Hi, My Name Is Satan 5

Hi.

What do we, as humanity, think Satan is? The embodiment of pure evil? A victim of circumstance? A champion of free thinking? A ridiculous superstition? A metaphor for a necessary component of balance in the universe? With the devil-as-character, writers, musicians, and artists can express their thoughts on these age-old theological/philosophical questions, regardless of religious affiliation.

Part 1: South Park, The Master and Margarita, The Power Puff Girls, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
Part 2: God, the Devil, and Bob; The Sandman; The Garden of Earthly Delights; "Sympathy for the Devil"
Part 3 (Beelzebub edition): Paradise Lost, The Sandman, Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub manga/anime
Part 4: "Beelzeboss," The Temptation of Christ, The Divine Comedy, Reaper

The Bible miniseries - The History Channel

So here's a topical entry. A few weeks ago The History Channel's miniseries The Bible got some press when many, including person-type-thing Glen Beck, noted that the actor playing Satan looked a bit like President Obama. And the resemblance is there: the show's Satan looks startling like an older, worn, seen-even-more-shit Obama. The actor is Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni, a veteran Moroccan actor. The History Channel was quick to deny any intent to make like Fox News and urge comparisons between the Democratic president and the epitome of evil, but not all are convinced. Photos of Ouazanni show that without his The Bible make-up, the resemblance isn't as strong (and that he's rather the silver fox). I have to admit that I haven't watched the show, but in clips of Ouazzani's performance he actually looks more like the Emperor from Star Wars. But still, the photos are uncomfortable, and invite even more uncomfortable questions. Like, was this intentional? And if so, was it to make a statement or to generate tons of publicity? Why is one of the nonwhite actors in the series in the villain role? Et cetera. If we ignore that controversy entirely, the only thing to note here is this miniseries, like Dante and Bosch, chose to go with the "evil expressed by external ugliness" and/or "ugliness as punishment" tropes. 

Let's see YOU look as good after years of Boehner tears.

Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan - Gustave Moreau

And continuing with racial themes, we again see the light/dark skin contrast in French Symbolist Gustave Moreau's 1882 watercolor, though the difference is a tad more subtle than in Ary Scheffer's ginormus The Temptation of Christ (seen in HMNIS 4). Here you could even argue Satan has the same skin tone as Michael but is just in different lighting, seeing as he's falling into the pit of Hell and all. As per Moreau's style, this work is gauzy and fantastical. Archangel Michael's decked out in gold armor that matches his flowing golden hair, golden halo, and golden wings. Although he usually has his legendary sword, here he has...a stick? A curtain rod? I'm not sure. Once again, we see Satan with bat-like wings in contrast to the angel's feathered ones, but he's pretty normal-looking besides that (no hooves, horns, or red skin). We also see that Satan's crown and triton have fallen symbolically as he is defeated by Michael with a triumphant up-skirt pose. 

Then Satan pulled out his camera and became the first paparazzo.

The Last Temptation of Christ - Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese's epic and controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ is certainly not without racial issues either (Willem Dafoe?), but in this version Satan is actually the whitest white ever in Pollyannaish actress Juliette Caton. This version echos others by giving Lucifer classic (European) beauty that aids in his/her deception. With long blond waves, Satan here actually looks similar to Moreau's Michael above, befitting the fallen angel origin story.

Satan poses as Jesus's guardian angel and calmly explains to him on the cross how God didn't really mean for him to, like, actually die by Roman crucifixion, and that maybe he could just not do that? Having discovered that being crucified sucks, Jesus agrees. He marries all his lady friends and has a ton of kids, but doesn't get a TLC show because this was a time where polygamy and tons of kids didn't warrant that. So, that's pretty much his life, but then when he's old and dying, Harvey Keitel's Judas shows up and gives him a Brooklyn tawkin' to about how he wussed out and points out that his "guardian angel" is actually...SATAN. Having learned nothing from Dr. Evil, Satan fesses up and gloats about it. Jesus has a "I've made a huge mistake" moment and begs God to fix it. Either through God's will or because it was all a dream, he finds himself once again on the cross and is happy about it, having learned that being Jesus means you can't be the 1st century Judea version of a suburban accountant. 

Satan also learned nothing from Newsies, like to not mess with Brooklyn.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Young, gorgeous, impressionable rich boy Dorian Gray is presented with two choices early on in this novel: sweet, sensitive painter Basil Hallward, who is in love with him; or flashy, clever-tongued socialite Lord Henry Wotton. Uh-oh. Unfortunately for Basil, much like with Milton's Lucifer and Eve, it only takes a few alluringly immoral words from Henry to lure Dorian onto the path towards destruction. Henry remains Dorian's tempter throughout the novel, always there to pooh-pooh away any feelings of guilt or reflection, while Basil, with his insistence on stuff like sincerity and kindness, becomes dull to him. When Dorian's fiancee commits suicide, Basil, despite having been heartbroken over the engagement, would offer comfort and introspection. Henry, meanwhile, writes off the incident as something mildly exciting but easily forgotten - and Dorian decides Henry's way is easier.

Dorian is no helpless victim, however. Henry casts no spell on him other than appealing to and nurturing his worst nature. When Dorian commits his worst act - the murder of Basil - it is Dorian's own ultimate rejection of Basil's unconditional love and faith in goodness. In the following chilling scenes where Dorian blackmails a chemist ex-lover into destroying the body for him, it's clear that Dorian's malevolence knows no bounds and is not solely controlled by Henry. Like the worst devils, Henry urges and allows the basest elements of humanity to do his dirty work. But Henry's appeal works not only on Dorian but on the reader as well, voicing many of Wilde's best-known epigrams. One can't help but be delighted by Henry's lines even while knowing his terrible intentions.

The novel, published in 1890, eerily seems to foreshadow the cruelty and egomania of Oscar Wilde's young boyfriend Lord Alfred Douglas in Dorian and Wilde himself in lovelorn martyr Basil. Did Wilde prefer to think Douglas's worst tendencies came from some Henry Wotton? Did he see the parallels at all? Regardless, in the context of devils, I think Lord Henry Wotton would get along infamously with Ray Wise's Satan and Lucifer in the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."

Wilde and Douglas in one of their many Glamour Shots portraits.
Douglas's hat is stupid.

Hi, My Name Is Satan 4

Hey, it's the 4th installment of looking at the prince of darkness and his many guises in pop culture and culture culture. What does humanity think of the concept of "the devil," how do artists and writers use Satan as a character, and what does that say about us? Last time we looked at four versions of Beelzebub. This time we're back to good ol' Satan, with interpretations from Dante to Tenacious D. 

Hi, My Name Is Satan 1
Hi, My Name Is Satan 2
Hi, My Name is Satan 3

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"Beelzeboss" - Tenacious D

Just like "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," this song (from the Tenacious D movie The Pick of Destiny) features a musical contest between humankind and the devil. But there are no genteel fiddles here - just rock, profanity, and rape jokes. This is an amped-up battle with Dave Grohl belting out "I'm the devil! I love metal!" as he dominates a demonic set of drums. Unlike fiddler champion Johnny, protagonists Jabels (Jack Black) and Kage (Kyle Gass) don't win as much as get lucky, 'cause, you know, it's Dave fucking Grohl they're up against. Like South Park's Satan, Grohl's devil bears the popular red skin and satyr-like horns and goat legs that have become Satan signifiers. It's thought the goat horns and hindlegs were adapted as characteristics of Satan as a Christian reaction against pagan emphasis on Pan. He also has an upside-down pentagram, a symbol of Satanism, carved on his chest, making him everything early freaker-outers about rock-n-roll worried about. The song's title shows the Satan/Beelzebub conflation. The name "beelzebub" (looked at as his own character here), came from Ba'al Zebub, a Semitic/Philistine god. 

The Temptation of Christ - Ary Scheffer

Oh, Ary Scheffer, hipster, using light and dark skin to represent goodness and badness is so mainstream. Try to subvert a little, bro. 1854's The Temptation of Christ is one of the better known works of this Dutch-born, French-trained painter. The painting illustrates the story in the Bible where Jesus, at the end of  his 40-day/40-night fast, is tempted by Satan with stuff like snacks and real estate to no avail (paraphrased from Matthew 4.1-11, Mark 1.12-13, and Luke 4.1-13). This non-horned, non-hoofed Satan is a different classic take on the figure: Satan as fallen angel. Although not disfigured, Scheffer's Satan is dull and dim, devoid of any of his former Lucifer luminescence, and while his angel wings are still there, they're gray and bat-like.

"Turn these stones into bread." "No." "I've got Nutella." "..."

The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri 

Like Hieronymus Bosch, Dante does away with any charisma when it comes to imagining Satan in his 1308-1321 epic poem. Shown briefly at the end of the Inferno section (a.k.a. the only section anyone cares about), Dante's Satan is as ugly as he was beautiful before the Fall ("Were he as fair once, as he now is foul"). His depiction is in stark contrast to the later Miltonic Lucifer, who keeps soldiering on and never runs out of inspirational speeches. This Lucifer, on the other hand, has three heads, is trapped in the very center of the 9th circle of Hell, is half-frozen in a lake, and is forever eating Brutus and Cassius (Caesar's betrayers - I guess Dante's a Caesar stan), and Judas. Dante writes, “He wept with all six eyes, and the tears fell over his three chins mingled with bloody foam. The teeth of each mouth held a sinner, kept as by a flax rake: thus he held three of them in agony." So this Satan is a gross crybaby who needs a napkin.

William Blake's illustration of Mr. Pouty Face(s).

Reaper - Ray Wise

As a grieving father dealing with a literal demon, Ray Wise was one of the awesome aspects of awesome Twin Peaks. In the CW's series Reaper, he completely stole the show as the demon of all demons. You can watch the pilot (directed by Kevin Smith) here. Wise plays Satan as a modern evil - the slick businessman who's so charming you forget he's screwing you over. The show focuses on Sam, a young hardware store clerk who finds out his parents sold the soul of their firstborn - him - to the Devil (who had gotten their doctor to tell them they were infertile). Now that he's an adult, Sam is put to work by his new master, who has him rounding up evil souls that have escaped from Hell. Wise does a fantastic job exemplifying how dangerous charm and deceit are when combined. With wit and tough love, his Devil provides his slacker protege with direction and character-building, and you start to think maybe he's not so bad. Then Wise unleashes the malice, you remember this is goddamn Satan. 

Even in a cheap plastic chair, Ray Wise is a fucking boss.

Hi, My Name is Satan 3: Beelzebub Edition

Hi, My Name is Satan Beelzebub. 

So here and here we looked at artists' representations of the devil, from Power Puff Girls to Hieronymus Bosch. But what about Beelzebub? He's sometimes conflated with Satan and sometimes his own character, and is also known as Lord of the Flies. You might know him from Queen as someone who plans ahead and delegates.

Heya.

Paradise Lost - John Milton

In Milton's Paradise Lost, Beelzebub is a high-ranking angel and Lucifer's bestie. The whole "war on Heaven" thing comes out of their late-night bitch session about Jesus, and after the Fall, Beelzebub is the de facto second-in-command in Hell. He's the perfect best friend character, too, setting up "but who could possibly be brave enough to venture into Chaos?" situations like a champ.

Lake of burning sulfur? Nothing these two bros can't handle.

The Sandman - Neil Gaiman

Poor Beelzebub. While Neil Gaiman goes with a suave Miltonic Lucifer in his Sandman series, he demotes the Lord of the Flies to a sniveling, literal interpretation. Like Hieronymus Bosch's Satan, Gaiman's Beelzebub is stripped of any vestige of allure or dignity, resigned to the sewers of existence.

He just needs a wig and some speech therapy.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

If you went to middle school in the USA, you probably read Lord of the Flies, from which you learned that 1) British schoolboys are creepy as fuck, and 2) the totalitarian governments of Battle Royale and The Hunger Games could have skipped the whole "fight to the death or we'll kill you" thing and just thrown a bunch of kids on a beach with the same result. On this adultless island, humanity either fades away or is enhanced to its purest form, depending on how much of a misanthrope you are. Oh, you got a conch to symbolize order and civilized discourse? We raise you a severed pig head on a stake. Not scary enough? Just wait until you start hallucinating and the Lord of the Flies possesses it and talks to you. Humans: the real rotting monster.

AAAAHHHHAHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Beelzebub - Ryuhei Tamura

Gonna be honest: I have never read this manga or watched this anime. But when my image searches for Paradise Lost illustrations of this character kept turning up not Dore or Blake artwork but a green-haired, clothes-adverse baby, I had to find out why this was. In this manga-turned-anime, a high school student discovers a baby - Beelzebub IV - who has been sent to Earth from Hell to destroy humanity. But first he has to grow up, and this lucky high school student is the one who gets to raise him! Hijinks ensue.









Images:
Engraving from 1678 edition of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress
Illustration by Gustave Dore for Paradise Lost 
Sandman panel from Comic Vine
Soul-killing still from Peter Brook's 1963 Lord of the Flies adaptation

Hi, My Name Is Satan 2

What does humanity think of the concept of "the devil," and how do artists and writers use Satan as a character? Last time we checked out South Park's Satan, The Master and Margarita's Woland, The Powerpuff Girls' Him, and the titular Southern tourist in "Devil Went Down to Georgia." In this entry, we meet four more Princes of Darkness.

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God, the Devil, and Bob - Matthew Carlson
This tragically short-lived series of (unlucky!) thirteen episodes featured a dream voice cast: along with veterans Nancy Cartwright, Laurie Metcalf, and French Stewart, James Garner voiced God and Alan Cumming voiced the Devil. The premise is that God, discouraged with humanity, decides to give Earth one last chance. One person will be chosen to see if humankind is worth saving...and the Devil gets to choose that person. After the Devil selects Detroit autoworker Bob Alman (Really? Not a Koch brother or DRC warlord?), the battle for Bob's soul is on! Not that it's a terribly harrowing battle. Sporting bleached hair and a leather trench coat, this Devil has vague plans of taking over the world someday, but his villainy is mostly limited to keeping God waiting at a car show and popping children's balloons. The show has been taken on by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.










The Sandman: Season of Mists - Neil Gaiman
You guys, Lucifer is so done with this Hell thing. It was okay for a while, he did it, whatever, but it's been long enough. In volume four of Neil Gaiman's classic Vertigo Sandman graphic novels, a cheeky-but-jaded Lucifer Morningstar decides he's quitting. Doubting he ever had free will at all and disillusioned about the very concept of Hell, Lucifer shuts the place down. After locking the gates and sacrificing his wings, he foists Hell onto protagonist Morpheus, "dream" personified. While various deities vie for ownership of the realm and Morpheus's sister Death deals with Hell's newly released inhabitants, Lucifer decompresses by camping out on the beaches of Perth, Australia. Despite only making a few appearances in the story, Lucifer proved popular and got his own spin-off written by Mike Carey.

Lucifer is befriended by a local at the beach.

The Sandman: Seasons of Mists panel - penciller: Mike Dringenberg; inker: George Pratt; colorist: Daniel Vozzo 





The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch
OMGWTF. Hieronymus Bosch, the Dutch painter who lived from 1450-1516, is known most for his extremely detailed, bizarre paintings. The most well known of these is his triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, and the most well known panel of that triptych is the one depicting Hell. Basically anywhere you look on a Bosch is going to have some crazy stuff going on, often something scatological or otherwise ass-related, and nowhere is that more true than this piece. In all the insanity, it's easy to miss the figure in the foreground, generally thought to be the devil/Satan/Prince of Hell. This figure is a scrawny bird-creature with a cauldron for a crown, eating humans and pooping them out. Meanwhile, other crazy shit, like a woman being forced to watch herself being groped by a demon in a mirror implanted in another demon's ass, happens around him. Yes, this is a classic painting and not a porn video Santorum is promising to ban. What's interesting about this portrayal of Satan is that while many artists and writers bestow upon him some power and semblance of his former angelic beauty, Bosch condemns him to the same humiliations and tortures as his subjects. This devil has no wry, bad-boy appeal, only misery.

It's a shame Bosch never got to see Human Centipede.

"Sympathy for the Devil" - The Rolling Stones
In this 1968 Rolling Stones masterpiece, Lucifer is stylish, over-scheduled, and thinks you suck at guessing games. Rather than engaging in fiddle competitions like his "Devil Went Down to Georgia" bumpkin counterpart, this devil involves himself in major political events. Despite the pretty tame "everyone is both good and bad" message, the song fueled late 60s/early 70s "omg rock music is satanism!!!" hysteria.

Hi, My Name Is Satan

Being on my Paradise Lost kick has made me think of all the different artistic interpretations of Satan we see, and how very different they can be from each other. What counts as satanic? I can only assume Milton's Satan would give Marilyn Manson the side-eye and that the Satan of South Park would be horrified by Lars von Trier's Antichrist. What do we, as humanity, think Satan is? The embodiment of pure evil? A victim of circumstance? A champion of free thinking? A ridiculous superstition? A metaphor for a necessary component of balance in the universe? With the devil-as-character, writers, musicians, and artists can express their thoughts on these age-old theological/philosophical questions, regardless of religious affiliation. Here are the first four in a series I have no idea how long will be.

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South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - Trey Parker and Matt Stone
In 1999's landmark movie musical from future Tony Award winners Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Satan is a gentle red giant who dreams of experiencing the innocent joys of Earth like flowers, mountaineering, and gay cruises. Sadly, he's stuck both in Hell and in an abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein. But maybe our favorite young Coloradans can help him find the strength to stand up for himself? Seemingly neither evil nor a charismatic leader, it's unclear how this guy ended up ruling the underworld. Of course, with Parker and Stone both being snarky atheists who yet have a big ol' soft spot for religion, it makes sense that from them we'd get a cartoonish but sympathetic Satan.





The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Bulgakov's complicated, censored, beloved novel was written mostly in the 1930s, but not published until decades after the author's death. A satire of Soviet Russia, the novel deals with the censorship faced by writers at the time (hence the not-being-published-for-decades-and-even-then-censored thing). The plot concerns Margarita, a party official's wife, whose lover, known as the Master, has been institutionalized for writing a novel about Pontius Pilate - a big no-no in the atheistic and paranoid USSR. But Margarita finds an ally when Woland (Satan in disguise as a professor) arrives in Moscow with his vibrant entourage, including fan favorite Behemoth, a wisecracking demon in the form of a large black cat. They're preparing the most Tim Burtonesque party of all Tim Burtonesque parties, and they've chosen Margarita to play hostess.

Besides some witchcraft and the over-the-top ball for Hell's elite, there's not much traditionally evil about Woland. Although his name references Faust, the bargain here is a force for good. When Margarita is offered a wish from Woland in exchange for being hostess, she uses it to secure mercy for one of Hell's inhabitants and is then rewarded with reunion with the Master. Woland and Jesus (called by the Hebrew Yeshua here) even agree upon eternal peace for Margarita and the Master and salvation for Pilate. Other interpretations of the devil would be so embarrassed!

Woland trolls in Klimowski & Schejbal's graphic novel adaptation.

The Powerpuff Girls - Craig McCracken/Cartoon Network
Him was the most dastardly of all the villains in Cartoon Network's clever, pop-artsy series, and he totally counts as an interpretation of the devil, right? Yeah, Him totally counts. I mean, look at the guy: the red skin, the black goatee, the penchant for evil, the otherworldly realm...classic Satan. But then there's the flouncy pink trim on his outfit, the thigh-high high-heeled black boots, and that eerie falsetto (provided by the prolific Tom Kane). It's a little disconcerting to see another cartoon that has the gender non-conforming character be the devil, but while South Park's Satan is a salt-of-the-earth guy and "out" in a matter-of-fact way, The Powerpuff Girls' Him is mysterious, malicious, and a badass. He's truly scary, and not just because his appearance and mannerisms threaten the gender binary. Plus, his character design - with its stylized lines, bold color blocking, and quirkiness - perfectly encapsulates the series' aesthetic. Props to Cartoon Network for taking a chance by allowing a transvestite devil on TV.

Rock on with your bad boots!

"Devil Went Down to Georgia" - Charlie Daniels Band
This song is awesome and fun. The devil apparently has some sort of soul quota, is a skilled musician, and enjoys a good ol' country hoe-down. He's under deadline to get more souls (seriously, who is he reporting to?), so he challenges fiddler Johnny to a fiddle contest, which is apparently the demonic and fiddle-themed version of a cop waiting for someone to not turn on their turn signal exactly X feet before turning so you can give them a ticket. This Faustian bargain involves the classic elements of pride and promises of a material reward, but here humanity triumphs. Not that there's much fanfare over it. Johnny's more interested in his fiddle skills than salvation, and the devil is a good sport about it. They probably both prefer BBQ to manna.