On the Matter of Becoming a Fucking God: Satanism, Philosophy, and Theater

One of the ways I pay the rent is by working as a composer and musician for theater and dance productions. It’s something I’ve been taking time off from since before I started the whole Satanist Reads the Bible project—I had had a busy year and got burned out on it—but back in December I got an email from one of my music mentors asking if I wanted to join in as a musician on a production of a piece of musical theater called Shockheaded Peter. It’s based on a German children’s book of cautionary tales called Der Struwwelpeter in which various misbehaviors on the part of the children result in disaster and death. I played a drum kit made partially out of garbage along with an upright bassist and an accordionist, and it’s been a highlight of my career and one of the great privileges and joys of my life. I’ve been training as a musician for about 25 years now and have performed hundreds of shows, and this show has both demanded and demonstrated my highest capabilities as a musician, performer, and human being. It’s been difficult work that’s pushed me to my limits but I’ve loved every second of it—it’s one of those experiences that has made the Eternal Return worth it for me—and it’s brought up some questions regarding philosophy and theater, some of which I’ll be exploring here. Works Referenced or Consulted Bodman, W. S. (2011). The poetics of Iblis: Narrative theology in the Qur’an. Harvard Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School : Distributed by Harvard University Press. Bradford, G. (2013). The Value of Achievements: The Value of Achievements. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 94(2), 204–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0114.2012.01452.x Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (Nachdr.). Harper [and] Row. Goffman, E. (1990). The presentation of self in everyday life (Nachdr.). Doubleday. H7451—Ra`—Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (KJV). (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/gen/1/1/s_1001 Hamilton, J. R. (2019). Philosophy of Theater. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entriesheater/ Nietzsche, F. W., & Kaufmann, W. A. (1974). The gay science: With a prelude in rhymes and an appendix of songs (1st ed.). Vintage Books. Satan As a Moral Exemplar. (2020, February 29). A Satanist Reads the Bible. https://asatanistreadsthebible.com/satan-as-a-moral-exemplar/ Satan in the Qur’an. (2019, November 16). A Satanist Reads the Bible. https://asatanistreadsthebible.com/satan-in-the-quran/ Taylor, C. (1994). The politics of recognition. In A. Gutmann (Ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the politics of recognition. Princeton University Press.