Satan Isn’t Scary Anymore

I’ve been reading a collection of the classic tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard, and I’ve noticed just how dated these stories are. Don’t get me wrong, they are well written and quite entertaining. But what I’m referring to in this instance is whenever Solomon Kane faces the other-worldly creatures in these tales they’re usually described as something from hell, or like Satan himself. Though there are a lot of creepy things that Solomon Kane faces, and Howard does a good job of describing how horrific the creatures are, it doesn’t scare me like the readers who read them around the time the stories were published. These stories were written in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. This was before television and horror movies desensitized people; a time where dark, supernatural things, especially the Devil, were something feared whenever thought of.

Dante Alighieri’s 14^TH century allegorical poem, Inferno (better known as Dante’s Inferno), depicted Satan trapped in the middle of Hell, waist-deep in ice, giant, with three faces, gnawing on traitorous men like Brutus, Cassius and Judas Iscariot. In John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, Satan is the defier against God, rebelling and taking a third of the angels with him and warring against the heavenly host. He is the deceiver of mankind.

It seems like in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, mediums of all sorts used Satan as the image of absolute fear and evil. He was in literature, horror films, and Rock/Heavy Metal music. I remember being a kid in the 80’s and Satan seemed to be everywhere in the movies, in music, and in the news (Satanic crimes and murders). Now, it seems like all that started to fade out in the late 90’s, and the fearful image of Satan has been swept under the rug; and no one recalls much of it anymore, except to say, “Remember when?” 

In fantasy fiction, many villainous characters have been inspired by Satan. Those who have not read past The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings may think that Sauron is the Satan figure in Tolkien’s creation. But when you read his other works, like The Silmarillion, you find out about the one who Sauron was seduced by, and who Sauron served. That is Morgoth, who was Melkor before he turned to darkness. Morgoth, like Satan, was the most powerful of his kind, but wanted to do things his way and rebelled against the creator, Eru, and brought darkness to creation. After Morgoth was defeated and cast into the outer void, Sauron imitated his master, thus continuing the likeness of Morgoth. 

In C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Jadis, the White Witch, rebels against her sister, refusing to submit to her and wanting the throne for herself. She later usurps the throne of Narnia and plunges the world into a dark winter for 100 years. She has minions of all types of evil creatures. All traitors belong to her, and as we see in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, she means to take Edmund’s life (since he was declared a traitor), but Aslan (the Christ-figure in the books) chooses to die on his behalf. The White Witch leads the “crucifixion” (so to speak) of Aslan, with all her minions; just like Satan had his way with Jesus on the day of his crucifixion. 

Even The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan have the Dark One, also known as Shai'tan, which is Arabic for adversary, which is the same meaning for Satan. In Jordan’s series, Shai’tan, the Dark One, is known as the “opponent of the Creator’; and was bound by the Creator at the moment of creation.

Things get twisted around in Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy; a dark fantasy where the character, Saetan, the High Lord of Hell, is the good guy, as well as those who dwell in Hell. In this world, Darkness is the power of right; basically good and evil are reversed.

Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series is basically about mortal people becoming immortal incarnations of Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil and Good (Satan is the incarnation of Evil). The first five books simply deal with Satan using and tricking these newly turned immortal incarnations for his own evil purposes, and these incarnations fight against him. By book six another mortal assumes the incarnation of Evil (Satan), but he actually has a good side, and the evil things that Satan has done in the past begins to become rationalized and seen to be for some greater purpose.

More recently, Sara Douglass’ novel, The Devil’s Diadem, is set in 12^TH century England where there is a mysterious plague sweeping the land, and it is later found out that imps from hell and the devil himself are sending the plague in search for a stolen artifact.      

In closing, Satan has been used and imitated in fantasy fiction and allegory for generations, and it appears that his likeness is diminishing more and more in the genre; save for a few elements in urban fantasy, which deals more with demons in different fictional representations. The more you look at it, the dark lord imitation of Satan is becoming yesterday’s element in the genre, as Satan and Satan-like characters no longer scare us or have us biting our nails in suspense, because it’s been used and told and retold so many times. More and more villains in the genre are simply appearing as the dark side of man, or just an opposing force. Satan isn’t scary anymore. But the ancient telling of this being, fallen from grace, through the Bible, and reinterpreted through the mythologies of many civilizations and stories up to today, is epic in scale. It is the source of the retelling of the clash between good and evil, which drives the majority of the genre. 

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The Elf Ingredient

When I was a kid, whenever someone talked about elves, the first thing to come to mind were the little people that helped Santa make toys at the North Pole; or those little men that helped the poor cobbler make an abundance of shoes while he slept at night; or those little Keebler elves that made awesome cookies. And don’t forget Snap, Crackle and Pop, the elf mascots for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. Richard Doyle’s illustrations in Andrew Lang’s 1884 fairy tale, The Princess Nobody, gave us the image of cute little elves, as described in Lang’s fairy tale.

When I discovered Tolkien’s tall, beautiful beings of Middle-earth I thought to myself, “these are elves?” Fairy tales and children’s fiction had given me images of little people with pointy ears in stockings; and I was oblivious to Norse mythology, which is where modern fantasy derived it’s depictions of elves. With characters like Legolas, Elrond and Lady Galadriel, Tolkien sparked a love for elves, and writers of the fantasy genre have been staffing their books with elf characters ever since.

Next to dragons, elves have to be the most widely used mythical character in fantasy. Before fantasy was even a genre in literary fiction, The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany was published in 1924. The novel is a fantasy classic, telling the story of the mortal man, Alveric, who ventures to Elfland to find and marry the lovely elf princess, Lirazel, the daughter of the King of Elfland. Alveric weds Lirazel and they have a son together, but Lirazel grows homesick for Elfland, and Alveric has to search for her again, after she leaves for her homeland. It’s a fantastical story with poetic prose, complete with elements of magic and romance, with a witch, unicorns and a troll as part of the journey. Lord Dunsany’s novel surely is part of the roots of modern fantasy; but Tolkien’s release of The Hobbit in 1937 was big, and, nearly two decades later, The Lord of the Rings became even more significant. Elves in fiction had never been portrayed like what was seen in Middle-earth, and this pretty much set the standard for modern fantasy fiction.

One cannot leave out Poul Anderson’s 1954 (forgotten) classic, The Broken Sword, which is grittier and faster paced than Tolkien’s work; and is heavy in the Norse myth in regards to the elves and the setting. The elves in this book are not worth remembering like Tolkien’s crafted characters.

Elves have continued throughout the works of many fantasy writers in their series for decades; like Terry Brooks with his Shannara books, Raymond E. Feist with his Riftwar Cycle series, as well as the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels. The aim these days is to break the Tolkien tradition of elves; and there was even a period where there was focus on producing more dark and evil elves.

Probably the most famous of the dark elves (or drow—ebony-skinned elves) is Drizzt Do’Urden. Drizzt was created by author R.A. Salvatore, and written about in 18 different novels (introduced in the Icewind Dale Trilogy, but made most popular in the Dark Elf Trilogy). Dark elves are known for being evil (generally) and living underground, but Drizzt chose to forsake his people’s evil ways, taking to the surface, where he learned to be a ranger and eventually became a hero in Northwest Faerûn.

Two compelling series of fantasy fiction where elves were depicted as cruel overlords are the Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey, and the Annals of Drakis by Tracy Hickman. In the Halfblood Chronicles, the elves came from another dimension and took over the Earth, enslaving mankind. In the Annals of Drakis, elves have built an empire where they enslaved many races by the use of aether magic, which makes the slaves forget their past, and they think their lives are fine and noble under the rule of the elves. The difference with the elves in Hickman’s series is that they are not the attractive elves we’ve come to know in the genre. These elves have elongated heads, sharp teeth and black eyes. Basically, they’re kind of creepy; especially when one of the females has a thing for the human hero of the story.

There are so many books that I could point to that harbor elves within their pages. Like many ingredients used in fantasy fiction, this is one that has been used in epic/high fantasy abundantly. Elves have been key characters in high fantasy since the beginning; and there looks to be no end in sight.

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From Book to Screen

My love for fantasy started when I was a kid, watching cartoons and movies in the genre. I didn’t get into fantasy books until I was a teenager, and I can definitely say that it was due to those cartoons and movies that I was drawn into reading fantasy fiction. Today, cartoons are nowhere near what they were in the 70’s and 80’s, back when they were saturated with entertaining fantasy settings; and the same goes for movies. However, the successful adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter to the big screen have given fantasy fiction a good face, and may be helping the genre like never before. Even the Game of Thrones adaptation on HBO is giving the “adult” side of fantasy a boost in sales (probably more so for Mr. Martin).

Fantasy stories have been adapted to film since the early days of cinema, but Disney’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm’s, Sneewittchen, better known as Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, was the first to break ground—becoming the first of it’s kind. Not too long afterwards, MGM released the Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Disney is keeping the Oz legacy going with their latest release of Oz the Great Powerful, with sequels to follow. I personally enjoyed the new Oz movie, and hope that the follow-ups are just as good, if not better, even with Sam Raimi showing no interest in directing the sequels.

In the early days, fantasy books could only be effectively made for the screen via animation, hence Disney’s success with movies like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, and the Sword in the Stone. It was the animated features of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Return of the King that drew me in as a kid, topped off with The Last Unicorn.

Finally, when the 80’s came, probably the first time I ever really saw a live-action fantasy flick (apart from The Dark Crystal, which was not adapted from a book) was the first time I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger. He played Conan in Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, based on Robert E. Howard’s character. I watched those movies every time they came on TV. The Neverending Story was another movie I had watched over and over. I never read the book, but the author, Michael Ende, felt that the movie was so far different from his book that he wanted the movie to stop being made, or else change the title of the film. The makers of the movie continued with the production anyway. Ende was an advisor for the script, but he claimed that the director/screenwriter, Wolfgang Petersen, secretly rewrote the script. However, Petersen insisted that the movie was very faithful to the novel.

The Princess Bride movie was a well received adaptation by audiences, and fans of the book seemed to love it as well. The author, William Goldman, did the screenplay for the film, which is probably why it was conveyed to screen so effectively. The screenwriter for the Stardust film tried to bring a Princess Bride kind of feel to that adaptation. Neil Gaiman, the author of the novel, seemed okay with the changes and adjustments in the movie, which were different from the book.

Eragon and The Golden Compass, are probably the most failed adaptations. These films were supposed to spark a new series of movies based on the novels, but failed to project strong stories on screen. In my opinion, Eragon was not very good, but The Golden Compass wasn’t too bad. But, from those who read the book, The Golden Compass movie was said to have been too close to the book (cramming in a lot), and failing to include a vital part at the end.

It’s always said that the movie is never as good as the book, because the movie cannot offer the depth of characters and world-building like the book can. However, many people cannot suffer through Tolkien’s long descriptions, but they’ll eat the movies up. We should give thanks to Tolkien’s detail, because it gave Peter Jackson and his crew everything they needed to create a visual Middle-earth. We have to understand that literary fiction and cinema convey stories in extremely different ways. One deals with capturing the mind and imagination, while the other deals with capturing our eyes and ears, as well as our minds. The problem with a lot of fantasy movies is that the makers work hard to dazzle us with sights and sounds, but fail to capture our hearts with solid storytelling and good acting. In literature, the writer has to pull us into their world and convince us to take the characters’ journey.

When a fantasy book is adapted to the screen, it's probably most assuring that changes would have to be made to make the story effective for viewers; but it’s important for the screenwriters and directors to render the spirit of the book to the fullest. I am glad to see fantasy books transferred to the screen effectively, and it’s keeping the fantasy genre strong. Not only that, but we get to see the stories that we enjoyed in our heads for so long displayed with the best visuals that the industry can dish out.

I’m not going to lie, as an aspiring writer, I dream of seeing my book on the big screen some day, with hundreds of millions of dollars funding the production, and everyone falling in love with it. Like I said, it’s a dream. But, I know that I am not the only one. Lots of authors dream of their stories becoming movies, but there is the fear that their baby (their book) would not be given due justice, and the whole thing could turn into a disappointment, like Michael Ende, mentioned above.

I am optimistic that more good fantasy novels will continue to be produced well for the screen, and we will enjoy them for years to come. But I hope that filmmakers learn from past failures, and aim to stay true to the heart of the stories. 

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The Dark and Gritty

You could say that there has been elements of dark and gritty in the fantasy genre for many years, with the past thirty years brewing the flavor of today’s edgy fantasy. From Glen Cook’s The Black Company, released in the mid-80’s, to George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones in the mid-90’s, to today’s popular authors like Joe Abercrombie (author of the First Law books), popular fantasy has moved away from the likes of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The straight edge hero has been replaced by the anti-hero, a character that is capable of womanizing, stealing and killing, but could be our hero on the basis that there are people worse than they are.

Grey and flawed characters are the norm in today’s fiction, and it’s what readers desire the most. But, in dark and gritty fantasy, flawed protagonists can be too flawed. The whole purpose of producing imperfect characters in fantasy fiction is so that readers are able to relate more to the characters, but how many of us are assassins and mercenaries? How many of us are capable of rape and murder? Can we really relate to these troubled characters, or is it more like watching reality TV? After all, edgy fantasy is being called “Realistic Fantasy” now (which is oxymoronic).

I remember when the movie Million Dollar Baby came out, starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. It starts out as a feel-good movie, almost like watching Rocky or the Karate Kid, yet the ending took us all by surprise. It was unexpected, shocking—depressing. But we all loved it, because of the unpredictability and the drama. Clint Eastwood directed another movie called Mystic River, which gave us another unpredictable, depressing ending. And, again, we loved it. I use these two examples in cinema, because they were critically acclaimed and award winning for having such dramatic, tragic stories. This same effect is sweeping the fantasy genre. Readers are craving for “realism”. Readers are longing for characters that they can either identify with, or love to hate, or hate to love. Readers no longer want to use fantasy as an escape from reality, but now they want the best of both worlds.

With all the above said, I still believe, that at the end of the day, no one (at lease most of us) do not want to be caught in a world where there is no hope and no redemption for the characters. Death and despair is a part of reality, but so is hope and triumph. Some of these worlds that we read about in these dark fantasy books are so depressing you almost wonder why the characters even bother to keep on living. There’s almost nothing worth living for. And if readers cannot balance between dark fantasy and not-so-dark fantasy, but only seek the gritty, then they kind of get caught into enjoying the demise of others, and never walk away from a book having some thought of redemption or the overcoming of a tragic past. A lot of readers cannot even return to the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien or Terry Brooks, because they are addicted to the edge in fantasy fiction.

Personally, I think a good story should produce a degree of trouble in a character—an inner struggle, an obsession, a troubled past, or a declining or deadly lifestyle. But the story should be about the character’s triumph over some part of their struggles. And if a main character dies, there should be a good cause to their death, where it is not just shocking and upsetting to the reader, but believable and bringing worth to the story.

I’ll use another Clint Eastwood movie as an example: Gran Torino. The movie gives you another element of unpredictability at the end, but it’s not tragic and depressing; it’s sacrificial and, to a degree, uplifting. A character’s unanticipated death was not just a scene to disturb us, but to show us that even a flawed character can have true heart and sacrifice.

So, if we’re going to start calling the dark and gritty fantasy “realistic”, because it has sex, rape, death, cussing, and characters with troubled pasts—like that which is common to mankind—then let’s not forget that mankind is capable of much more. There’s a lot of hope in reality, more so than one may think. Men and women throughout history have done great and horrific things, and fantasy can reflect such things in its pages, but let’s not lose the elements that the founding fathers of the genre brought us… KEEP HOPE ALIVE!  :-)


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