Whereas the standard fundamentalist conception of judgment is as polarizing as Robertson’s signs, his conception of Judgment, Fire Dangon Fighting Giant Electric Ell, is wholly interiorized and ambiguous—a snarling mobius strip of scales and vapors. It conveys special autobiographical qualms about the fate Robertson believed awaited him. This “vision” is a kitschy Godzilla-thriller-cum-Book-of-Revelation gone awry; the traditional matchup of good and evil is replaced by a combat between two Damnations clawing for the pleasure of claiming Robertson’s soul. In the Deep South, fire and electricity are two symbolically laden species of Final Judgment. Each beast may be seen as a category of ultimate punishment for a crime: fire, Hell’s avatar; electricity, The Man’s. This piece is a kind of allegorical confession acting itself out through a taxonomy of potential Judgments.
