Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Forse non 5 stelle piene piene, ma un’opera meravigliosa.
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
“Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God, to walk
As in his presence, ever to observe
His Providence, and on him sole depend”
“Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest”
A mesmerising poem; grand, formal, appreciative of beauty and explorative of a spiritual reality in interaction with the tangible; and yet most strikingly of all, Paradise Lost is a staggering example of intentionality bleeding through against the supposed agency of conscious thought
Christianity is - as in my opinion all organised religions are - a manacle wrapped in a bow, and whether or not he wished to, Milton expressed this vividly. As William Empson so aptly puts it: “Milton’s social judgement had told him that the Heaven he was imagining before the fall of the angels was already a horrible place”. The poem starts beyond Satan’s defeat and the ambition to Rebellion and consequent War in Heaven are only related through the perspective of the pious Raphael; what is gradually revealed by the story’s very structure is that the temptation in Paradise itself is the retelling of these very events. Consider this: if Satan’s cause were really so unjust, why then had he so many angels behind his cause? Milton would have us believe it to be down to his reputation and honeyed tongue, but could his reputation really be so great as to turn honest souls against their creator, the most glorious in existence? Is it not more plausible that doubts under the vainglorious rule of their creator exists in the minds of all servile under him?
In paradise too, we are told of the perfect happiness of Adam and Eve, and yet within a minute of Satan’s presence reveals Eve’s misgivings with the hand dealt to her; a life as the prime inferior, truly is that just? The task at hand is the justification of God’s ways to man, and yet in the development of God’s Will the very absurdity of its righteousness is revealed. Indeed perhaps this itself is truly the forbidden knowledge; religion functions by the sharpening of ignorance, a crafted tale designed to subjugate, for what is the fear of god if not meekness under authority? And in this epic, the biblical poison reveals itself despite its author, like a rebellious devil. God’s vain tyranny is rendered stark; under his very design does Satan rebel against his nepotism, and in retaliation he marginalises the trouble, cuts out the inconvenient, casts out into the blackness. Out of the dark, comes Satan again to tempt Man into disobedience by God’s very own petty design, an attempt to claw out of Hell itself, by pure despair. Long does Raphael dwell on God’s righteous warring, on his beauteous design and how Adam might live perfectly under it, all in full knowledge of the coming storm.
Books IX & X are surely Paradise Lost’s greatest achievement. A mere adaptation of Genesis is imbued with such a striking dreariness, a feeling of inevitability encroaching on the protagonists trapped like insect in the divine motions. Punishment is inescapable because fatal sin was committed long ago; this is the unintentional thesis of the poem. Satan had already lost in the beginning because the story had already been decided; the reader knows how it will go as God does, and in so is planted the seed of guilt, guilt without any agent wrong even done. The removal of Satan’s tongue; claim’d that he is the one of the honeyed tongue, and yet hee who talks most is the pious narrator, and within hee the imparting angels vainglorious; only the rebellious is stript of his communication, dethron’d of the protagonist role, writhing formless in the hell outwith the verses. The climax’s gruesome display is only attempted remedied by a poetic account of the bible’s morals; after the former’s vast and artful exploration the synopsis rings impersonal and empty, a hollow didactic projected purely to incite the listener’s “servile fear”, as Milton phrased it himself
I will say that, while I did mostly love the way Paradise Lost is written (and while I can forgive its rather impenetrable style for its unmatched flow once in the appreciative rhythm) I found it rather hard to keep up with it when it depended so heavily on various mythology and fable. I recognise that this is a me problem for being uncultured but it made patches of this read harder than it needed to be
And love with fear the only God, to walk
As in his presence, ever to observe
His Providence, and on him sole depend”
“Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest”
A mesmerising poem; grand, formal, appreciative of beauty and explorative of a spiritual reality in interaction with the tangible; and yet most strikingly of all, Paradise Lost is a staggering example of intentionality bleeding through against the supposed agency of conscious thought
Christianity is - as in my opinion all organised religions are - a manacle wrapped in a bow, and whether or not he wished to, Milton expressed this vividly. As William Empson so aptly puts it: “Milton’s social judgement had told him that the Heaven he was imagining before the fall of the angels was already a horrible place”. The poem starts beyond Satan’s defeat and the ambition to Rebellion and consequent War in Heaven are only related through the perspective of the pious Raphael; what is gradually revealed by the story’s very structure is that the temptation in Paradise itself is the retelling of these very events. Consider this: if Satan’s cause were really so unjust, why then had he so many angels behind his cause? Milton would have us believe it to be down to his reputation and honeyed tongue, but could his reputation really be so great as to turn honest souls against their creator, the most glorious in existence? Is it not more plausible that doubts under the vainglorious rule of their creator exists in the minds of all servile under him?
In paradise too, we are told of the perfect happiness of Adam and Eve, and yet within a minute of Satan’s presence reveals Eve’s misgivings with the hand dealt to her; a life as the prime inferior, truly is that just? The task at hand is the justification of God’s ways to man, and yet in the development of God’s Will the very absurdity of its righteousness is revealed. Indeed perhaps this itself is truly the forbidden knowledge; religion functions by the sharpening of ignorance, a crafted tale designed to subjugate, for what is the fear of god if not meekness under authority? And in this epic, the biblical poison reveals itself despite its author, like a rebellious devil. God’s vain tyranny is rendered stark; under his very design does Satan rebel against his nepotism, and in retaliation he marginalises the trouble, cuts out the inconvenient, casts out into the blackness. Out of the dark, comes Satan again to tempt Man into disobedience by God’s very own petty design, an attempt to claw out of Hell itself, by pure despair. Long does Raphael dwell on God’s righteous warring, on his beauteous design and how Adam might live perfectly under it, all in full knowledge of the coming storm.
Books IX & X are surely Paradise Lost’s greatest achievement. A mere adaptation of Genesis is imbued with such a striking dreariness, a feeling of inevitability encroaching on the protagonists trapped like insect in the divine motions. Punishment is inescapable because fatal sin was committed long ago; this is the unintentional thesis of the poem. Satan had already lost in the beginning because the story had already been decided; the reader knows how it will go as God does, and in so is planted the seed of guilt, guilt without any agent wrong even done. The removal of Satan’s tongue; claim’d that he is the one of the honeyed tongue, and yet hee who talks most is the pious narrator, and within hee the imparting angels vainglorious; only the rebellious is stript of his communication, dethron’d of the protagonist role, writhing formless in the hell outwith the verses. The climax’s gruesome display is only attempted remedied by a poetic account of the bible’s morals; after the former’s vast and artful exploration the synopsis rings impersonal and empty, a hollow didactic projected purely to incite the listener’s “servile fear”, as Milton phrased it himself
I will say that, while I did mostly love the way Paradise Lost is written (and while I can forgive its rather impenetrable style for its unmatched flow once in the appreciative rhythm) I found it rather hard to keep up with it when it depended so heavily on various mythology and fable. I recognise that this is a me problem for being uncultured but it made patches of this read harder than it needed to be
We all rooted for Satan, right? Gosh. Epic for a reason.
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I tend only to annotate books on my first re-read. I couldn't help myself with this one and started writing in the margins immediately. I wanted to fight God too badly. I'll still have to go and read the notes to figure out what most of the obscure Greek mythology references were because I know who Laertes' son is, but he lost me with Deucalion and Pyrrha.