A demon with your book?

When I was a junior in college I took a class on John Milton. Instead of seeing them as horrible and bad and deserving of contempt, I thought they were cool. I mean Book II of Paradise Lost where Mammon, after listening to first Moloch who wants to get his sword and go, and Belial who thinks they should just suck it up and live, decides that they could build there, sure, I sort of fell in love with them. John Milton would have a seizure, that was so not the point he was trying to make. The whole speech from Satan in Book I where he says that it's better to reign in hell than to serve in Heaven, is just empty words. But they are very romantic ones. When we discussed it in groups, in class, I thought, uh-oh, my moral compass is way off here because I'm feeling sorry for these guys. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to understand.

The same way that Michael Corleone is romantic in The Godfather, the fallen angels, now demons, had my interest. At first I thought, big red warning sign that something was seriously wrong, but it's just like falling for the bad boy instead of the squeaky clean guy, it's not really about the evil, it's about the possibility of good. It's about the kernel of redemption. The ultimate bad boy, is a monster, and what could be worse than a demon? Think about a guilty pleasure like the show Charmed. Even if you didn't watch it when it ran originally, like me, (because I'm old), you've caught in on TNT at some point. The hottest couple ever, Phoebe and Cole. Why? Because he was a demon. If she could redeem him, make him good...swoon. Piper had the angel, and he was cute, but he was not sexy Julian McMahon.

If love can redeem an evil vampire, that's very romantic. But a soul-sucking creature from the pit, if love can turn him around, that's ten times hotter. All the strength and power of being evil is still there, the loyalty is refocused for good and he's possessive and protective because demons are selfish and keep what they treasure close. Suddenly, you have a hero where there was only darkness just a little while ago. Turning evil into good, nothing better, and a little wicked thrown in with the nice is always appreciated. Like Kahlil Gibran says:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
Yeah, like that.