V for Vendetta

I would like to continue this theme of Sympathy for the Devil in popular culture, and found another example in famous cartoonist Alan Moore's graphical novel from from the eighties - V for Vendetta.


In the comic we are presented with a future dystopian totalitarian Britain. The fascist party Norsefire assumed power after a limited nuclear-war, by preying on the peoples fear and using to instigate a fascisctian dictatorship (sounds familiar?).

The state is organized in different departments, all corresponding to a part of the human body, inspired by Thomas Moore's Leviathan: The Nose (the detective branch), The Eye, The Ear (surveillance) and The Finger (uniformed police).

We follow the character V, who is an anarchist and a rebel. He was subjected to drug experiments in a government concentration camp, of which he was the only survivor. Since then he has planned the demolition of the fascist government, which he goes about by killing of key personnel (who are mostly also responsible for his own fate), by blowing up symbolical buildings, and generally ridiculing and humiliating the system, and thereby destabilizing it. He is dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, and matching clothes. Guy Fawkes was also a rebel, who in the 17. century - unsuccessfully - tried to blow up the government.

At one point in the comic, V says "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste", the first two lines from the song. He says this just before he kills one man, his mask is even protruding through his wig to resemble horns.

But why the comparison with the devil? V is the hero of the story, he fights the totalitarian system risking his own life, which very much would make him a GOOD character. At the same time he is a very ambivalent character. His true identity is never revealed, and it isn't really determined whether he is insane as a results of the experiments or not. He also viciously murders people, a death that certainly is well deserved, but nevertheless not an option the traditional hero usually retorts to.

Then again fear is a very important strategy for V, and he is very much interested in his enemies being as afraid of him as possible, too which a comparison between himself and the devil - or indeed some kind of vengeful angel handing out punishment - certainly should work very well.

Cowboy Bebop

Sympathy for the Devil has led a life of its own, almost since it's very conception - indeed since the recording of the song, which was famously caught on film by Jean-Luc Godard in Sympathy for the Devil/One Plus One from 1968.

If you pay attention to it, you get surprised of the number of references to it you will find in popular culture (not taking into account the numerous cover versions of the song, which is a subject that deserves a post for itself). As late as the other day, I was watching a Japanese animé (what we in the western world call a cartoon) by the name of Cowboy Bebop from 1998. The series is set in the future, specifically 2021, and follows the crew of the spaceship Bebop, who are bounty hunters trying to earn a living by catching criminals on the run.

the Cowboy Bebop cast

Music plays an instrumental part in the show, particularly american jazz from the 40ies and 50ies and rock from the 60ies and 70ies - for an example see the opening theme below.



In episode 6, which is called Sympathy for the Devil the crew of Bebop get mixed up with what appears to be a young boy - Wen - who is world famous for his harmonica talents. In reality the boy is more than 80 years old, but were immortalized by a freak natural phenomenon. At the end, using a special substance they manage to kill him, and he expresses gratitude of finally being able to die.
Though Wen is not the devil as such, he bears quite a lot of resemblance to the devil in the Rolling Stones song. He is immortal, he kills without hesitation and he tricks and uses people. The blues harmonica the boy plays also have some devilish connotations - i.e. he's made a pact with the devil to be able to play so uncannily good - and the general mood of this particular episode is very dark, which also resulted in it being removed by the Japanese censor board on the first run.

The physical manifest devil

In the lyrics to Sympathy for the Devil, we encounter a devil who is very much a physical being, as opposed to a metaphorical or abstract evil. The devil in the song has manifested himself, and is playing a leading role in big events in history. The biggest indication of this is in the lines regarding World War II:

I rode a tank held a gen'rals rank when the blitzkrieg
raged and the bodies stank

The devil here playing a direct role in the events, posing as a German (blitzkrieg) general, riding a tank.
The other places in the lyrics the devil directly influences history pertains to the communist revolution in Russia:

[I] Killed the Tzar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain

And lastly regarding the Kennedy assassinations:

I shouted out "Who killed the Kennedy's?" when after all
it was you and me

In the remaining historical examples, the devil seems to play a more obfuscated role, preferring to manipulate events from the background.

What these examples, in which the devil is directly influencing history, show us, is that the devil is able to assume every identity he (or indeed she) wishes, both, it seems, as a way of taking possession of an already existing person, or by appearing as himself in whatever guise he wishes. The first instance seems to correspond with the Christian (catholic) ritual of exorcism, whereupon a priest will perform certain rituals, that supposedly drives out the devil or 'evil spirit' possessing some hapless individual. The latter instance of manifestation corresponds with the popular belief that the devil will come in many guises in its aspirations to lead you to temptation and sin.

On the cover of the Rolling Stone

In 1972 the author Truman Capote was send on the 'Exile on Main st.' tour with The Rolling Stones throughout America by the music magazine Rolling Stone. His assignment was to do a feature on the British band. Several months passed however, and the Rolling Stone editors still hadn't received the promised article by the famous writer.

With their great instinct for entertaining journalism, the editors armed now-iconic popartist Andy Warhol with a tape recorder and six questions, and send him to met Capote in New York. The result was a very informal and revealing interview, where (among many other things) Capote expresses his opinion about the phenomenon of The Rolling Stone.
The article was an almost word-for-word transcription of Warhol's tape recording, brought in the magazine as the cover story, and recently collected in the anthology The Rolling Stone Interviews1.

Walking through the New York City Zoo, Capote starts of by expressing his opinion about lead singer Mick Jagger: "A) Jagger can't sing B) he can't dance C) he doesn't know shit about music" What he does know, according to Capote, is how to act and perform "he (Jagger) has this extraordinary talent for being totally extrovert (...) but he don't know how to do any of the things he's supposed to do".

Andy is not really paying attention to Capote's opinions, and two times suggest that they go to a bar, so he can ask his questions and get a Grand Marnier, Capote agrees and orders a a J&B on the rocks, with water on the side.

Andy opens up with the first question "What was the problem with writing the article?". Capote states that for him to do a reportage, there has to be a certain element of mystery in it for him, something for him to uncover, and the tour didn't have that, it was very staged - psychologically, and all the people surrounding the band (record company people, managers etc.) were pathetic. All of them fighting each other about who were closest to the band.

Andy asks Capote about the "Airplane screw". Capote tells about a young doctor - Dr. Feelgood he calls him - from San Fransisco, who would go around the plane offering from a big tray of drugs, and who had something of a lolita-complex. He would pick up 13-14 year old young girls at concerts and get them back on the plane. He did that with a high school girl, looking for an interview for her school paper, and while he had sex with her the swiss photographer Robert Frank - filming for his documentary Cocksucker Blues - filmed the whole scene.
This was in no way a rarity either, Capote elaborates, both boys and girls would get with anyone who had the slightest connection to the tour.

Capote finishes of the interview by saying that there wasn't anything positive about the tour, except for the kids who would stand in line for days, and keep applauding long after the band had boarded their plane and left for the next city, but who where always thought of as "nothing". He did enjoy himself though, and feels no remorse for not having written the article.

The article ends with a strange conversation between Truman Capote and a woman in the bar:

Woman "Excuse me Mr. Capote. Next time your having a party, make your friends wear these"

Capote "Oh you'r so sweet..."

Andy "What is it?"

Capote "Who knows?"

1. I unfortunately only have access to a Danish translation, so all quotations will be my translation back to English.