zoe_ 's review for:

Paradise Lost by John Milton

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I‘ve always been reluctant to read this (beyond the mandatory reading I had to do) in part because I was intimidated and in part because it seemed „too religious“ to me - even when I learned about Satan as this tragic figure etc. But recently a couple of things persuaded me to give it another shot: 1. I am teaching Frankenstein, 2. colleagues told me that they love <i>Paradise Lost</i> (colleagues, in this cotext, equals “friends who do the same thing as me”). I don’t trust everyone’s taste, but I’m willing to give everything a shot they say they love. And, surprisingly or not, I actually had a pretty decent time with this one. I‘m firmly persuaded by the Satan line of the argument (how can you avoid a thing for being evil if you don’t have an understanding form what „good“ or „evil“ is? I agree that blindly and ignorantly following orders does not seem appealing or good, tbh. And I even understand that Satan was being a bit of a hissy-fit-throwing, angry child when God announced that he has a favourite creation - but also that God was being very human by having a favourite creation in the first place, especially one that then has to be paraded in front of everyone else.), which is quite fun to me. Though I, personally, could have done away with the last 2 books or so.