Wolfgang and the Devil by Michael Pacher. I was growing up in a conservative Christian home; Satan was of great interest to me. What did he look like? Would I be able to recognize him, if he came after me? He stood upright on delicate cloven-hooved feet. His spinal column was a clustered row of craggy oyster shells ending in a flipped-up tail; on either side of the tail, embedded into his butt cheeks, were lidless eyeballs.
Beneath the tail was an open mouth with painted-red lips. One tiny, white tooth. It was only a matter of time before the Devil would wend his way into my own work. My new novel, Two-Step Devil , features an enigmatic devil character who materializes inside a backwoods cabin to torment and perhaps befriend a man known as The Prophet. Here, then, is a not-even- close to exhaustive list of literary devils who were an influence as I drafted the novel. Little is known about the German mystic Mechthild, who experienced her first vision of the Holy Spirit at the age of twelve.
In her 20s she joined a Beguine community at Magdeburg; she later went blind and became increasingly vocal in her criticism of the corruptions within the church. In her sixties, she moved to a protected Cistercian nunnery at Helfta, where she finished recording her visions, most of which are beatific. But her Devil visions—hoo boy. Whenever he draws a breath, they slide into his belly.
But when he coughs, they are expelled again. That a woman—aging, blind, openly critical of the religious establishment—was a pioneering voice in imaginative Devil literature was an inspiration to me.
Visionary treatise? Consciousness is matter. They head into the woods to attend a secret festival. Brown suffers an attack of conscience and turns back; on the way home, he begins to see pious members of his community—including Faith! Goodman and Faith end up bearing witness to an infernal worship service, where the gentleman, none other than the Devil himself, preaches from a pulpit situated between burning trees.
