Mark Twain
[also the book epigraph for Kenneth Roberts's Northwest Passage]
I have no special regard for Satan; but I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him. It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show. All religions issue bibles against him, but we never hear his side. We have none but the evidence for the prosecution, and yet we have rendered the verdict. To my mind, this is irregular. It is un-English; it is un-American; it is French. . . . Of course Satan has some kind of a case, it goes without saying. It may be a poor one, but that is nothing; that can be said about any of us.
7 comments:
Chuckling hard at "it is French."
I was thinking of Charlotte Gordon's issues with her singular-focus reviewer, and this quote made me wonder: do Satanists (if such exist) feel they have a personal relationship with Beelzebubba? Have they accepted him as their personal damner? Can they give positive reviews on Amazon to any thing not written by Anton LeVey or filtered through a pro-Satan worldview? Where, then, would they stand on Milton, who gave (ha ha) the devil his due?
Ah, gotta love Twain. Provider of the other great truth: "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
Btw, rose-scented pound cake rocked! Thanks!
HI KAte, I didn't know you had commented until I came here, too. Very nice to feel our virtual community in action. I did not know, Dawn, that Twain wrote an essay about harriet. Did he?
By they way, I hate philip roth. Even though I should love him. I respect goodbye C. But I do not love him. never have. and it gave me true delight to have you Not like him.
your friend (also these word verifications get more and more difficult for me. ARGH)
Well, we do C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters and God Opened a Beauty Shop where God presents Lucifer's difficult life and at least understands him.
Kate, I love the other great truth. Perhaps we could add federally mandated testing too
Kate, I'm so glad to hear about the cake!
And Charlotte, this is first I've heard about a Twain essay on Harriet Shelley. I can't wait to find it.
In the short story "Displaced Person, by Eric Frank Russell, Satan gets to tell his side of the story.
I've never heard of Eric Frank Russell. What are his other interests, besides Satan?
Russel wrote a lot of short Science Fiction stories, back in the 30's through the 50's. I thought he was American, based on the tone of his stories, but he was British.
"And Then There Were None" and Jay Score are personal favorites of mine.
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