Monday, December 24, 2018

The Devil as Imagined by Poul Anderson and Peter Jackson

"I was under the regard of the Solipsist...that egotism so ultimate that it would yield no room even to hope." --Operation Chaos, Poul Anderson

They say the Devil is a Solipsist.
A self-regard intense and absolute
enough to claim that no-one else exists
how many evils show this at the root.
What need for empathy, for common care
for conscience or responsibility
to people who aren’t really, really, there?
Thou shalt have no existence before Me.

An image seen on-screen: a Lidless Eye,
a flaming man-shape calling itself “I,”
the Eye, the “I”, the endless nested layers
of infinite denial, the barren stare
of Solipsism from an empty well
receding into flaming fractal hell.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside

1 comment:

Ruth said...

Great one!