Asmodeus

This is a surprise and a change of scene and subject. In Alan Moore's Jerusalem (London, 2016), Michael, having died, at least temporarily, enters a realm of dreams and demons. We seem to have left the Northampton novel and to have trespassed onto the territory of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Mike Carey's Lucifer (see here) as well as of the Alan Moore-created character, John Constantine. See also here.

However, a more apposite comparison might be with Alan Moore's Promethea:

Moore's Promethea puts a superheroine into an appropriately magical and mythological context and presents the author's philosophy.
-copied from here.  

The Asmodeus in Jerusalem reflects that: 

"The rules that governed what he was - essentially, a field of living information - meant that he was more or less compelled to answer any direct question and to do so truthfully." (p. 398)

Demons, as we know, are fallen angels, lying and deceitful, whereas Thoth-Mercury-Hermes in Promethea is - living information, which is what this Asmodeus claims to be. I expect that, by p. 1174 of Jerusalem, these demons will not be what they had seemed. 

Addendum: The punning language in the Jerusalem hereafter also fits Thoth.

Kinds Of Dimensions

In a flat plane, the two dimensions are merely different directions. They are interchangeable and neither is "higher" than the other although, of course, the plane itself is broader than either of its two dimensions. Our third dimension is literally higher and it is harder to travel in that direction although only because of the local gravitational field. The temporal dimension is qualitatively different at least in our experience. A hypothetical dimension along which alternative universes coexisted would be a third kind of dimension.

How many dimensions and kinds of dimensions are there? In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, a Patrol trainer says that there are theoretically 4N dimensions. These include at least three spatial and at least two temporal dimensions but what are the other 4N - 5? Alan Moore's Asmodeus says:

"'...there are ten, or at a pinch eleven...'"
-Alan Moore, Jerusalem (London, 2016), p. 405.

Asmodeus also says:

"'Everything in the universe of space and time is going on at once, occurring in a glorious super-instant with the dawn of time on one side of it and time's end upon the other.'" (p. 412)

This suggests two possible metaphors:

a series of still photographs represents a person's life from birth to death;
several films are playing simultaneously, each showing, e.g., a different day, week, month etc of the person's life.

See Between Blogs And Dimensions.

Demons In Horror And Humor

"The room stank of demons."
-James Blish, Black Easter (New York, 1977), p. 15.

"You could always sort of tell when devils were about. There was that smell..."
-Alan Moore, Jerusalem (London, 2016), p. 430.

"As Commiczar of Brimstone Production & Stenches, Ashmadai rated an office in the third-from-lowest subbasement of the Hotiron Building."
-Poul Anderson, "Pact" IN Anderson, Fantasy (New York, 1981), pp. 211-230.

The devil in Jerusalem is Asmodeus, which is another form of "Asmadai." Thus, we have established some conceptual parallels between texts by three of our favorite authors.

Blish's text is horrific. Anderson's is clearly humorous. Moore's is perhaps both. A sudden switch from humor to horror can be very dramatic.