Asuras and Devas are both part of the grand cosmic truth. There's
no cosmic
dance of life without light and darkness.
Along those lines, there's "The Master and Margarita"[0], in which
one of the few Asuras to have his own Rolling Stones song says:
What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the
earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows
are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But
shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to
strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your
fantasy of enjoying naked light?
Outside of 1-bit graphics[1], however, there's much more range among
shadows than undifferentiated "good" or "evil".
-Dave
(Off the top of my head, I'd say we could do with a bit of gamma
compression. On the other hand, if, like Bulgakov's Woland —a "force
forever intending evil, yet ever doing good"— the current gamma
expansion is like a fever, a defensive anti-infectious pyretic
response, once it breaks the world will turn out all right.)
[0] the novel has an unusual structure, in that scenes in the
biblical period are treated realistically (like a police procedural)
while scenes in the XX are treated fantastically (even those
reflecting historical events).
[1] these were amazing on the Mac 128K, but we're in the XXI now.
