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Nov. 18th, 2019 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. For maia Why You Should Re-Read Paradise Lost
Milton’s Paradise Lost is rarely read today. But this epic poem, at over 350 years old, remains a work of unparalleled imaginative genius that shapes English literature even now.
In more than 10,000 lines of blank verse, it tells the story of the war for heaven and of man’s expulsion from Eden. Its dozen sections are an ambitious attempt to comprehend the loss of paradise – from the perspectives of the fallen angel Satan and of man, fallen from grace. Even to readers in a secular age, the poem is a powerful meditation on rebellion, longing and the desire for redemption.
Despite being born into prosperity, Milton’s worldview was forged by personal and political struggle. A committed republican, he rose to public prominence in the ferment of England’s bloody civil war: two months after the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Milton became a diplomat for the new republic, with the title of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. (He wrote poetry in English, Greek, Latin and Italian, prose in Dutch, German, French and Spanish, and read Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac).
Milton gained a reputation in Europe for his erudition and rhetorical prowess in defence of England’s radical new regime; at home he came to be regarded as a prolific advocate for the Commonwealth cause. But his deteriorating eyesight limited his diplomatic travels. By 1654, Milton was completely blind. For the final 20 years of his life, he would dictate his poetry, letters and polemical tracts to a series of amanuenses – his daughters, friends and fellow poets.
In Paradise Lost, Milton draws on the classical Greek tradition to conjure the spirits of blind prophets. He invokes Homer, author of the first great epics in Western literature, and Tiresias, the oracle of Thebes who sees in his mind’s eye what the physical eye cannot. As the philosopher Descartes wrote during Milton’s lifetime, “it is the soul which sees, and not the eye”. William Blake, the most brilliant interpreter of Milton, later wrote of how “the Eye of Imagination” saw beyond the narrow confines of “Single vision”, creating works that outlasted “mortal vegetated Eyes”.
I read it in high school. I vividly remember reading it in High School along with Beowulf and Chaucer.
2. For all the frustrated writers out there, you know who you are... Lydia Davis - Ten of My Recommendations for Good Writing Habits -- and no, I've no clue who this lady is.
Did like this one though...
Be mostly self-taught.
There is a great deal to be learned from programs, courses, and teachers. But I suggest working equally hard, throughout your life, at learning new things on your own, from whatever sources seem most useful to you. I have found that pursuing my own interests in various directions and to various sources of information can take me on fantastic adventures: I have stayed up till the early hours of the morning poring over old phone books; or following genealogical lines back hundreds of years; or reading a book about what lies under a certain French city; or comparing early maps of Manhattan as I search for a particular farmhouse. These adventures become as gripping as a good novel.
*
Revise notes constantly—try to develop the ability to read them as though you had never seen them before, to see how well they communicate. Constant revision, whether or not you’re going to “do” anything with what you’ve written, also teaches you to write better in the first place, when you first write something down.
She also suggests reading the best writers out there and one classic per year at least. To which I say...Bleargh. Been there did that. I'm at a point now that I've read enough great writers and enough horrible ones..that I no longer think it matters. Although I do have a tendency to mimic the ones I like.
3. The Rise of the Millenial Hermits or Why No one Wants to Leave Their Apartments Any Longer? -- Forget the Millenials, I'm not sure I want to leave my apartment...
The rise of millennial hermits is a bit puzzling at first blush. Sure, staying inside has its advantages. You’re sheltered from the elements. You can watch TV, which has gotten really good. Your pet is there, if you have a pet. And everyone needs downtime, some of us more than others.
But where are those others, exactly—the people who actually look forward to socializing, at least some of the time? (A search for Etsy products tagged “extrovert” yields a mere 443 results, many of which are actually about introverts.) And if countries around the world, from the US and the UK to Japan and Denmark, are supposedly in the grips of a massive loneliness crisis, why are so many people declaring that their greatest desire in life is to take off their pants and nestle ever-deeper into the couch?
Research suggests that all this homebody chatter is not just for show: Young people really are more prone to staying in these days. One 2018 paper, published in the journal Joule, found that Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 spend a whopping 70% more time at home than the general US population. In another 2018 survey, conducted by the marketing research firm Mintel, 28% of millennials between 24 and 31 said that they preferred to drink at home because going out was too much effort, compared to just 15% of baby boomers who agreed with that statement.
But it’s also true that all those Etsy t-shirts and introvert comics are part of a somewhat paradoxical phenomenon: The internet has given rise to a collective, public performance of solitude.
Milton’s Paradise Lost is rarely read today. But this epic poem, at over 350 years old, remains a work of unparalleled imaginative genius that shapes English literature even now.
In more than 10,000 lines of blank verse, it tells the story of the war for heaven and of man’s expulsion from Eden. Its dozen sections are an ambitious attempt to comprehend the loss of paradise – from the perspectives of the fallen angel Satan and of man, fallen from grace. Even to readers in a secular age, the poem is a powerful meditation on rebellion, longing and the desire for redemption.
Despite being born into prosperity, Milton’s worldview was forged by personal and political struggle. A committed republican, he rose to public prominence in the ferment of England’s bloody civil war: two months after the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Milton became a diplomat for the new republic, with the title of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. (He wrote poetry in English, Greek, Latin and Italian, prose in Dutch, German, French and Spanish, and read Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac).
Milton gained a reputation in Europe for his erudition and rhetorical prowess in defence of England’s radical new regime; at home he came to be regarded as a prolific advocate for the Commonwealth cause. But his deteriorating eyesight limited his diplomatic travels. By 1654, Milton was completely blind. For the final 20 years of his life, he would dictate his poetry, letters and polemical tracts to a series of amanuenses – his daughters, friends and fellow poets.
In Paradise Lost, Milton draws on the classical Greek tradition to conjure the spirits of blind prophets. He invokes Homer, author of the first great epics in Western literature, and Tiresias, the oracle of Thebes who sees in his mind’s eye what the physical eye cannot. As the philosopher Descartes wrote during Milton’s lifetime, “it is the soul which sees, and not the eye”. William Blake, the most brilliant interpreter of Milton, later wrote of how “the Eye of Imagination” saw beyond the narrow confines of “Single vision”, creating works that outlasted “mortal vegetated Eyes”.
I read it in high school. I vividly remember reading it in High School along with Beowulf and Chaucer.
2. For all the frustrated writers out there, you know who you are... Lydia Davis - Ten of My Recommendations for Good Writing Habits -- and no, I've no clue who this lady is.
Did like this one though...
Be mostly self-taught.
There is a great deal to be learned from programs, courses, and teachers. But I suggest working equally hard, throughout your life, at learning new things on your own, from whatever sources seem most useful to you. I have found that pursuing my own interests in various directions and to various sources of information can take me on fantastic adventures: I have stayed up till the early hours of the morning poring over old phone books; or following genealogical lines back hundreds of years; or reading a book about what lies under a certain French city; or comparing early maps of Manhattan as I search for a particular farmhouse. These adventures become as gripping as a good novel.
*
Revise notes constantly—try to develop the ability to read them as though you had never seen them before, to see how well they communicate. Constant revision, whether or not you’re going to “do” anything with what you’ve written, also teaches you to write better in the first place, when you first write something down.
She also suggests reading the best writers out there and one classic per year at least. To which I say...Bleargh. Been there did that. I'm at a point now that I've read enough great writers and enough horrible ones..that I no longer think it matters. Although I do have a tendency to mimic the ones I like.
3. The Rise of the Millenial Hermits or Why No one Wants to Leave Their Apartments Any Longer? -- Forget the Millenials, I'm not sure I want to leave my apartment...
The rise of millennial hermits is a bit puzzling at first blush. Sure, staying inside has its advantages. You’re sheltered from the elements. You can watch TV, which has gotten really good. Your pet is there, if you have a pet. And everyone needs downtime, some of us more than others.
But where are those others, exactly—the people who actually look forward to socializing, at least some of the time? (A search for Etsy products tagged “extrovert” yields a mere 443 results, many of which are actually about introverts.) And if countries around the world, from the US and the UK to Japan and Denmark, are supposedly in the grips of a massive loneliness crisis, why are so many people declaring that their greatest desire in life is to take off their pants and nestle ever-deeper into the couch?
Research suggests that all this homebody chatter is not just for show: Young people really are more prone to staying in these days. One 2018 paper, published in the journal Joule, found that Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 spend a whopping 70% more time at home than the general US population. In another 2018 survey, conducted by the marketing research firm Mintel, 28% of millennials between 24 and 31 said that they preferred to drink at home because going out was too much effort, compared to just 15% of baby boomers who agreed with that statement.
But it’s also true that all those Etsy t-shirts and introvert comics are part of a somewhat paradoxical phenomenon: The internet has given rise to a collective, public performance of solitude.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-19 03:25 pm (UTC)Paradise Lost me
Date: 2019-11-19 04:09 pm (UTC)Our English teacher must have made a very big deal of the class discussion we were going to have when we students were supposed to have finished reading the excerpt. It might as well have been written in archaic Vulcan as far as I was concerned. It couldn't tell you the first thing about it after having my eyes pass fruitlessly over the whole thing at least twice. The day we were supposed to have the discussion was the only time I ever pretended to be sick for a day because I couldn't do an assignment for one class. I think it was a Friday. I went back on Monday and my classmates were in a tizzy. It turned out the English teacher had in fact been sick that day. She left word with the substitute that *I* of all people was supposed to lead the class discussion! The substitute didn't know what to do, so she punted, and left everything for our return. I think to my teacher's embarrassment I showed that I didn't know anything beyond the introductory material that accompanied the excerpt in the book. (Remember, I had no idea I had a reading problem at that stage of my life. I could just plead I didn't understand it.) It didn't seem anyone else in the class was confident about what they'd read either. So the teacher just gave a lecture that day. I never did read it, but fortunately the lecture was enough that I did well on the test over the material.
Re: Paradise Lost me
Date: 2019-11-19 05:50 pm (UTC)Interesting, since you didn't have issues learning languages or reading Beowulf.
I didn't have problems with Paradise Lost, but I also don't remember it at all. While I do remember Chaucer -- which I struggled with more.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-19 08:31 pm (UTC)Honestly, I never understood why anyone went out to drink. So much cheaper and safer at home.
But aside from the obvious factor of saving money, I have to wonder if it doesn't have to do with how awful people have revealed themselves to be. The younger you are the more likely your social time is spent in online spaces and that's certainly proved to be threatening. So why wouldn't you shy away from interacting with strangers?
no subject
Date: 2019-11-19 08:43 pm (UTC)Well, I went out in my 20s and 30s mainly to meet people and socialize -- usually after work or on Friday's after classes in law school. We did a lot of drinking and singing Karaoke my first year of law school. But by the time I hit 40, it got old. And tiresome. There also wasn't much in the way of social media back then. The iPhone/smartphone wasn't available until I was into my forties. And social media? Twitter and FB were also my 40s for the most part. So prior to that -- you went out and no phone interruptions.
Now...ugh.
But aside from the obvious factor of saving money, I have to wonder if it doesn't have to do with how awful people have revealed themselves to be. The younger you are the more likely your social time is spent in online spaces and that's certainly proved to be threatening. So why wouldn't you shy away from interacting with strangers?
Yep. Exactly. Also people are on their phones everywhere you go. You go into a bar, they are checking their phone. Coffee shop - phone and laptop. Restaurant - phone.
It's getting harder and harder to socialize. People do it, but differently. And it's hard to maintain friendships as a result -- lots of casual friends, who come in and out at will.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-20 04:02 am (UTC)Oh, this is wonderful!! Thank you, shadowkat!!