What demons are haunting YOU? You certainly have some. They may not look like the red devil below, but then again, the red devil below wasn’t actually a devil, it was Captain Picard messing with holographic projectors to prove an important legal point, as you do:
A demon, broadly interpreted, can be any force in some way external to us that is wreaking havoc with our ability to function and be happy. Back in the day, they tried to exorcize these forces – most notably, Jesus is said to have sent demons into a herd of pigs that subsequently drowned themselves in a lake.
To me, that doesn’t quite jive with the kindly water-into-wine Jesus I know, so I’m just going to chalk that one up to Biblical weirdness and dismiss that as a viable solution to our modern demons. And now to stare at these happy pigs for a bit:
Better? Good.
Modern demons can take many forms, some of which we can’t see. They might be the voices of depression or anxiety in our own heads. Or they might be personified by a toxic person who feeds us exactly what we don’t need.
Example 1: The Squip from Be More Chill. Do not listen to the Squip!
Example 2: Trevor from The Good Place is the worst! Do not listen to this (actual) demon either.
And then there are the demons that lurk in us that you might actually be able to see, given the right imaging equipment. I have a particular irksome one on my ovary, a cyst that I’ve named “Dalek” due to its ability to give me both intense pain and an unfortunately stabby personality change.
Sci-fi is adept at personifying our body-horror demons: from the Dalek and Time Beetle in Doctor Who to the scorpion parasite in Voyager.
What’s a modern day demon-sufferer to do, granted that she is rather fond of pigs and wouldn’t care to see them in a lake? We do, of course, whatever we can, listening to our doctors and our yoga instructors and those people in our lives who give us the love that we need. But it’s important to always see our demons for what they are: our demons are external forces, not us, and like every good sci-fi hero we can fight them and hopefully prevail.
Or, perhaps, every now and then, harness their power just a *smidge* to smash our enemies (looking at you, demons of the Patriarchy.)
Thoughts...?!