Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

The Satanic Verses and the Demonic Text 261Satan, being thus confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition,is without any certain abode; for though he has, in consequence of his angelicnature, a kind of empire in the liquid waste or air, yet this is certainlypart of his punishment, that he is … without any fixed place, or space, allowedhim to rest the sole of his foot upon. 34The perspective and emphasis – one could say, the novel’s politics – areon the side of the displaced, those without the privilege of a “proper” place.Being exceedingly aware of how “others” are subject to demonising by thedominant culture, The Satanic Verses incorporates a partial reversal of therole of demonic elements into its structure. The novel itself blazons its “Satanism”in its title; the connection between fiction and the demonic is alsoexplored in its pages. Saladin Chamcha’s transformation into a devil characterbrings the complexities and ambiguities of the demonic into focus byproducing their effects in the life of a main character – with whom thereader is most probably going to identify. This reversal of the traditionallyrejected “demonism” is not, however, unconditional celebration. The ambivalentrole of the demonic elements in The Satanic Verses needs a morecareful analysis, and it can best be achieved by reading this ambivalence onthree different levels: firstly, that of characters, secondly, in the role of thenarrator, and, thirdly, in the ambivalent role of “fiction” in the novel.34Defoe, quoted as an epigram in The Satanic Verses.