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| Caliban |
The devil is a far more
interesting character than god in the Bible and quite a lot of Christian
literature like Paradise Lost. He is authentic. His authenticity
makes him rebel against god who is a bombastic and whimsical character. The
devil’s problem, however, is not with god’s self-conceit and capriciousness.
His problem is why he should endure all that and remain a slave to such an
entity. The devil has self-respect and wants to assert his individuality and
dignity. Hierarchical systems don’t like people with self-respect and
individuality.
Human beings love to create
hierarchies. Our gods sit at the top of all our hierarchies and they are as
hideous entities as the creators of our hierarchies. Our gods are the
supernatural projections of our leaders. In other words, our gods are created
in the images of our leaders who create our hierarchies. Our leaders obviously know
how to make use of these gods for various purposes: political as well as
others. You can bring a billion people to their knees before you if you have
the right god(s) with you.
There are always villains,
however, who won’t bend their knees so easily. They are a tiny minority and
hence not too problematic. If they become problematic, you can always behave
like your god and pronounce a new commandment like UAPA or TADA. Even then that
self-respecting tiny minority won’t bend their knees, of course. That tiny
minority constitute the legion of devils.
Jack London’s character, Wolf Larsen,
is one such devil. The novel, The Sea Wolf, is not particularly
outstanding as a work of literature. But it has continued to draw the attention
of readers for over a century now because of the character of Wolf Larsen.
“You are a
man utterly without what the world calls morals?” the narrator,
Humphrey Van Weyden, asks Wolf Larsen.
“That’s it,” Wolf
agrees instantly.
Humphrey goes on to compare
him to “a snake, or a tiger, or a shark.”
“Now you know me,”
responds Wolf.
“You are a sort of monster.”
Humphrey doesn’t seem to know what Wolf really is. After calling him many
names, Humphrey then says that Wolf is “a Caliban who has pondered Setebos
and who acts as you act, in idle moments, by whim and fancy.”
There you are. Whim and
fancy. That’s the Biblical god, Yahweh. Caliban is a monster from
Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, and the reference here is to Robert
Browning’s re-creation of Shakespeare’s Caliban. Setebos is Caliban’s god who also
acts by whim and fancy. Caliban, like any devotee, can’t be much different from
his god. And most gods are bizarre creatures irrespective of their religions.
Wolf Larsen chooses to be his
own god. It’s not a choice really. One of the most neglected truths is that we
don’t have too many choices. Our character is mostly given to us by the chromosomes
that constitute us, the environment in which we grew up, our teachers, well-wishers,
priests, and gods. Our choices are limited by our character. Wolf Larsen’s
character was no different. Yet he remains fascinating to a lot of readers even
today, a century after his death in the novel to which he belonged. Why? Let’s
take a break today. The answer to that why is very interesting. As interesting
as the devil himself. See you tomorrow with a sequel to this post. Why is the
devil more interesting than any gods?
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