Digest urth.v019.n026

The classic example is the "Black Easter" series by James Blish. It's brilliant. One candidate is "Godstalk" by P.C. Hogdell. In it the "heroes" are superhuman warriors (sort of like angels) who have been fighting Evil for millenia, and have been constantly losing. God's not really talking to them anymore, and they've been fighting a retreating action, losing world after world. Things are getting pretty desperate. It's a bit of a cheat though since the series has not really ended. But I like the world she has invented. (I'm a big fan of theological science fiction). Hmmm... In the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, the villain wins. There are countless horror stories/movies/tv shows where the villain secretly survives (shown in the last few seconds of the story). The new Outer Limits has many episodes in which the villains win (it's rather depressing and IMHO often poorly written). There are a number of sf books in which the Bomb goes off and everything ends. Kieran Mullen Kieran Mullen email: kieran at mail.nhn.ou.edu Dept. of Physics and Astronomy phone: (405) 325-3961 The University of Oklahoma FAX: (405) 325-7557 Norman, OK 73019, USA http://www.nhn.ou.edu/~kieran/

No argument, but the "horror" world is not the real world. Since the author's intent is to give frissons to the reader, everything, good and bad, is exaggerated.

I think "pagan" is too specific. Besides, some horror writers (eg. Anne Rice) are still using the Christian tropes of the early 19th century. They're only set decoration, but the whole field is awfully stagey.

Well, Sarge, there are volcanic eruptions, and being struck by lightning and birth defects and hereditary diseases...um, to get back to the subject, in the horror genre if Satan or a flunky shows up he generally does have substance. You're arguing a sophisticated religious definition that goes all the way back to the Church Fathers. I'm talking pop lit, or movies. But the Shadow, yes, in context that is interesting.

Yes, self-parody is a good point. Somthing more could be made of that--one of mantis's essays. from Mark Milman:

Et moi.

I don't pretend to be a Lovecraft expert (though I have a friend who is; I'm not going to ask him about this, however) but still, you have to have a Light that has beaten the Dark back for a while, don't you? During that blip? It does seem to me that, as a generalization, Good v. Bad works pretty well for horror. You start with a norm and discover that Things Are Not What They Seem. Easy to parody. Jane Austen did it in -Mansfield Park- a long time ago. -alga

Howdy all, With regard to the military effectiveness of Terminus Est...

The

The blade is inspired by an actual "weapons" (tool is more like it), the rounded tip is from French executioners blades (as used on Ann Boleyn--sp?). The internal reservoir filled with mercury comes from Chinese BCE era executioners swords. Both apparently worked quite well for their respective tasks. Mike

mike:

is more like it), the rounded tip is from French executioners blades< isn't the tip of TE flat? Interesting about the Chinese swords. Kieran C. North West Labs Finisklin Industrial Estate Sligo Republic of Ireland Tel. +353 71 69441 Fax. +353 71 69451 email: kierannwn at tinet.ie

Mark Milman wrote: I, Sergeant Rock, wrote this???

Well, OK, this is one of the dumbest things I've written in a long, long time. I apologize for my egregious blunder. If I keep this up, I'm going to lose my stripes. I could mumble something about having really meant "Judaeo-Christian", but I'd rather pretend my dumb twin wrote that paragraph. No, I'd rather pretend that my cat wrote it.

Actually, I'd be very interested in learning more about that. Where would one look to find supernatural evil in Judaism? I'm not sure I can find it in the Old Testament, though it's present in the New. Sure, you've got the talking "serpent" in the Garden, but he was just a mischievous dragon, as far as I can tell. You've got the "Accuser" in Job, but he seems part of the heavenly crowd, sort of God's prosecuting attorney. If you're talking about modern Jewish literature, then the supernatural evil couldn't possibly be a pre-Semitic survival, could it? It's in the New Testament that you get the real Good/Evil polarity, the notion of a Judgment, and the belief that if you pass the Judgment, then eternal life is your reward. I don't even think they have the same concept of "sin" in the OT. Christ casts out demons, and speaks of an "evil one" who wants to destroy the harvest. From the fact that he spoke like this, I must assume that the concept of "Satan" was not foreign to Jews of the time. But what was its origin? Did it creep in somehow between the Old Testament and the New? This has puzzled me for a long time.

Sure, Christianity did a lot of assimilating and co-opting. That's what made it so successful. As you point out, the assimilation is mostly on the level of folk-belief. However, the notion of an Evil One is pretty much part and parcel of official Christian belief, and the old devil has caused a lot of trouble for theologians.

As I said above, I'm not certain that the Accuser in Job fits the Satanic job description. One could argue that Job is best grouped with Ecclesiastes, the Psalms and the Song of Solomon as not being the same type of literature as the Pentateuch or the Prophets--nobody sensible thinks the Song is any sort of historical narrative, for instance. But I note with respect your argument that if Satan is void, then so are the angels from among whom he fell. I'm not sure which direction I want to go on that one. I must conclude that only my cat is sure what kind of stuff Satan is made out of. Perhaps I can get him to post again about it some time. At this point, I'll just limit myself to observing that Satan being a void is a theological necessity, otherwise you get in Big Trouble, fall prey to theological dualism, and get burned at the stake. It's sort of like the Trinity. Sgt. Rock (almost busted to corporal again)

Sgt. Rock said:

Hmmm... The idols of the surrounding tribes are pretty much treated as without power; I can't think of an instance where they actually do anything--although the only times they would be doing anything would be in "competition" with God and even if they were seen as actual beings or shadows of some (shadowy itself...) being they'd still be null in that case...

Yes. The idea was definitely present in Jewish thought by the time of Christ. I forget the pieced together developmental history, but it was also identified by that time (pre-Christian) with the serpent in the garden and the Accuser in Job. I forget though, which groups held and which didn't hold the idea.

Well, you'd think that would be right up his alley, wouldn't you? :)

I think sort of the standard description would be the stuff of good, perverted by ill-will--you get into dualism if you suggest there's any other kind of stuff to be made of. Void, but active with malice. I've been trying to think of a Wolfe work with some supernatural evil in it--Abaia and Erebus don't fit the description; I think there's a faint hint of it at times in Long Sun--Mucor and the vampires aren't supernatural, but suggest it (Mucor make's me think of the kid in the Exorcist...) THE DEVIL IN A FOREST is actually the best I can come up with--the little idol. Since Wolfe thinks the Greek gods may have been some kind of beings, it's not too far out to have an idol be demonic.

To which alga (Alice Turner) responded at 12:52 pm GMT:

And Alex David Groce added at 1:52 pm GMT:

As alga points out, the example that comes most readily to mind is Lilith. Although her story has been edited out of Genesis, it can be found in the Talmud, along with a lot of other material that was either deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the Bible or was treated as sub-canonical--folkloric mater- ials and the like. A good example of a being mentioned in contrast to God in the Torah is Azazel (in Leviticus 16, as part of the discussion of atonement ritual). The so- called scapegoat is a mistranslation; the Hebrew phrase "goat for Azazel" is somewhat similar to "the goat that departs or escapes", and was so rendered by William Tyndale in his 1530 Bible translation. The goat for Azazel was released into the desert carrying the sins of the people; I belive that Azazel was then supposed to consume it in some fashion. So while Azazel gets pretty short shrift, it does seem that he (a) has a function; (b) has enough substance or capability to exercise it; and (c) consumes sin. I don't know whether either ancient or modern opinion holds that the consump- tion of sin implies that Azazel may be evil (i.e., be- ing evil, Azazel must feed on evil), however. As Alex points out, most of the surrounding pagan Semitic idolatrous gods are mentioned merely as abominations or things to be avoided--Moloch falls into this category, as do Ba'al and others less well- known. Mark Millman

Ah. It's Azazel I was trying to think of--a most mysterious being. I don't know a lot about the ancient context, but I know Azazel now is usually used as a symbol of evil. For instance, read Walker Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome." If I'm correct, either that mention or later discussion talks of the place where Azazel dwelt as the ultimate waste, barren and (fairly literally) God-forsaken. I think Azazel is definitely represented as a real, alien entity (to men), and there is at least an implication of evil.

Is it only in Christian tradition that Daniel 10 is interpreted as evidence of supernatural battles between good angels and evil angels? Daniel has a vision of an angelic being who says to him: "Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia" (Daniel 10:12-13, KJV). I know some Christian traditions interpret these "princes" as supernatural beings (I think this is the passage from which some Charismatics get the concept of "territorial spirits"), but I don't know if this counts as an example of Jewish belief in supernatural evil or if that interpretation only comes along with Christian cosmology. Now that I think about it, there is another example. In Genesis 6:4 where it talks about "sons of God" bearing children with "daughters of men" there was, before the Christian era, a Jewish tradition that these "sons of God" were evil spirits and that it was by way of these evil spirits (rather than from some "original sin" of Adam, an idea that I don't think really took hold until St. Augustine) that evil entered the human race. I'm afraid the only citation I have for this is a passing mention in an essay on the doctrine of original sin. In both these examples, of course, evil spirits are subordinate to God ("sons of God", fighting God's agents rather than God himself), so they do not appear to be instances of dualism in Jewish thought. -Rostrum

These are sometimes known as the "genius" of a particular people, are they not? It seems to me that Wolfe has commented on these, although I'll be darned if I know where, and I may be confusing him with someone else (a likely suspects would be Russell Kirk). Anybody else recall this?

Well, maybe fleshed out by St. Augustine--I think it's present in good old St. Paul. If the Epistle to the Romans (and Hebrews--though Paul may not have been responsible for this one) doesn't contain something like the doctrine of original sin ("Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."--Romans 5:14, KJV) I'll eat my hat, and Karl Barth has even less of a leg to stand on than I thought. As to these sons of God, Wolfe once suggested they were the Neanderthals. R. A. Lafferty is practically obsessed with them (and also seems to equate them with Neanderthals). In general, those passages are some of the weirdest and wooliest of the OT, and what's really going on here is anybody's guess.

Well, the NT "dualism" is only real dualism interpreted one (I'd say the wrong) way. The orthodox idea of Satan falls well short of full-fledged dualism (as Sgt. Rock points out, he's a shadow), although he is used in a dualist sense in fiction all the time. By everyone from great writers (Hawthorne to some extent) to modern day horror hacks.