Random literary musings about Wesley
May. 10th, 2004 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowscastIn which I think back eight years to literature I read in school, and try to sound all clever:
As I was bicycling through the city this morning, dodging death, for some reason I started thinking about Wesley and the strategy Lilah was using to corrupt him at the end of Angel S3. Her clever plan is to convince him that he's already completely and utterly damned, and therefore getting in bed (*ahem*) with Wolfram and Hart can't make it any worse. She draws on the analogy of Dante's Divine Comedy, where in the lowest level of hell, Judas, the betrayer, is stuck in Satan's mouth. (Well, technically Satan has three mouths, and he's chewing on three betrayers: Judas, Brutus and Cassius. I think Brutus is the guy who killed Caesar(??), and I don't remember who the hell Cassius is. Anyway, the latter two certainly don't have the same level of street cred as Judas.) She plants the idea in Wesley's mind that Wesley is like Judas.
And suddenly Wesley's plight reminded me of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. I think Doctor Faustus was the original man-sells-soul-to-devil character of Western literature. Anyway, what I was remembering was a class discussion about how even though Faustus made some pretty huge mistakes in selling his soul to the devil and all, ultimately what damned him to hell was his conceit, at the end of his life, that he was so bad that God couldn't save him.
A relevant passage from the end of the play, courtesy the Internet:
Then I started to imagine Spike being the one to rescue Wesley by countering Lilah's Dante analogy with the Marlowe one. 'Cause Spike could very well have read Marlowe back in the Bloody Awful Poet days, right?
It would be fun. Spike would be good for Wesley, I'm sure of it. Also, I read C.L. Kamnikar's Myths and Shadow Plays a few days ago, and I fell in love with the idea of a literate Spike.
Not that this is a fic I'm in any danger of writing. For one thing, I don't think I could really follow through on the concept. For another, someday soon I'm going to watch Angel S4 and find out what really happens to Wesley. Plus, while Wesley's angsting over losing his soul to Lilah, Spike's busy in Africa getting one. And then he comes back all wacked out and crazy and seeing dead people, and he wouldn't really be much good as a supportive figure for Wesley at that point.
Oh, hey, speaking of Dante's inferno, wanna know which level you would go to? Here's me:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test
As I was bicycling through the city this morning, dodging death, for some reason I started thinking about Wesley and the strategy Lilah was using to corrupt him at the end of Angel S3. Her clever plan is to convince him that he's already completely and utterly damned, and therefore getting in bed (*ahem*) with Wolfram and Hart can't make it any worse. She draws on the analogy of Dante's Divine Comedy, where in the lowest level of hell, Judas, the betrayer, is stuck in Satan's mouth. (Well, technically Satan has three mouths, and he's chewing on three betrayers: Judas, Brutus and Cassius. I think Brutus is the guy who killed Caesar(??), and I don't remember who the hell Cassius is. Anyway, the latter two certainly don't have the same level of street cred as Judas.) She plants the idea in Wesley's mind that Wesley is like Judas.
And suddenly Wesley's plight reminded me of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. I think Doctor Faustus was the original man-sells-soul-to-devil character of Western literature. Anyway, what I was remembering was a class discussion about how even though Faustus made some pretty huge mistakes in selling his soul to the devil and all, ultimately what damned him to hell was his conceit, at the end of his life, that he was so bad that God couldn't save him.
A relevant passage from the end of the play, courtesy the Internet:
Scholar: Yet, Faustus, look up to heaven; remember God's mercies are infinite.
Faustus: But Faustus' offense can never be pardoned: the serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus.
Then I started to imagine Spike being the one to rescue Wesley by countering Lilah's Dante analogy with the Marlowe one. 'Cause Spike could very well have read Marlowe back in the Bloody Awful Poet days, right?
It would be fun. Spike would be good for Wesley, I'm sure of it. Also, I read C.L. Kamnikar's Myths and Shadow Plays a few days ago, and I fell in love with the idea of a literate Spike.
Not that this is a fic I'm in any danger of writing. For one thing, I don't think I could really follow through on the concept. For another, someday soon I'm going to watch Angel S4 and find out what really happens to Wesley. Plus, while Wesley's angsting over losing his soul to Lilah, Spike's busy in Africa getting one. And then he comes back all wacked out and crazy and seeing dead people, and he wouldn't really be much good as a supportive figure for Wesley at that point.
Oh, hey, speaking of Dante's inferno, wanna know which level you would go to? Here's me:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Very High |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | Moderate |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Very Low |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Low |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Very High |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Very High |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Moderate |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | Moderate |
Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hee.
Date: 2004-05-10 11:06 am (UTC)Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante's Inferno Test (http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv)
interesting thoughts there, I love parallels, find more
Sweet, I'll see you in hell!
Date: 2004-05-10 11:38 am (UTC)Nice to know we're so non-avaricious, isn't it?
I remember my best friend and I were quite pleased, back when I first read the Inferno, that we'd end up on the same level of Dante's Hell (7th Circle). Me for being bisexual - her for being an economist.
Anyway, as for more thoughts - sorry, don't have any. Just woke up from an afternoon nap and now I'm all dopey.
Tree good. Fire bad.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-10 01:43 pm (UTC)Don't worry about canon - that's what AUs are for! Say Spike wants his soul, but he doesn't actually know where the wish-granting demon is - hmmm, who would know? Hey, what about Angel and his all-knowing law firm? So he hops off to LA, and meets Wesley, and - soon forgets all about the soul... :-)
And I made the Eighth Level of Hell! Woo! (Um, that is good, right? :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 11:59 am (UTC)Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Level | Score
Purgatory | Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo | High
Level 2 | Moderate
Level 3 | High
Level 4 | Moderate
Level 5 | Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis | High
Level 7 | Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge | High
Level 9 - Cocytus | Moderate
Level descriptions: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html
Take the test: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv
Episode 1 of Season 4 is great. I shall say no more about the rest of the season and let you make your own mind up.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 12:38 pm (UTC)My friend lent me S4 on tape last night. I'll post when I've watched some...