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Tag Archive | "evil"

Ask the Oracle (Fantasy Questions Answered)

Posted on 10 November 2009

Tags: A Christmas Carol, Ask the Oracle, astral projection, Columns, evil, Lucifer, Merlin, Satan, Xena: Warrior Princess

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Another version of A Christmas Carol?!? How many frickin’ A Christmas Carols does the world need!! For the record, how many have already been done? — Candy, Key West, FL

A: The Oracle could not agree with you more! If there’s one thing that turns the Oracle into a Christmas Scrooge faster than anything, it’s, well, yet another production of this sweet, but wildly-over-told tale.

By the Oracle’s count, Charles Dickens 1843 novella has been adapted at least twenty-one times for film and at least forty-eight times for television. And this doesn’t include the countless local stage and school productions we’re all subjected to every year of the at least twenty different theatrical adaptations!

These days, Xena: Warrior Princess’s “A Solstice Tale” is the only version the Oracle can endure — and even that’s pushing it.

Bah humbug indeed!

Q: Does Satan exist?– Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: A fallen angel who is, more or less, the literal embodiment of evil? No. The ancient Hebrews, from whom the idea of Satan originated, possessed great wisdom, and their religious stories contain impressive metaphorical truths, but their literal understanding of the world was flat-out wrong in almost every respect: the world is not flat, the sun does not revolve around the Earth, a flood never covered the planet, you couldn’t live inside a whale for three days, and on and on and on.

The Oracle sees no reason to think that since their pre-scientific understanding of the physical world was so wrong that their literal understanding of the “spiritual” one wouldn’t be equally literally incorrect.

It’s also worth noting that the “Satan” of The Bible is very different from the concept that we have of him today — most of which comes from sources, like Milton’s Paradise Lost, that are obviously fictional.

That said, many religions and cultures do contain the concept of some sort of physical embodiment of evil. But the Oracle would argue that this is merely a way for humans to make sense of the concept of evil, and to instruct others on the nature of evil — not evidence that such a being really exists. After all, all these “beings” are so different from each other as to be absolutely irreconcilable.

Still, the Oracle also doesn’t rule out the possibility of the existence of advanced alien species that are malevolent — beings that, for example, might enjoy torturing human beings. It’s also possible — extremely unlikely, but possible — that such beings might have been in contact with humanity at some point in our past, and have been mistaken for “devils.” Or, if these beings are spiritual, perhaps they really do “possess” people. So in that sense, “Satan” may exist.

But that’s very different from what most people think of when they say “Satan.”

Q: What about evil? Does that exist? – Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: Evil is a subjective, descriptive term used by humans to describe something harmful or destructive to life.

It’s impossible to deny that such a thing exists, much as it’s impossible to deny that “beauty” exists — at least from the point-of-view of the person perceiving the beauty.

Does evil (or beauty) exist apart from someone perceiving it? No. Evil, by definition, requires a judgment call — which, of course, requires someone to do the judging.

Q: You said in another question that you can order the season 1 DVD of Merlin on Amazon UK. If, hypothetically, other DVDs from Britain have played on our DVD player, and if, hypothetically, I have a cousin studying abroad in England right now, would it be a good idea to have her smuggle Merlin into the US for me? — Wynne

A: The Oracle thinks you’re taking a big hypothetical chance. It’s possible you have a multi-region or “chipped” DVD player that can play DVDs from all regions (the more expensive it was, the more likely it is to be one). But increasingly, the studios are pressing DVDs that are unplayable out-of-region even on multi-region players (although there are work-arounds).

It’s also possible that those other DVDs you played were pressed before region encoding became so widespread.

I’d do two things: (1) check to see if you have a multi-region DVD player, then (2) ask yourself: “How technically proficient am I in case the DVD has extra-encoding?” If the answer to the first question is “Yes,” and the answer to the second question is “Very!” I’d say go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t.

From ultimate evil to DVD encoding! Hey, don’t ever say that the Oracle doesn’t answer all — and all kinds of — questions!

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)