Title: Paradise Lost
Rating: 3 Stars
Look, I get it. I am so not the target audience for this work. I’m a twenty-first century guy from the Left Coast that has attended possibly one non wedding religious service in the past thirty years.
Even so, holy crap.
For those not in the know about this 1660ish epic poem considered one of the great masterpieces of English literature, it’s the story of Satan’s failed revolt against God, God’s creation of Earth and his beloved creatures molded in his own image, Adam and Steve (oops, I mean Eve), Satan’s attempt to avenge his failed revolt by inducing the fall of Adam and Eve, the fall of Adam and Eve, and their subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
First of all, the language is amazing. Written in blank verse, as I’ve said in other posts, epic poems like this are made to be read aloud. The words flow out of your mouth like honey. It is a beautiful work of language.
Now that’s out of the way, why did I give it a paltry three stars? Instead of trying to give some cogent argument that I’m fundamentally unqualified and unequipped to give, I’m just going to write down some of my miscellaneous thoughts as I read it and you can be the judge.
Although beautifully written, it is quite a challenging read. I’m not talking about allusions or metaphors or things like that. I’m talking some of the words are difficult to read. Milton was incredibly well read and highly educated. His work is strewn with historical figures, mythological figures, and 17th century geographical references. Sure, a key would have provided clarity, but accessing a key while trying to read poetry is a sure fire way to hate reading poetry. For the most part, even if I didn’t get the reference, I could, to a pretty high probability, derive its meaning via context within the poem.
Considering that Milton was completely blind by the time that he started Paradise Lost, the fact that he composed a 10,000 line epic poem in his head and then recited it to a scribe is pretty stupendous. I understand that he didn’t sit down and do it in one sitting. In a way, creating it over a period of years is an even more amazing feat. He had to keep it all in his head, know where he had been, where he is, and where he is going. It’s a magnificent accomplishment.
Knowing a little bit about Milton’s background makes the poem even more interesting. Earlier in his life, he’d become disenchanted with the increasingly autocratic Charles I. He supported the puritan republican efforts. When Charles I was overthrown and ultimately executed in the Civil War, Milton wrote tracts supporting the new government. He actually got a position in the Commonwealth, acting as a censor and a propagandist. Among other things, he wrote tracts justifying the regicide.
All was well and good until Oliver Cromwell died in 1858. His son was no Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth was overthrown. Charles II assumed the throne. Considering Milton’s support of the Commonwealth and his propagandist writings (and, oh yeah, he was totally blind by this point), things got a little awkward for him. He went in hiding but was caught and imprisoned. Luckily, he still had friends in high places. As a result he was released.
Given that, is it no surprise that Milton kind of had a soft spot for Satan? By far, Satan is the most interesting character in the poem. He can barely bring himself to worship God. When God abruptly introduces his son to his heavenly choir and tells them all that they must worship him now as well, that’s just a step too far for Satan. As an immortal being next in power to God, for God just to arbitrarily introduce a new layer of management, Satan simply cannot bring himself to bend his knee to this upstart. Even though he knows that his rebellion is futile, Satan feels that he has no choice.
In later sections of the poem, Milton has an archangel denounce any man that sets himself so far above another to require abject obedience. It’s not exactly a subtle critique of the entire concept of royalty.
Can we talk about free will for a second? On the one hand, God insists that man has free will to make his choices. On the other hand, God says that he knows that man will fall. How can free will exist if an omniscient being already knows the result? The whole free will thing even makes less sense when the archangel Michael, when preparing to expel Adam, lays out the future of humanity to Adam. He describes Cain murdering Abel, he talks about Noah’s ark, and he talks about Moses leading his people to the promised land. Now, considering that all of this is without question in the future (after all, these are Adam’s unborn descendants) and is stated as a fact, it makes the concept of free will nonsensical.
Even beyond that, God tips the scale against Adam and Eve. He gives them the one rule to not eat from the tree of knowledge. Why make the tree of knowledge so handy and tempting? Why make Eve so completely naive?
Satan is trapped in hell, behind an iron gate protected by two fierce guards. The entrance to the Garden of Eden is protected by angelic guards. That sounds pretty secure, right? Well, it turns out that the two fierce guards are literally children of Satan (Death and Sin). Two minutes of conversation with them and they unlock and open the door for Satan. Once open, they can’t even close it.
As for the angel guarding the Garden of Eden, John Parker would have done a better job. In case you’re not up on your presidential arcana, Parker was the lone policeman assigned to protect Lincoln at Ford’s Theater and decided to leave at intermission to get drunk. Later, when Satan is talking to the archangel Gabriel, he tells him that God really should have protected the Garden of Eden better. You think?
Satan effortlessly slips by the security, assumes the aspect of a snake, and tricks Eve into sampling the fruit (“Hey, not only did I not die, I’m now a talking snake? Just think what would happen to a hot number like yourself!”). Adam, not much smarter than Eve, just kind of says, well, I guess if you’re screwed I might as well be screwed too.
Adam and Eve never had a chance. God is the kind of parent that would put a loaded gun into a baby’s crib and then be shocked that it went off. After all, the baby had the free will not to pull the trigger, right?
This goes to the blog title. For being an infinite font of love, God is actually kind of a jerk. Perhaps being eternally immortal has caused a few wires to cross in his head. Why does he insist on total adoration? Why does he set up Adam and Eve to fail? Once they do inevitably fail, why is the punishment then passed on to not just them but to all of their descendants? Adam is like, I dunno, I guess that sounds fair. Seriously?
I can understand Satan’s reluctance to bend the knee. After all, as Adam said himself, he did not ask to be born. God put all of this into existence, who knows why, maybe he was bored and wanted to have some toys to play with. Given that he chose to create all of this, why does he require that everyone worship him? How does requiring abject obeisance align with infinite love? In fact, in one part of the poem there is a phrase something along the lines of loving with fear? Love with fear? WTF?
The poem describes the battle between the forces of Satan and of God. I found the battle to be amusing. Here’s the thing, all of the arrayed forces are immortal. They quite literally cannot be killed. Not only that, but God has weakened everyone’s fighting capabilities, so not only are they immortal but they can’t even be really hurt. The fighting angels can cause each other pain, but when “injured”, they just kind of move to the side until they feel better and can reenter the fray. It was basically the heavenly equivalent of dodgeball, except the stakes are who gets to rule over everything.
I remember the first time that I watched The Dark Knight. There were incredible actors in the cast, including giants like Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman. As I watched it, I remember sitting there waiting impatiently for The Joker (Heath Ledger) to make another appearance. He dominated that film.
So it is with Satan here. Every scene with Satan was exciting and dramatic. Whenever Satan was off the page, things started to drag. For whatever reason, Milton felt duty bound to include the biblical story of creation (the whole, on the first day, let there be light thing) and then later, as mentioned above, gave Adam a whole preview of biblical biographies from Cain/Abel to Noah to Moses to Abraham to David to the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These parts, in comparison to Satan scheming, sulking, and boasting, seemed lifeless.
Finally, there’s the whole Adam and Eve thing. Adam basically bosses around Eve to no end. The one time that he should put his foot down he lets her go to her doom. After they’ve both eaten of the forbidden fruit, when God comes down to lay a can of whip ass on them, Adam totally throws Eve under the bus. Eve is overcome with guilt to the point of even suggesting that they should kill themselves. Adam, at his best, pretty much says, yeah, you’re a dumb bitch, but I love you and we’ll somehow make it work, despite you.
Just as God is a father figure to Adam, Adam is weirdly not only Eve’s lover but also her parental figure. Eve never once talks to a heavenly figure. In at least one case, the angel puts her to sleep so that the men can talk undisturbed. Adam is essentially her sole source of knowledge and wisdom.
In regard to both God and Adam, the fathers failed their children.
dorkenstein 