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The (Un)Traditionalist: Clive Barker’s Devil 195witch, a soldier lost in a forest, with a story-line of historical pretensions, itis of course – both. Its central subject-matter is fantastical and symbolic: thetrial of the Devil after all his years of banishment. This very special sessionof law takes place in suggestive surroundings. The court is assembled on theshores of Lake Turkana, in Africa. We are told that the exact spot is “sixtymiles east of where Eden stood.” 8 At the same time the mythical and biblicalcontext is contrasted with the opposing register of concrete realism. Theplace stinks (“So did Eden” comments an assisting demon) and crocodilesand a local pagan tribe contribute to an impression of desolate “godlessness.”9 Mythical and realistic, Christian and non-Christian, high and lowregisters are mixed in the play from the beginning. This contributes to thevarious aspects of ambivalence dominating the play. The settings have animportant role in determining the initial tone; actions take place in the contextof the great narrative of the Garden of Eden (connoting original sin andits punishment), but this place is empty – filled only with the random crueltyof crocodiles and the Turkana people who live in iron shacks and makenecklaces out of tin cans. 10The main character is the Devil, whose entrance is described in thestage directions:ENTER THE DEVIL, SMILING. HE IS A STAR IN HIS OWN ROTTEN FIRMA-MENT. AS GLAMOROUS – AND AS ARTIFICIAL – AS ANY HOLLYWOOD ICON.A COAT OVER HIS SHOULDER, PERHAPS. SUNGLASSES, PERHAPS. PERHAPSNOTHING. 11The description is again in humorous contrast to the mythical contextin which it is situated. The devil’s entrance is anticipated by darkness atnoon, a boiling lake and a cloud of thousands of birds. A human observerwhispers in terror: “Pazuzu.” The reference is to The Exorcist, which gavethe demonic entity this name (of an Assyrian god). 12 Because of the bestsellingqualities of the Devil in the 1970s, it is only proper that the Devilshould be called a “Hollywood icon.” The popularity of personified evilamong the mass audience points also towards the carnivalesque, or low, discourseof the demonic. “The History of the Devil” particularly relishes thispart of the demonic tradition. As a play it is characterised by fast and wittydialogue, rapid changes of setting, fights and cruel laughter over painful andserious subjects. Parts of a character eaten by crocodiles are handled on the7 HD, 246.8 Ibid., 256.9 This indeed seems to have been Barker’s intention; in his notes he explains that heused Eyelids of Morning: the Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Alistair Grahamand Peter Beard while writing the play (it has pictures of Lake Turkana and its inhabitants).Barker also emphasises that Satan comments in the play on the “Godless” qualityof this scene. (Ibid., 245.)10Ibid., 321.11 Ibid., 263.12See above, page 149n19.
196Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsstage (“Is that his head?” – “Some of it.”), and a boxing match completewith a sports commentary is left to be improvised by the actors. 13 In his introductionClive Barker remarks approvingly on a review that described“The History of the Devil” as “a mixture of Decline and Fall, Paradise Lost,Perry Mason and Flash Gordon.” 14 Barker combines themes and material thatare classified in our culture as “high” with elements that are decidedly “low”– metaphysical speculations with farts and extravagant violence. In this he isa self-conscious heir to the spirit and methods of commedia dell’arte, GrandGuignol, and Punch and Judy puppet shows. Barker especially comments onthe English Christmas pantomime, and its “riotous indifference to any rulesof drama but its own; its guileless desire to delight.” 15 The demonic elementsare, once again, put to the use of entertainment.The mode of entertainment Barker’s play celebrates is openly selfreflexiveand ironic; every act opens with an announcement made by an “actor.”In these opening lines the main action and subject matter of the playare anticipated and commentated upon. The play should have a good, captivatingbeginning – thus the actor announces that “History always beginswith a cry” (and a panicking woman enters crying “The ground’s openingup”). 16 Pretension and acting are also the Devil’s traditional skills, as fictioncan be aligned with a lie and opposed to the absolute truth. Barker notesthat the Devil “has the best collection of personae of any character in Westernculture.” 17 The relationship between actors and the Devil is treatedironically in the play. The Devil constantly demands the services of the actors;he is especially fond of insisting that they give him “the obscene kiss.”This becomes one of the comic sidelines in the play’s twisted plot. At thesame time it also functions as a mark for the connection between the demonicand (forbidden) sexuality.ENTER THE DEVIL, UNSEEN.THE DEVIL: Would you care to kiss my ass?1ST ACTOR: How did you know?2ND ACTOR: Know what?1ST ACTOR: What he said to me. Would you care to kiss my ass?2ND ACTOR: Are you offering?1ST ACTOR: Me?2ND ACTOR: Yes.1ST ACTOR: Why not?2ND ACTOR: Your tent or mine? 18The immediate context of this incident reveals the intimate relationshipthe Devil gradually enters into with the humans in the play. The court of law13Ibid., 321-22, 340.14 Ibid., xii.15 Ibid., x.16Ibid., 251.17 Ibid., xii.18Ibid., 316.
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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 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 37The f
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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 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 65the nethe
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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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PART II
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BibliographyA note on this bibliogr
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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