Dresden - Blog Posts
Low key I'm kinda bored of and annoyed by the preponderance of works that have Boring If Not Outright Malevolent Angels on one side and Nuanced, Charismatic, And Honestly Not Evil Demons because it just seems like a perpetuation of the idea that good is fundamentally flat or banal or not even good at all, that Goodness is something performed to achieve something else, usually power or control. In fact, I don't object to nuanced demons so much as the imbalance (only the "evil" side is allowed to be anything approching, well, approachable.)
But then I'm like "well identification with monsters is something that marginalized groups often feel because it forces us to question what is monstrous, so the idea of finding compassion and humanity in those deemed inherently unforgivable is actually very powerful and subversive"
But then I'm like "but is it subversive or is it laziness? It's hardly revolutionary at this point, it's like people making children's toys scary. It's supposed to have a tension between what something should be (childlike, innocent) and making it wicked. But now it's so common that dolls are often considered inherently creepy. So where's the subversion in a creepy doll? There's none. Where's the subversion in mean Angels or angels who have no interest in or love for humanity?"
But then I'm like "well but aren't angels traditionally destroying cities and saying Be Not Afraid?"
And I'm like, again just to myself as I pace my kitchen, "I mean YEAH but they're also like flaming wheels or whatever, I'm not sure how much these works are genuinely interested in angel mythology"
Then as I make coffee for myself, I think, "angels represent the traditional hierarchy, the traditional Christian dogma, and therefore are stand ins for the authority that we must question"
But then, as I realize we are out of sugar and my coffee is therefore ruined and am thus more susceptible to thinking there are demonic forces at work in this world, I go, "but demons in these stories aren't systemically kind. They're just cool. They're individuals and help individuals if they feel like it. In these stories, there's no mass concern for all of humanity really."
And then I conclude, "maybe angels are written cruelly because the world seems cruel and therefore there cannot be a Divine force involved in our daily activities looking out for us. Demons are by their nature doomed to fail which makes stories where they try to do Good have a more natural conflict and also explains why things in the world aren't better. For if there were angels, a legion of angels, always at work, shouldn't things be better? But we don't know how the world could otherwise be. But it seems hard to argue that this is in fact the best of all possible worlds. So demons make an easier to identify with protagonist while also being powerful and having cosmic impact. I believe many stories doing their own take on angels and demons would benefit from truly trying to imagine angels and beings of love, rather than the cold and distant figures I often see in fiction, but I understand the framework behind that conception."
Then I add to myself, "of course since I'm mostly talking about like urban fantasy, it might also be that people just wanna fuck demons more."