James fills Moon Witch, Spider King with creatures from African mythology and folklore—shapeshifting lions, vampire birds, winged ogres, predatory demon spirits—and his interest in these fantasy genre tropes may be just as much personal as intellectual and literary. As a young, gay man growing up in Jamaica, where sexual contact between men is illegal, James at one point sought a religious exorcism to rid himself of his sexual orientation. The exorcists claimed he was possessed by eight demons, and James “had the delirious thought that they were hearing the spirits that he had invented for his African fantasy story [John Crow’s Devil]” (Tolentino, Jia. “Why Marlon James Decided to Write an African ‘Game of Thrones.“ The New Yorker, 21 January 2019). As a young man unable to express his sexual orientation in his parents‘ religious household, James sought refuge in books. The exorcism didn’t “cure” him of his sexual desire, and James would later find self-acceptance, but ironically, it did offer catharsis for his feelings of guilt (Tolentino).

These two important influences—his love of fantasy and his sexuality—infuse both Jim Crow’s Devil as well as the first two installments of his Dark Star trilogy.