I never really considered The Exorcist a very scary movie; it creeped me out, but I was never really scared by it. I sort of wonder about the “scare” aspect of it now and wonder if people respond more to the fear of a person gone completely out of control – or more specifically, a young girl at the edge of those rebellious teenage years going completely out of control. I remember a conversation I had with a woman during a group dinner in Amsterdam, and she threw out the idea that perhaps The Exorcist didn’t terrify me in the way that it did her, and apparently many others out there, because I was not raised Catholic.
And maybe that’s why the idea of The Devil doesn’t really frighten me at all. I mean besides the fact that I have a hard time not believing that The Devil is a fictional, if not symbolic, character. When I think of The Devil I think of a charming sort of trickster, a dapper gent with a wicked sense of humor. He’s well educated, you bet (in fact, the name Lucifer comes from the word for “light bearing”, and I remember pointing out to one of my professors that there was a "light bearing" lamp in the San Francisco State University logo), a bit blasé about things, and he’s generally a guy I think I would enjoy sitting around and knocking back a few bourbons with.
And maybe that’s the inherent danger with The Devil, maybe he tricks you into thinking that he’s not that dangerous, that there’s nothing to fear. Maybe it’s one of The Devil’s tricks to make us think that he doesn’t exist at all. Maybe, if he wandered the world looking like this I would be more frightened:
But I would probably be more likely to tell him that I dug him more in Rocky Horror…
And maybe it’s dangerous to think of The Devil as a harmless trickster, like it’s dangerous to think of an American president as just moronic when that person is also inept, dangerous, irresponsible and possible a little homicidal. I find it interesting that war and strife for power and money done in the name of righteousness and of God, really seem more like the actions The Devil would dig.
And maybe, just maybe, I don’t have a fear of The Devil because in the back of my mind I have an idea that if this whole Christian end of times things goes down, I’m doomed to be spending a little knockin’ back bourbon time with Big Red. According to a charming little card one of our customers sent to us, I will not be saved for a variety of reasons, but some of the better ones:
“Ever looked with lust? Jesus said lust is the same as adultery. Ever had hatred? God sees hatred as murder of the heart. Ever used God’s name in vain? That’s called blasphemy.”
Have I done these things? God yes. Looked with lust? Three times today, and it’s on my calendar for tomorrow.
Personally, I view The Devil as a great, great fictional character. I mean the guy is used to represent absolute evil, and everyone loves the bad guy. The Devil is the dark side of The Force made flesh, he’s the one who forged the ring of power in the fires of Mt. Doom, he’s Kaiser Soze wrapped in Michael Myers wrapped in the horror understood by Colonel Kurtz.
And I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. Except straight to hell…
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