Well, I don’t really care one way or another on this subject, I just figured it could get a lot of attention, here in the Café. Really, what I want to know are details on stories about deals with the devil, which an emphasis on those he gets cheated on, in all forms of fiction. Please note however, that should you flood this thread which stories of him being triumphant, then… Well, nothing. Go ahead and do so, if you feel like it.) Besides, I have been going back into the whole endless argument frame of mind, in other thread, and I need a break from that.
As I understand, back in the fifties and before, there was quite a market for literary stories where people got all that they wanted, and get there souls back in the end, because they were just too clever. Details, people! I want details! Sure, cataloging title is nice, but I would love to hear your memories of these stories, too.
There was an episode of “Tales of The Darkside” with Ron Glass and Sherman Hemsley.
Hemsley played a mathmatician who created a formula that opened a portal. Ron Glass, whlie not “the devil” was a entity that took souls.
Hemsley was allowed to ask two questions then give the demon a command. If the demon was able to do the command, he would take his soul But there was nothing he couldn’t do.
Hemsley asks him if there is anywhere he could send the demon that he couldn’t make his way back. The demon answered “No” that he could travel through space and time in an instant and find his way back to anywhere.
I should say this in GD but I have to mention here that ever since Revelation was published, the devil knows what is going to happen, since preachers always insist the devil is so clever, then it follows that the devil will actually works towards preventing the Apocalypse from happening.
Of course, then God now is the bad guy because he will make sure it happens. :smack:
Good to see I can escape those pesky theological loops now that I am an agnostic.
I guess it’s the ultimate come-uppance: you’d have to be really, really clever to throw the devil for a loop.
(Which is why I love Xelloss from Slayers - he’s the kind of trickster demon that plans things out so he always wins, even if he “loses”, and he has so much fun, too. :D)
[spoiler] A clever guy figures out that pentagrams are used for summoning because they match the five points of the demon’s body (head, arms, legs) and should therefore be drawn on a vertical surface (because it’s insulting to summon a demon lying down). Problem is, by summoning a demon, he dooms himself to damnation. And he has 24 hours before he gets taken.
Solution: He draws the pentagram on the demon’s belly. The demon, who must appear in the pentagram, appears, but the pentagram has shrunk. So it materializes again and again into an ever receding pentagram.
How about that Simpsons where Homer sells his soul to the devil for a doughnut (a really large one maybe?) but Marge has a love letter saying Homer’s soul belongs to her?
And in that hideous Brendan Fraser movie where he makes a super-selfless gesture so the devil coughs him back out of hell?
This may not be the level of fiction you are looking for, though.
There’s a short story that won a Hugo called “That Hellbound Train.” The protagonist is rather down on his luck when the devil visits him. In return for his soul, the main character asks for the ability to stop time. Not for everyone–just for himself and those around him. The devil gives him a special watch.
The guy gets a job, finds a nice girl, marries her. Several times he thinks about using the watch (when he gets married, has a kid, when he’s cheating on his wife with some young thing), but each time he thinks about waiting later. Because of his affair, his life gets ruined and he has to build it back up again. He’s by some train tracks just looking at the stars or something, is about to use the watch, when he dies and the devil comes for his due (via a train). The devil explained that though the watch does work, he’d knew he’d collect his payment because people always think the best is just around the corner. On the way back to hell, the guy decides the fellow sinners look like a fun bunch and uses the watch. They’re forever journeying, but will never get to their destination.
My favorite story is the one where a guy wins a bet with the Devil. (I don’t remember the exact bet). As punishment, The Devil makes it so the guy will never win a bet again. The guy bets a a horse that is dead last in the race (giving increadable odds) - still loses. He bets on every horse in a race - a tree falls down and cancels it (he gets a refund, but still not a win.) Finially he / his friend relize he can get paid to bet against things. Like he charges $100 to make in sunny tommorow. He bets $5 with his friend for the opposite. $95 profit.
I see that Finagle already mentioned “Convergent Series,” one of my faves. Another short story that comes to mind is “The Devil Went to Bell Labs,” by Penn and Teller. Or possibly just by Penn, or Teller. Anyway, it’s included in their book “How To Play In Traffic,” and relates an ill-advised attempt by the Devil to match wits with a computer programmer, which is really about as fruitless as trying to outfox a mathematician when you get right down to it. Satan doesn’t seem to have much luck with these sorts of technically trained types; he should probably stick to ensnaring the souls of people in the softer sciences like anthropology.
Yes, the Devil often comes across as incompetent, but that may be just what he wants you to think. Keep in mind that he is the Prince of Lies (which seems odd, since in these stories he never actually gets around to…you know, lying? "Yes, I told you that if I couldn’t grant your wish I couldn’t take your soul…too bad I lied!" They should really call him the Prince of Contractual Loopholes instead.)
Ultimately, I suspect that the whole soul-stealing thing is just a front. Keep in mind that the Devil of literature is, at heart, a romantic and an individualist; although he was created to glorify and worship God, he refuses to live in eternal servitude, and has no qualms about fighting an unwinnable battle in defense of that principle. Cast out of heaven, he is condemned to a realm of eternal torment… supposedly. But is this really the case? Do we ever get the sense that God is actually taking the time to micromanage Hell, making sure that each soul recieves its due measure of torment? Usually it’s the Devil who’s portrayed as the prime agent of hellfire; God probably just peeks in every now and then to make sure things are running as they should. But if Hell is anything like some of the places I’ve worked at (and I have no reason to believe it isn’t), things are probably much different when God isn’t around. “Hey everybody! God’s coming up to the front gates! Quick, act like you’re not having a good time!”
Think about it: the Devil doesn’t want to serve in Heaven, so he rebels, and God casts him out. Though his opponent is omnipotent, the Devil has still managed to achieve his primary objective, a realm of his own where no one has to stroke God’s infinite ego. Crafty! The only catch is that every other soul that doesn’t meet God’s self-aggrandizing standards is going to be dumped into his back yard, so things are sure to get fairly crowded after a while. Wouldn’t you want to set your own standards for who shares your pocket dimension? Of course you would. The Devil is usually portrayed as a gifted conversationalist with a sense of style and panache; he doesn’t want to spend eternity surrounded by Aryan Nation thugs and child pornographers. The majority of people who summon the Devil for favors would probably fall into the “undesirable” category as well, since they seem to be a fairly dim lot in general. So it would be in his best interest to pretend to want the souls of these losers, and scare them into repenting, so they’ll go to Heaven to worship God eternally and he won’t have to ever see them again.
