Thread by @RomGothSam

In Satan's telling, God becomes the petty tyrant resisting all challenges to his absolute power. Satan resists that power and will not be cowed by defeat or vengeance but stands with his fellows.

'Courage never to submit or yield:
And what else is not to be overcome?'

Those verses make me tremble. They are so powerful and so beautiful. And it's no wonder that it is this image of Satan which was taken up in the 18th century and made Blake famously suggest that Milton was 'of the devil's party without knowing it'

Milton's Satan became in the 18th century an image of the sublime. For Edmund Burke, we do not 'meet anywhere a more sublime description' than that of Satan 'with a dignity so suitable to the subject'. But what was the appeal of this Satan and what did he mean? 9/

Godwin's exploration of the Satanic figure in 'An Enquiry into Political Justice' underlines some of the symbolic meanings being associated with the demonic figure.

'He bore his torments with fortitude because he disdained to be subdued by despotic power'

10/

The idea of Satan as a point of resistance to despotic power. One who stood up against an injustice he could not defeat. One that rejected the 'how things are' was a powerful image in the era of revolution (Corsica - 1755, American - 1775, France - 1789 , Haiti - 1791) 11/

It was a powerful image in the era which saw political repression in Britain as a response to the French revolution. Which saw the agitations of the abolitionary movement, the campaigns for an end to the religious anti-tolerance laws and the rise of working class activism. 12/

The image of Milton's Satan was loaded with meaning. Resistance against oppressive political regimes. Resistance against the 'confessional state' (there were laws which limited the movements, jobs and education of other religious affiliations than Anglican). Resistance. 13/

The image was taken up by the Romantics. Another figure - alongside mythic ones like Prometheus - that became associated with the Romantic rebel, the resister, the individual. A figure that was, moreover, particularly useful in questioning the religious hegemony14/

So, some examples! You have Blake in 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' subverting the order of Satanic and Angelic to produce his idiosyncratic theology of non-conformity. Byron in Cain uses the devil's temptation of Cain to question theodicy and Divine (& church) power 15/

As Adriana Craciun has written about at length, you have women borrowing Satanic imagery creating a form of female Romantic Satanism which allies Satan's subjugation with the subjugation of women by custom and by law in the period. 16/
jstor.org/stable/2005780…

A casual glance at the art of Paradise Lost, shows us the ways in which the Satanic is being reimagined. Heroic (Thomas Stothard), tragic (Gustav Dore), righteously vengeful (Thomas Lawrence)

You might be starting to notice something else about a lot of this pictures...

Satan is... pretty ripped.

Both Lil Nas X's actual Satan and his final demonic form are fitting in with a long and venerable tradition!

If you would like proof of that long and venerable tradition, I have gathered together a really (REALLY) long thread (it just keeps going so keep clicking 'see more replies') 19/

https://twitter.com/RomGothSam/status/1330910556992245766?s=20

But why is Satan so sexy!? I hear you cry. Well. First off, a rebel leader who refuses to be subdued and fights against despotic power and also used to be an angel... he's got a head start. I'll leave it to art specialists to discuss the particulars of artistic modes 20/

However, where I can help is with literary depictions. Demons have been associated with sexual transgression for a long time - in the form of incubi and succubi, as demonic tempters using lust and in prurient narratives of witchcraft. 21/

How far back does it go? Really... really far. Check out this spicy image from 1489 of a witch and a devil EMBRACING! 😮 We've also got St Anthony and his sexy temptations. Faust and the devil dressed up as a lady to tempt him... I could go on.

But what I think we have happening literarily in the 1790s (ish) is a move from these demonic tempters as aligned with fairly orthodox (anti-Satan) theologies to a mixing of the sexualised Satan with the Romantic rereading. 23/

So, case in point and example - Matthew Lewis' The Monk (1796). Some of the art makes me chuckle because it tries to het up a very queer scene.
On the left - Satan appears as an angel of light (queerly does it). On the right - we hetly focus on Mathilda/Rosario's boobs. 24/

Let me backtrack and give you the context. Ambrosio is a monk, strangely attracted to the novice 'Rosario' but WORRY NOT straights Rosario is really Mathilda! (Except they're not... they're actually a demon in disguise). Ambrosio begins a downward descent into iniquity 25/

This descent involves summoning the devil to get a magic frond so he can walk through walls (it makes sense in the novel...sort of). Anyway, all the homoerotic undercurrents of the book really come to the fore in the summoning scene. 26/

The devil is fulfilling a complex tempting role & the form itself is part of the temptation. This beautiful and sexy Satan is a canvas on which the (repressed)queer desires of the text are drawn. And the imagery combines Satanic temptation with a Miltonic Satanic reappraisal. 27/

'He could not but remark a wildness in the Dæmon’s eyes, and a mysterious melancholy impressed upon his features, betraying the Fallen Angel, and inspiring the Spectators with secret awe.' The tragic, defiant and inspiring rebel mixes with the sexually transgressive tempter 28/

These layerings of meaning of the Satanic figure continue to this day. Satan and the demonic more broadly, has been used to explore resistance to oppressive ideologies and institutions. Associated with that resistance and rebellion. The refusal to conform. 29/

There are many many many manifestations of this. In art and life. Groups like 'The Satanic Temple' - a nontheistic religious group - using their religious status to campaign against the imposition of Christian religious norms on law-making. 30/

There is a particular resonance to demonic imagery for queer people as well because it is not only taking part in this alternative tradition of the depiction of the demonic but rejecting the religious frameworks used to condemn us

https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1375452461817688065?s=20

Demonic imagery, inheriting that tradition of Satan as righteous rebel and outcast, defiant, proud, resistant, subversive, desirable, is powerful as a tool to resist the narratives that condemn us as 'Satanic', to reject the hegemonies which vilify us, and to resist.

It's also imagery which can be played with. The thing that I loved about @LilNasX video is the scene at the end where he takes the devil's horns, grows his own wings and takes his own power. 33/

Because the one issue for me with demonic imagery, is it resists the narratives of oppression by using their language. We flip and reverse and resist but we don't necessarily move past them. But Lil Nas X stole that demon's horns... and started his own story. 34/34

Oops, last disclaimer! As I said, I can't speak authoritatively on the interpretation of this video and it's wider meanings. I'm only bringing in my very specific expertise. So don't think this is the be all and end all. Check out what other people are saying too :)

oh, if you'd like to tip this precarious academic because you're a lovely person, here you go :)

ko-fi.com/samhirst