Many works of fiction, including Poul Anderson's
Operation Chaos and CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy, express the conventional assumptions that Heaven is good, that Hell is bad and that Heaven ultimately wins. How much scope is there for alternative premises? In James Blish's
Black Easter/
The Day After Judgment, Hell wins but must then become good because evil is parasitical on goodness. See
here. In Jamie Delano's
Hellblazer, magician John Constantine preserves the balance of power between Heaven and Hell in order to save Earth from either angelic or demonic dictatorship.
In Alan Moore's
Swamp Thing, evil magicians conjure the Original Darkness that was before the Creation in order to destroy Heaven. However, the plant elemental, mentored by John Constantine, shows the Darkness that opposites, including light and darkness and life and death, are interdependent.
I agree with the interdependence of opposites but not that this principle applies to moral goodness and evil, e.g., lies are parasitical on truth but not vice versa.
See also:
James Blish Compared With Graphic Novelists
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would include as well the HEROES IN HELL series of shared world stories and novels edited by Janet Morris, of which I think I have the first eight volumes.
Yes, a lie is parasitical on truth. And a truth cannot be parasitical on a lie because that would be illogical and contradictory.
Ad astra! Sean
Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn has an arc in which the title character brokers a reconciliation between Ahura Mazda and Lucifer — whose human forms, a visual convenience, look like identical twins. It ends with Lucifer chained to Ahura Mazda's throne. Neither side is shown as wholly Good or Evil.
Dawn herself is on casual terms with them both, able to visit Heaven and Hell and be welcome, although she also opposes Lucifer in at least one situation. She tells her lover, Darrian, that it's his destiny to be "Slayer of demons, murderer of angels.... By your hand gods will live and gods will die."
Referring to the identical appearance of Ahura Mazda and the Adversary, Darrian tries to break in on their quarrel by asking, "When was the last time you guys looked in a mirror?" They snarl at him in perfect unison, "When was the last time you looked at your soul?"
David,
I gather from reading the Wikipedia article that Dawn is goddess of birth and rebirth. This would give her access to both places in the hereafter.
Paul.
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