Proud and Unrepentant: Part 1

So, if you say “proud and unrepentant figures of literature” what pops into your head?

If you’re me (and I suspect a lot of other people) the answer is “Lucifer”.

Unlike many people who would answer that way though, my first exposure to the idea of Lucifer as a sympathetic character didn’t come from Milton, it came from Brust.

I refer of course to Steven Brust‘s second novel, To Reign In Hell. As you can tell from just the title, Steve was working pretty obviously in Milton country. However, at the time I read the book I didn’t know that–I had never heard of Milton, much less of the common (but shocking to some) idea that Lucifer is the hero of Paradise Lost.

I’m not sure how old I was when I read Brust‘s book–I was eleven when it came out, and I’m sure it was a bit later than that. I had definitely read at least two Taltos books before reading it, but that doesn’t help much. Anyway, I was probably twelve or thirteen.

And at that age, Brust‘s book blew my mind. He laid a bit of science fantasyThere’s more than a bit of Moorcock in the creation of new worlds by struggling with the raw chaos, and quite a bit of Zelaznian stuff in there too. over top of the basic creation and revolt of the angels story. The first time I read this my mind was blown just by the notion that Satan wasn’t a bad guy. This might also have been the first time I really understood that history was written by the winners, and that things were rarely black and white.

I suspect Steve would be pleased by the notion that his work was profoundly subversive, even if my evidence is only that it was so for certain youths.

Rereading the book later, after I had read both Milton and Santayana‘s Lucifers, I could see a lot of things that young me didn’t see, and I appreciated the book in different ways. It’s an extremely readable novel of ideas, and that’s a tricky thing to pull off.

At the risk of spoiling the book (i.e., you might want to stop reading now if you plan to read the book) I’ll quote the bit from towards the end that captures the nobility in Brust‘s Satan. The context is a meeting between Yaweh and Satan, just after they’ve found out that the whole war between them was started because of some miscommunications perpetrated by a trouble-maker:

“I don’t quite know how to take all this, Satan.” The Regent shook his head. “I don’t either. I feel that we’ve been fighting for no reason–and yet, have we?”

“I don’t know. But it seems that neither of us want to fight, and our reasons for fighting never existed.”

Satan nodded.

“Well then,” Yaweh continued, “how do we end the war?”

“I’ll return to my army and tell them… hmmmm.”

“Exactly. Tell them what? That you are now willing to cooperate with the Plan? That I no longer am? Though one thing I’ll do now.” He turned to Zaphkiel. “You are now Chief of the Order of Thrones. Return to the field and tell Michael to cease hostilities until further notice. Also tell him to inform everyone that Abdiel is to be found.”

“Yes,” said Zaphkiel, and left.

“In any case,” said Yaweh, “we’re going to have to find a way to cease hostilities permanently. And remember, I will not abandon the Plan.”

Satan shrugged. “Are you willing to be honest about it?”

Yaweh furrowed his brow. “What does that mean?”

“It means, are you willing to explain to everyone what dangers there are? How many may be destroyed, and try to convince them that it is the right thing? If you’ll do that–”

“Father.”

Yaweh turned to him. “Yes?”

“It won’t work.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the minds of the hosts, those on both sides, you are committed to destroying Satan. Do you think you can announce that it was all a misunderstanding? You’ll be laughed out into the flux–both of you.”

Satan narrowed his eyes and studied him.

“What are you saying?” asked Yaweh.

“There must be a surrender. Complete and full. And an apology.”

“I don’t see why,” said Yaweh.

“Because you have claimed to be the father of us all–the creator of Heaven, practically omnipotent. He has opposed you. There must be an apology and then forgiveness, or our credibility is destroyed forever–and the Plan with it.”

Yaweh shook his head. “Wouldn’t it be just as bad if I claimed to forgive him?”

Yeshuah nodded. “Yes, Father. After all of this, you can’t forgive him. But I can.” He turned his head and looked fully at Satan. “I do,” he said. Yaweh nodded slowly. “You’re right,” he said. He turned to Satan. “Will you do it?”

“Just what,” said Satan, “are you asking?”

“That you publicly say that you were wrong to oppose me. To call on those who trust you to serve me. To back up my claim to being supreme Lord of Heaven. To bow down to Yeshuah as King Anointed after me, the supreme being of Heaven. To–”

“Lie through my teeth? No!”

“What do you mean?”

Satan’s eyes blazed with green fire. “I’ll see myself thrown into the flux first!”

Yaweh’s eyes opened wide. “I don’t understand.”

“Every decision you have made, as far as I know, has been right. Every decision I have made, from what I can see, has been wrong. But there is one thing: I have never lied about who I was, what I was doing, or why I was doing it. You have done all of these.”

Yaweh started to speak, but Satan cut him off.

“I know why you did it now, and I understand. But I will not support you in these lies and half-truths. All I have left from this mayhem is that I know I was always honest and did the best I could. I will not throw that out.

“No! There has been too much. I will not admit to something I think is wrong. Had you gone before all the hosts and simply told them the truth instead of creating a false image of yourself as some sort of god, and creating this, this thing here as some sort of demigod, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Yaweh’s face twisted for a moment, but he got the better of his anger and said, “If you object to my claiming godship because it is a lie, my only choice is to make it truth. I have said that any who oppose my son will be cast out from Heaven. I will prove my godhood by doing so. Is that what you want?”

“No. But I prefer it to being part of a lie.”

Yaweh turned to Yeshuah. “You see, my son, why I said that pride is dangerous in a ruler.
A low growling sound came from Beelzebub. The Seraphim were suddenly alert. Satan held his hand out before Beelzebub as if to hold him back.

“You,” he told Yaweh, “have destroyed my home–or your overzealous minions did. You have lied about me and forced me to kill an angel. Now you want me to be part of continuing a lie, and imply that I deserved all that happened to me. No. I will not. Now what?”

And there it is: prideful insistence on truth, refusal to lie to the masses even “for their own good”, and determination to attempt to do the right thing as well as it can be determined. You’ve got to like the guy.

(Oh, and on an unrelated note: when I decided I wanted to quote a passage from this book I had a problem–I’m in Boston, and my copies are at home. Yes, copies–I have a little paperback from the original printing, and I have the Orb edition shown above. However, it took me all of three minutes to find and download an electronic copy. Even if I had access to my copies, it would have been easier to download an illegal copy than to transcribe the passage. It’s a crazy world we live in.)

Coming soon: Part 2, with O.G. Lucifer