I've come out of hiding to wish Milton a happy 401st birthday.

I'd been meaning to update on my Milton-related activities, but I've been somewhat despondent about the Milton world. I'll try to perk up and start posting again.

'Cause teacher, there are things / That I don't want to learn

In an ideal universe, Gregory Bredbeck would have titled his essay about Milton's Ganymede & homoeroticism in Paradise Regained "Don't Let the Son Go Down on Me."

On the bandwagon

Hey Milton, I'mma let you finish, but Du Bartas...

Never mind.

Milton on Health Care

Back in January, Miltonista rambled about the passage in Book XI in which Adam sees all manner of horrible illness. Since then, I've thought occasionally about the exchange that ensues. Adam grants it just that we should all suffer for debasing God's image, but ventures to ask if there might not be a better way to die. 

There is, said Michael, if thou well observe
The rule of not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop 
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease

Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature . . . .

This strikes me as a little too similar to John Mackey's libertarian/personal-responsibility bullshit. These lines really baffle me. They'd be inexplicable enough if they had been written by any poet with enough world experience to know this isn't how things work, but they come from a supremely temperate man who nonetheless turned blind and gouty. Are these lines bitterly ironic (another case of angels just not quite getting what it's like to be human)? A manifestation of the sheer force of ideology? Both?

Hubbub strange

I hear through the grapevine about an upcoming talk that asks if Jesus is a terrorist in Paradise Regained. I'm guessing the paper will actually start by acknowledging the silliness of the title (standing up on top of a building is not the same as...) and go on to say reasonable things. But I'm really hoping that the titles of Milton papers and talks start to sound less and less like things shouted at town hall meetings.

Or else! I swear to God the Almighty Terrorist that I'll win this game of one-upmanship. You can expect papers like "Was Milton of Hitler's Party Without Knowing It? Early Modern Republicanism and the Rise of National Socialism"; "Milton and the Hartlib Circle Jerk: Scattering the Seed of Republican Virtue"; "Pro-Choice Milton: Plunging Into that Abortive Gulf." And so on.

Why I read Milton the way I do (maybe)

It struck me, randomly, that I've never actually shared this info with anybody, and I thought this would be the fitting venue.

When I was in high school, I became a devout evangelical and biblical literalist. I had identified myself as Christian since attending a small parochial school from kindergarten to grade five, but my latter conversion was somewhat peculiar--a combination of Christian radio and self-motivated reading of the Bible. (I would go on to read it cover-to-cover six times. I have to confess, though, that without much scholarly or editorial apparatus, this doesn't lead to very comprehensive knowledge. A big part of the problem is the ordering of books in the Christian/Protestant Bible.)

But this much people know about. What I haven't shared is that, early on in these studies, I rejected Trinitarian doctrine. And for a simple reason: the New Testament doesn't really say a whole lot to support it. 

Once I wanted to join a religious community, though, it became clear that my views were heretical. And so I caved by coaxing and convincing myself that, yes, Father, Son, Holy Ghost were three distinct persons but one God. But doubts persisted for a long while.

NB: Miltonista now considers himself something like an anti-theist; he believes that even if there were a God, ample empirical evidence exists that that God would likely be incompetent and/or a jerk, not someone worth getting to know.

Milton Metal

Recently watching Anvil!, a documentary about a Canadian metal band who never made it big, confirmed something I've thought for years. The biggest omission in the volume on Milton in Popular Culture--and maybe in all of the tedious brouhaha over whether/why Milton is still culturally relevant--is metal. Check out the lyrics from Anvil's "666":

I'd rather be a king below than a servant above
I'd rather be free and hate than a prisoner of love
You heard my warning but you didn't, didn't, didn't learn.

The thread of cultural influence would be interesting to follow (Milton-->Blake-->[???]--->death metal-->Trapper Keeper designers, etc.).

N.B.: I cut-and-pasted the lyrics from a youtube comment; I make no claims of accuracy.