dates, second dates, dinner dates, double dates? Had we laughed together, and recalled our relationship to others in nostalgia? Had we had children, bought a house, cats? Had we sat and watched movies, explored the world, had our differences, got married, faced illness? Had we both died old and happy?

And then time resumed, and we were reborn, and placed as our former selves, two lonely tired teenagers on a ferry across a foggy sea. The ferry continued its journey for a couple of hours, but it may as well have been an eternity. I was suffering but I was not unhappy.

Lim"bo (?), Lim"bus (?), n. [L. limbus border, edge in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.]

1. Scholastic Theol.

An extramundane region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the judgment.

As far from help as Limbo is from bliss. Shak.

A Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of fools. Milton.

The limbus patrum was considered as a place for the souls of good men who lived before the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantium was said to be a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fool's paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense.

2.

Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.

<-- hence: a state of waiting, or uncertainty, in which final judgment concerning the outcome of a decision is postponed, perhaps indefinitely; neglect for an indefinite time -->

3. Anat.

A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea.

<-- 4. A West Indian dance contest, in which participants must dance under a pole which is lowered successively until only one participant can successfully pass under, without falling. [MW10 Jamaican E limba to bend, fr. E. limber (1950)]. Often performed at celebrations, such as weddings. (1950-1996) -->

 

© Webster 1913.