The Screwtape Letters

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i’ve never quite understood the characterization of demons as evil.

Fun is closely related to Joy—a sort of emotional froth arising from the play instinct. […] but in itself it has wholly undesirable tendencies; it promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils.

— Screwtape in the The Screwtape Letters

it does not make sense to me. demons are fallen angels—angels who have been convinced by lucifer’s argument that humans are not worthy, and’ve made the choice to join him to tempt humans to sin, in attempt to prove that humans aren’t worthy. but which part of this makes them evil?

suppose a king is seeking his successor and one of his best advisors has this and that to say about the individual canditates, blah and blah, a decision is hard to make, and so he suggests: why not test their mettle? a fighting contest to see who’s the strongest, have a random official offer them bribes to see if they’re honest, leave a crying infant at their doorstep with a note from an imagined mistress, etc.

to be the devil’s advocate is not to be evil; to be the devil’s advocate is to play pretend, poke holes in a plan, a person, an argument…

isn’t it funny that the devil was the original devil’s advocate? lucifer played devil’s advocate to god’s plan to eventually let humans inherit his kingdom or whatever. he’s all like, “hmmm… love this plan, love this plan. but humans? they are fallible, you know…” and i think they really enjoyed playing up this dynamic (i can imagine what wild fun it is for them LOL) and took it to practice.

because why just talk about it? let’s put the thing to the test! let’s really KNOW. i mean, god KNOWS, but let’s ALL KNOW (this really is a benefit for the angels and humans) if humans are actually worthy of inheriting God’s kingdom.

btw, the advocatus diaboli (devil’s advocate) used to be an actual official position in the catholic church! their job was to argue against sainthood canditates to expose any flaws that oppose their canonization. if they’d taken a leaf out of God’s book, they’d have the advocatus dei, whose job is to challenge prospective saints in a series of real-life tests.

anyway, as i was saying, the angels that followed lucifer? i imagine that they’re the most rule-abiding, goody-goodies up in heaven. why?

imagine being an angel in the Great Forum and hearing this shit go down between god and god’s favourite, lucifer. finally lucifer calls out, “who’s with me?” now, what kind of angel would volunteer for such a task? is it the perfect upon perfect class monitor who always goes above and beyond angel-type, or the perfect but only meets the bare requirements of being perfect angel-type? there’s perfect+++++, and then there’s just perfect. angels, who have at least perfect humility, would obviously not volunteer for the job unless they’re at least a perfect++. who am i, a “just perfect,” to take on the tremendous role of being test invigilator to God’s newest creations? am i confident that i can successfully go against my nature and induce humans to commit sin? am i a better arbiter of goodness than my extraordinary brothers and sisters saraphiel, mirael, galamuel who are perfect-plus-plus-plus-plus-pluses??

further, consider the stellar angel, loyal and obedient to God. would the stellar angel not have complete faith, and believe that His kingdom shall be inherited by humans, as He has declared? would the angel not understand that to quell any doubt at all that humans are not worthy, the angel must himself help God by testing the humans’ nature to their very limit and let the results firmly put the matter to rest? would the stellar angel not then place himself in the opposing faction? align himself with lucifer, not because he believes that lucifer’s expositions are true, but so that he can offer balance, so that he is in a strategic position to fulfil God’s ends?

and most of all, would the stellar angel not love his brother lucifer deeply? and understand that if he doesn’t volunteer, lucifer shall be alone in his inglorious task of being Accuser, of bearing the name Satan, to be hated and misunderstood by all of mankind?

all this to say: a demon, a.k.a. “fallen” angel, a.k.a. moral scrutinizer, inquisitor, detective, appraiser, examiner—are GOOD! VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY GOOD. better than the best person you know, a million times over.

portraying them as evil is kind of irrational and antithetical to lucifer’s point. lucifer is trying to prove something. the kingdom of God should not fall to questionable hands. (if anything, the kingdom of God should be inherited by angels.) he’s not gonna fucking fuck his own shit up?

i imagine he runs a really tight ship. prim, forever perfect angels playing devil’s advocates. temptation with precision. spreadsheets, KPIs. lucifer’s so commited to the bit, he’s got them wearing grotesque masks and skin-tight leather suits. it can’t be comfortable. (and what’s with the trident?) this is a wiiiild task. only the best of the best, perfect++++ angels could accomplish. taking JOY in a human’s suffering is probably a trangression that’ll see the tempter sent straight back to paradise. feckless shite. the outcome of God’s great kingdom depends on every last tempter! this is not a game of cards! it’s my kingdom and yours!

so having a demon spew nonsense like calling God the “Enemy” or referring to “charity, courage, contentment” as evils is blasphemy. lewis you sacrilegious cunt, take notes!

the screwtape letters should read along the lines of:

dear “wormwood”, (greetings and lots of niceties) it’s beastly that your patient has fallen to a gambling addiction. i am anguished, but this is the work. in under no circumstance should you make contact with your patient’s guardian angel. i understand where your heart is, but unfortunately this has to be so. remind yourself this: to “go easy” on your patient is to not have faith that he can surmount temptation. he can, and he will bring glory to our Heavenly Father. a lot of new attachés like yourself are worried of being corrupted by sin. that is hilarious. i can assure you that it is absolutely impossible: you are made of pure light. (a million blessings) love, uncle “screwtape”

anyway i did still enjoy the book.

i feel soooo called out. embarrassed. ashamed. lewis is good, lol.

I gather they are even vaguely pacifist, not on moral grounds but from an ingrained habit of belittling anything that concerns the great mass of their fellow men and from a dash of purely fashionable and literary communism.

You see the idea—the worldly friends touch him on one side and the grocer on the other, and he is the complete, balanced, complex man who sees round them all. Thus, while being permanently treacherous to at least two sets of people, he will feel, instead of shame, a continual undercurrent of self-satisfaction.

Don’t forget to use the ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ argument. If the thing he prays for doesn’t happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don’t work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and ‘therefore it would have happened anyway’, and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.

each chapter / “letter” was like a lil treatise (strip away the style and it reads like classical moral essays). i wanted to take my time with each one. i loved this format and lewis is funny.

i get called out a lot reading these sort of things. but i feel called out even more than usual. is it because they’re veiled?

Generous Conflict Illusion

Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied.

The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.

But hatred is best combined with Fear. Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful—horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember; Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation by which a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of Fear. The more he fears, the more he will hate. And Hatred is also a great anodyne for shame.

…for men usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the very moment when it is ending, or when they think it is ending … the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.

The woman is in what may be called the ‘All-I-want’ state of mind. All she wants is a cup of tea properly made, or an egg properly boiled, or a slice of bread properly toasted. But she never finds any servant or any friend who can do these simple things ‘properly’—because her ‘properly’ conceals an insatiable demand for the exact, and almost impossible, palatal pleasures which she imagines she remembers from the past…

as always, i get a very serious vibe from him even when he’s poking fun. don’t you think? i am intimidated by him. he’s like a stern child. frightening lol. far too serious. we know this because he cannot bring himself to write the flip perspective i.e. letters from an archangel to the patient’s guardian angel. (i should read unsong…)

A twofaced little cheat (I know the sort) who looks as if she’d faint at the sight of blood and then dies with a smile.

She’s the sort of woman who lives for others—you can always tell the others by their hunted expression.

In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede.

i am reminded that God made a unique guardian angel for every unique human being. now i wonder if there are unique personal demons assigned to humans too. a guardian to help us along and a devil’s advocate to help prove that we’re truly worthy.