Wednesday 4 January 2017

Asmodeus

This is a surprise and a change of scene and subject. In Alan Moore's Jerusalem (London, 2016), Michael, having died, at least temporarily, enters a realm of dreams and demons. We seem to have left the Northampton novel and to have trespassed onto the territory of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Mike Carey's Lucifer (see here) as well as of the Alan Moore-created character, John Constantine. See also here.

However, a more apposite comparison might be with Alan Moore's Promethea:

Moore's Promethea puts a superheroine into an appropriately magical and mythological context and presents the author's philosophy.
-copied from here.  

The Asmodeus in Jerusalem reflects that: 

"The rules that governed what he was - essentially, a field of living information - meant that he was more or less compelled to answer any direct question and to do so truthfully." (p. 398)

Demons, as we know, are fallen angels, lying and deceitful, whereas Thoth-Mercury-Hermes in Promethea is - living information, which is what this Asmodeus claims to be. I expect that, by p. 1174 of Jerusalem, these demons will not be what they had seemed. 

Addendum: The punning language in the Jerusalem hereafter also fits Thoth.

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