R'LYEH REVIEW

Issue 008

copyright © 1982 by Robert M. Price
reprinted by permission of Robert M. Price

Black Easter
James Blish
Avon Books, 1982, $2.50
(first published 1968)

The Day After Judgement
James Blish
Avon Books, 1982, $2.50
(first published 1970)

(Reviewed by Robert M. Price)

The only reference to Lovecraft in these books is a repudiation ("All of the books mentioned in the text actually exist; there are no 'Necronomicons' or other such invented works." Black Easter, p. 7). So why is Crypt of Cthulhu reviewing them? For two reasons: this two-parter is a classic of occult fantasy, and it's a top-notch treatment of "theodicy" (the problem of evil) which pulls no punches.

The basic plot concerns a munitions mogul named Baines and his contracting with black magician Theron Ware to unleash the fiends of Hell to scour the earth for one night. There are other supporting characters, such as Baines' assistant Jack Ginsberg who begins to flirt with succubi, and Father Domenico, a white magician who wishes he could nip Ware's mischief in the bud.

Blish's care in describing and rationalizing the details of ritual sorcery removes his characters from the usual mental setting of fantasy where we willingly (and necessarily) suspend disbelief for the story's sake, as we must tacitly agree to forget about the stage of a play, or ignore the fact that the puppeteer's lips do move a little bit. No, Blish makes it all chillingly businesslike, almost scientific, until we find ourselves pinching our arm when the demons start to materialize. We can well imagine the worldly Jack Ginsberg staggered at the implications: if this is true, then the comfortable if dull world of secularism is a sham. In this supernatural dismissal of the mundane world, Black Easter and its sequel are reminiscent of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. (In fact, Black Easter is dedicated to Lewis, and Screwtape is mentioned as a real demon in The Day After Judgment.)

But Lewis might be less than pleased with Blish's thinking on the question of theodicy --- explaining how Evil can function in a world ruled by a good God. For Blish seems to opt for an unflinching Manichaeism, i.e., that Evil is a real power, pitted against Good, with a real shot at winning. In Black Easter, it does. And the shock of this climax must cause any religious reader to stop and think. Black Easter should be read on its own, since it makes this point with self-contained finality and does not look forward to a sequel.

But Blish did eventually write a sequel which implies a different theodicy. In The Day After Judgment, Satan has finally achieved dominion but must henceforth function as a just God, a burden he hadn't counted on bearing. Thus Blish comes closer to Lewis's view that Evil is by nature parasitical upon Good. It has no existence save as an opposition to Good. If Good (God) vanishes, Evil (Devil) must become good if it is to go on existing. It is as Nietzsche's mad prophet says in The Gay Science; "God is dead! And we have killed him! Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it?"