The assumption that knowledge can best be gained by some kind of engagement with forces that normal people regard as dangerous is the basis of the Faust legend. If Knowledge is power, then the owners and wielders of knowledge must be enemies of the status quo, which of course, is viewed as the best possible way to run things because it is....the way things are currently organized. Therefore, the acquisition of knowledge must mean the source of unfamiliar knowledge is gained by a deal with the devil. Thus we must regard the possessor of knowledge as evil.
Mr. Nye writes contrarian novels about many people enshrined in myth as related to the devil, Merlin, as a failed anti-Christ, Walter Raleigh as a rebel against the proper order, and George Sabelicus, the renaissance version of Marlowe's Faust. It's a funny book, but also is an apology for anti-intellectualism. ( )