“That which exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent”, so said the Judge in McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Evil is that dark but interesting subject. The culmination of films, paintings and books, indeed of any art that explores the subject of evil, is evidence enough of this interest. Part of the greatness of great works is the author’s ability to conjure up characters whose twisted nature makes us simultaneously fearful and fascinated by them. What inherently is it in literature that makes a certain evil grab our attention so convincingly? The Judge is strongly based on Milton’s devil in Paradise Lost. The Judge, as Lucifer did, made gunpowder from volcanic ash and urine. The judge does not age, “he says he will never die”. This is an evil that knows no bounds, whose intellect has no limits, whose strength has no restraint. It is not the stupid, evil man that makes us read on, but the powerful, competent one. If God’s omniscience demands our obeisance, it is an omniscient evil that fuels our curiosity…