Satan's Idle Stories

Preface and first story from the collection "Satan's Idle Stories".

Instead of a Preface

 

The present stories are recorded from the words of Satan. Perhaps not everyone knows that Satan is an angel, and an angel of high rank in the hierarchy of the Heavenly Host. Commentators of the Holy Scriptures have portrayed Satan in an unpleasant light, as the evil antipode of the good God. Over the centuries, this image has become a persistent prejudice in the minds of men. Satan himself is deeply upset by this fact and expresses a timid hope that his stories will destroy the unfair preconception.

 

Satan's opinions do not always coincide with those of the philistine majority. However, Satan insists that dissent is not a sin at all and serves the cause of progress in all areas without exception.

 

In Heaven, the twelve-winged angel Satan is considered to be the main expert on earthly affairs, so he often has to come down to people on the Earth.

 

The narrative is told in the person of Satan. An impartial reader will undoubtedly pay attention to Satan's best qualities - modesty, well-meaning, will to justice, self-criticism. The true stories Satan tells will broaden the reader's horizons, excite the imagination, strengthen faith and focus on a clear distinction between good and evil.

 

This brief introduction was written by Dan Berg at the request of Satan, the author of the stories.

 

 

1. Happy Ending

 

It is not a simple story, however, happened in the city. It is good that one of the heroes of this true narrative, languishing desperate hopelessness, turned to me for help. Here's how it was.

 

The central street of the city was intended for solid and wealthy citizens. On this street every year on one of the spring days a community servant swept the sidewalk and even the pavement, removing the corpses of cats and birds frozen in the winter cold from the eyes of the respectable inhabitants. On this street was the central synagogue with its adjoining house of learning. Nearby lived a young family in a good log house.

 

The head of the family, David, and his spouse Michal were blessed with three young children. David was known as an exemplary family man, and Michal was not inferior to her husband in her virtue. The children, always well-groomed, well-fed, cleanly dressed, with dry noses, were playing in the yard and learning about the world around them.

 

David had no other occupation than comprehending the Torah. In the morning he would go to the synagogue and to the house of learning and gaze day and night into the small letters of the Holy Books, absorbing the universal wisdom with his mind and heart. Sometimes, however, he was away on some unknown business. Michal managed the household, commanded the incoming workmaiden and the children. Michal took on the heavy labor of answering the children's questions, and at night she taught them simple prayers and told them tales.

 

The spouses' poverty-free life was based on the generosity of Michal's father, a prosperous merchant. How else could the young head of the family afford to sit over books, having no income either from his profession or from his own capital? David came from a poor home, and therefore his parent insisted that his son would study Torah from a young age, for the glory of a Torah expert is a sure way to a prosperous life under the wing of a rich father-in-law. Fortunately, the boy was characterized by diligence and excelled in his studies.

 

David was not an idealist, but readily listened to his father's wisdom, and when he married Michal, he willingly accepted her parent's help as his rightful recompense, for he had brought honor to a rich but illiterate merchant family. He liked to live in prosperity, but he was worried about the insecurity of his position. He needed his own golden spring, and such a spring does not flow from the rock of learning.

 

Once or twice my assistants reported to me that they had seen David in the company of unworthy persons, and that he was allegedly whispering with them about something, and their faces were conspiratorial, as if they were planning something bad. But I'm against preventive measures. David hasn't done anything wrong yet. Let him get in trouble first, then the time of judgment will come!

 

People say that Satan condones sin and then, gloating, celebrates the punishment. I don't incite, but I don't tie anyone's hands. God gave man reason and freedom to choose. A beautiful gift, and let each man use it according to the quality of his gut. I've decided to wait to see if there will be any significant news and then act.

 

***

 

Now it is time to tell the background of the marriage of our heroes. David is a rational man, and romantic fantasies have never troubled this scholar of the Scriptures and money-lover. Michal, on the other hand, has a different kind of soul. In her maidenhood her heart was full of secret love for Jotham, a young man, an orphan, bright in mind and clever in practical matters.

 

Jotham had no time for learning, and it was not his path, but he was successful in his trade in a large clothing shop. No guest left empty-handed, for Jotham knew how to charm his customers. He won women with flattering speeches, and persuaded men with logical arguments. The prudent host valued his employee and was not stingy with his salary.

 

Jotham's delicate soul responded to the call of Michal's heart, and he fell in love with the maiden. Ah, if only he could marry her! When they would casually meet, they looked at each other expressively, smiled shyly, and once they even exchanged notes. But the matter did not go beyond perfumed pieces of paper. Not love, but parental will orders the maiden's heart.

 

Michal married, but Jotham remained a bachelor, faithful to her first feeling. She still loved him, but what could a well-meaning wife do? Not much. Regularly, every Friday she went to the dress shop with her brood and bought for her children a dress, a suit, or shoes. Neighbors marveled at how often Michal updates the clothes of her children, but surprisingly, they did not guess the reason for this strange phenomenon!

 

Often seeing the little ones, Jotham loved them as if they were his own. He carefully chose the clothes, gave his mother advises, and adjusted, shortened, lengthened, and rearranged the buttons. This hour on Friday morning filled two aching hearts with sweetness and longing for a week.

 

Michal kept longing, kept thinking. Jotham loves her, but David is cold. A stranger's uncle welcomes the children, while their own father hardly remembers the names of the little ones. The poor woman imagined all sorts of saving twists and turns of fate, and wicked dreams visited the virtuous Michal. I, Satan, should not interfere with the flight of fancy of a loving heart. Dreaming is one of the hypostases of freedom, and I place freedom above piety, which is hypocritical by nature. 

 

***

 

Honest Jotham desired intimacy with Michal, but he did not make unworthy proposals to his beloved. He had no one to consult, for there were hypocrites everywhere! So he turned to me for help. I listened to the poor man, pretended to be angry and even reprimanded him. He said that I was his last hope, and he was sure that Satan would invent a small evil for the sake of the victory of the great good. I generously forgive people's long-standing prejudices against me. Of course, I will do no evil, for it is only through the means of good that I do good.

 

Seeing Jotham's sad face, I promised to help. The mortal's trust flattered me, and I zealously set about fulfilling the request. I pulled the lever of the small benefit, and the greater benefit soared up and made all those involved in the story happy.

 

Jotham's request prompted me to begin following David. I was of the opinion that even the most solid family is no stronger than a house of cards. I used the reports of my aides. It was time to act. My eternal goal is to make mortals happy, and I am pursuing it with all my soul.

 

The residents of a suburban village were suffering from wolves. The nighttime bandits would creep into the sheep folds of one householder after another and kill the lambs and even the adult sheeps. I ordered to dig wolf pits on the approach to the village. The beasts fell through, the predators were properly dealt with, and the peasants got a double skin interest - from wolf skins fur coat were sewn, and from sheep skins - hats.

 

David used to go to his friends along the same road that the wolves used to go to the sheep. Man did not meet with beast, for the first one was traveling by clear day, and the second was sneaking by dark night. But the wolf pit was unnoticeable even in the sunlight. The lad fell into it and broke his neck.

 

The villagers found the poor guy and brought him home almost lifeless. The wife is crying, the children are frightened. The healer crossed his arms on his chest and raised his eyes to heaven. The unfortunate man did not suffer for long, his mind was clouded, and the spirit quietly left the body. 

 

A year passed. Jotham, the shop assistant of the dress shop, married a widow with three children. The story had a splendid ending, for Michal and Jotham entered the path of bliss, and the small and foolish children did not realize their loss, but gained an affectionate stepfather.

 

Someone will be indignant, saying, what good happened? A Torah expert died, and even in the prime of life! But I will object, because David drew the luckiest ticket! As they say, the worst dog gets the best bone. For he parted with his life in time to commit an irredeemable sin. Therefore, he retained his right to a worthy place in the other world, and a death more beautiful than this could not be wished for.

 

One day Jotham came to me and asked me if there was any connection between his request for help and the wolf pits I had ordered to be dug. I patted the simpleton on the shoulder. "Good deeds cling to each other like links in a chain," I replied, "if you do one good deed, another is on its way. I helped the villagers in their distress and thus made you three happy - you, Michal and David. Do you understand, Jotham?" 

 

Author's Note

I'd be happy to be criticized

Reviews

[JayG]

In general? Dump this section. It's an essay, not a story. To illustrate:

• Now it is time to tell the background of the marriage of our heroes.

This single line illustrates the major problem — one you share with the majority of hopeful writers — which is that you're using the approach to writing that we learned in school, where the goal was to ready us for the kind of writing that employers require: nonfiction. It's fact-based and author-centric. Great for writing informative reports, but useless for fiction, because it assumes that the reader is seeking to learn the details of what matters. But they're not.

Your reader comes to fiction for one reason: entertainment. They want to be made to care and feel. They want to be made to LIVE the story, as-the-protagonist, and, do that in real-time. But, this section is a history lesson.

Your reader doesn't care how the protagonist became the person they are in the story. Does a film have a lecture on the characters before the film begins? No.

Assume that my protagonist is trying to break into a house via a nearby tree. To do that he must cross from the tree to a balcony via a branch that's slightly below that balcony, by walking on a narrow, springy, but adequate, branch.

Since not many people can commit to doing that, our hero needs skills the average person doesn't have. I could stop the action and explain that he has those skills because... But that kills momentum. I could, via something like this info-dump of a prologue tell them his history, but aside from being boring, the reader might have forgotten what was said because they may only read for a few minutes at lunch, and so, read it weeks ago.

In practice, to accomplish the same goal, I'll say,
-----
With a grin, and a whispered "Thank you mom," for summers at Sam's Circus Day Camp, he stepped onto the branch.
-----
As Sol Stein puts it: “In sum, if you want to improve your chances of publication, keep your story visible on stage and yourself mum.”

When reading fiction, unfortunately, we see the results of using the skills of the Commercial Fiction Writing profession, but not the tools and the decision points. The problem is, that we EXPECT to see the result of using them, and will reject what wasn't created with them, often in a paragraph or less. And that reader turns away for reasons invisible to the author, who has intent and context guiding their understanding. When we read our own work we begin reading with full context, and we place emotion into the words that the reader can't know to place there.

So the problem you face is unrelated to talent, and the fix — acquiring the skills that the pros take for granted — is interesting to those desiring to write fiction. More than that, those skills make the act of writing a lot like living the events as the protagonist. They provide the true joy of writing for you, and the joy of reading for your reader.

So, what's not to love?

Personally? I’d suggest starting with Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of the Selling Writer. It's the best I've found to date at imparting and clarifying the "nuts-and-bolts" issues of creating a scene that will sing to the reader. And, it's free to read or download on the Internet Archive site linked to below.

https://archive.org/details/TechniquesOfTheSellingWriterCUsersvenkatmGoogleDrive4FilmMakingBsc_ChennaiFilmSchoolPractice_Others

You also might want to check a few of my articles and YouTube videos for a general overview of the things that tend trip us.

So...this was pretty far from what you hoped to see, I know. And it stings. I know that, because I've been there. But don't let it throw you. We ALL start out facing this problem because we leave our school years believing that the writing skills we were given are universal.

If only... But whatever you do, don't let it throw you. hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
Articles: https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@jaygreenstein3334

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“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”
~ E. L. Doctorow

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
~ Mark Twain

[Dan Berg]

Thank you, JayG!
I am honored by a review from a venerable writer with forty years of experience in writing fiction. I am studying this review and hope to learn from it.