Path: Supernews!supernews.com!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!jump.net!grunt.dejanews.com!not-for-mail Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 20:01:18 -0600 From: Kyr@nemoria.dropbear.id.au Subject: Re: Literary Satanism (was Re: Wiccan "Fluff bunnies" was Re: wiccan; getting e-mail from mad people) Newsgroups: alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan,alt.satanism Message-ID: <865901000.7142@dejanews.com> Organization: AlienKeys References: <339c2a15.1892467@news.ican.net> X-Article-Creation-Date: Tue Jun 10 00:03:21 1997 GMT X-Originating-IP-Addr: 131.170.195.1 () X-Http-User-Agent: unknown X-Authenticated-Sender: Kyr@nemoria.dropbear.id.au Lines: 36 Xref: Supernews alt.religion.wicca:73610 alt.pagan:217155 alt.satanism:70333 In article <339c2a15.1892467@news.ican.net>, cheshire.hawk@ican.net (CheshireHawk) wrote: > Also.. I've heard the term "literary Satanism".. where would that fit? Literary Satanism (in western literature, anyway) probably begins with Milton's "Paradise Lost". Milton's Satan is a magnificent, courageous, tragic character, rather in the mold of Homer's Achilles. He gets all the best lines and the best decriptions - at the poem's start, anyhow. As the story progresses his character becomes much pettier. Milton's God, by contrast, is a vindictive bore all the way through. Blake thought that Milton was unconsciously "of the devil's party" because he wrote so well about Satan and so badly about God. Satan's character was an inspiration to the Romantics, people like Byron, Shelley, Blake and Baudelaire. They saw him as the archetype of the individualist who rebels against tyranny and conformity, and also as Lucifer/Prometheus, the spirit which liberates humans from ignorance. Satan stood for liberality. Baudelaire wrote about him as a kind of champion of the underdog and the oppressed, effectively a substitute Christ. The Romantics saw in Milton's Satan the spirit of their own imagination, that which dares to "dream the impossible dream". If you extend the term "Literary Satanism" to cover works which don't actually mention Satan, the list would be very long indeed. As an example, I would call Shakespeare's Cleopatra a Satanic character - proud, sensual, individualist, looks out for number one, refuses to submit to Caesar's authority. The play could be called Satanic in that (IMO) it portrays her in an admiring light. That's a very brief and sketchy account, but I hope it sheds a little light on the subject. The literary side of things doesn't seem to get discussed much on alt.satanism, but it shouldn't be underestimated. My own investigations into Satanism began when I read "Paradise Lost" at 16 and fell horns over hoofs in love... -Kyr -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====----------------------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet