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Good at Being Evil: the Demons of The Vampire Chronicles 191individual – at the same time, however, it just cannot completely give up onreligious themes. To exist in a total lack of answers would be unthinkable.The Vampire Chronicles is locked into battle with limits and is constantlyforced to cross them. The borderline between Good and Evil is entangledwith the logic of double-bind; “the saints of evil” is one characteristic expressionused. 70 Another, equally typical expression is “good at being [a killer,a vampire]” that characterises Lestat. “I was a good marksman when Iwas a young man […]. And now I am a good vampire. So much for our understandingof the word ‘good.’” 71 Other limits that the series similarly circlesand twists are Beast/Human, Human/Demon, and Spirit/Body.I conclude my analysis of this chapter by emphasising the profound ambivalencethat characterises Rice’s Chronicles. Both her vampire characters andher novels have liminal “impurity” or heterogeneity in their fabric. The demonacts as a sign of the Other: the vampires explain their plural and morallyconflicting condition by their fusion with the demon.In the end, the heterogeneity of the self precedes the demon; the potentialfor conflict is inherent in human make-up itself and Rice’s vampiresare just exploring the demonic extremes of the desire. The Vampire Chroniclescannot stop at any conclusion; it is sucking different occult and religiousmaterials into its textual self, proving only that desire is always desire forsomething Other. It is possible to see it as an exhilarating or terrifying prospect(or both, as in Rice’s case) that we cannot ever really reach and knowthis Other.Anne Rice has been central in establishing “monstrous others” as themain characters of horror; especially such forms of sexuality that have traditionallybeen labelled as “perverse” have gained new prominence as a part ofhorror’s transgressive character. Another important writer to explore thesepossibilities is Clive Barker, even if from a somewhat different angle. He returnsthe Christian Devil to the centre of the stage in the next chapter.70 VL, 312.71 VL, 336.
8. The (Un)Traditionalist:Clive Barker’s DevilPOLYXENE: (To Yapshi) What have you got there?YAPSHI: Lady?POLYXENE: In the bundle?YAPSHI: A dead god, lady.POLYXENE: Surely you mean dog. (To Lysias) Hemeans dog. Take it away, Yapshi.YAPSHI: (Bowing) Lady. 1“The History of the Devil; or Scenes from a Pretended Life” is the full titleof one of the earliest published plays by Clive Barker (b. 1952). Barker becameinstantaneously famous with the publication of a three-volume shortstory collection Books of Blood in 1984. Since this he has published eightnovels, four more short story collections and several novellas, as well asscripted, directed and produced several movies. The earlier work by him hasalso gained attention, and Incarnations: Three Plays is one of the most recentand most interesting additions to his oeuvre, consisting of three plays writtenand produced in the early 1980s. 2 “The History of the Devil” (1980;“HD”) exhibits several of the key features of Barker’s fiction – especially hislove for the grotesque, the demonic and his dark sense of humour – but isalso unique in its reliance on the fantastic theatre tradition and adaptation ofthe Christian figure of the Devil. I am particularly interested in analysinghow different layers of ambivalence are constructed in the script. I want tosee how the demonic figures are connected with or set apart from the humans– to examine the specific role that Barker has cast for the Devil and hisdemons to play.The opening citation from the play is a good signpost. The joke withthe inversion of letters from “god” to “dog” match the general atmosphereof the work. 3 It is irreverent, often grotesquely comic, and directs special offencestowards good taste, proper conduct and Christianity. The figure ofthe devil is in a central role in the play, but it has gone through a radical re-1 Barker, “The History of the Devil” (1995, 283).2For more of Barker’s playwriting, see also Forms of Heaven: Three Plays (Barker1996).3 The Wordsworth Dictionary of Obscenity & Taboo also points out that ‘dog’ relates to‘a male prostitute’: “This euphemism is a reference to anal intercourse carried out ‘doggyfashion’”(McDonald 1988/1996; q.v. ‘Dog’). Such connotations were probably notmissed by Barker (well familiar with the homosexual and sadomasochistic subcultures).
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TAMPERE STUDIES INLITERATURE AND TE
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Tampere Studies in Literature and T
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ments, and also such further lines
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IllustrationsCover: “Possessed Re
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The BeginningsAnd Jesus asked him,
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The Beginnings 3mons form an import
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The Beginnings 5negative, demonic a
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The Beginnings 7chapter four), but
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The Beginnings 9scious conflict, fo
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The Beginnings 11that is produced o
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The Beginnings 13The History of the
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The Beginnings 15emphasised that su
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The Beginnings 17turalism,” but i
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The Beginnings 19the materials I ha
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1. The Ancestry of the DemonicÑH.
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 25ness
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 35able
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 37The f
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 39and t
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 41- in
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 43Chris
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 45[…]
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 47of th
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 49serpe
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 51tween
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2. The Demonic in the SelfBut ancie
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The Demonic in the Self 55Individua
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The Demonic in the Self 57should be
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The Demonic in the Self 61A number
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The Demonic in the Self 63tion. 36
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The Demonic in the Self 65the nethe
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The Demonic in the Self 67sciousnes
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The Demonic in the Self 69influence
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The Demonic in the Self 71LEADER:Yo
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The Demonic in the Self 73Particula
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The Demonic in the Self 75NIETZSCHE
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The Demonic in the Self 77ing into
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The Demonic in the Self 79Nietzsche
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3. Unravelling the Demonic TextThe
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 83in o
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 85othe
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 87stru
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 89ies,
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 91open
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 93ill-
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 95both
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 97woul
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 99demo
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 101Thi
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PART II
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114Demonic Texts and Textual Demons
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5. Mothering a Demon:Rosemary’s B
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The EpilogueIf there are answers to
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BibliographyA note on this bibliogr
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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