Reading Log

Compared to the last reading log entry, this one is embarrassingly short.

Literature

• C.S. Lewis, A Preface To Paradise Lost, Chapters V–XXI
• John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V–VI (unfinished)

I’ve finished with Lewis’s Preface but continue to listen to the Yale lectures by Prof. John Rogers. The lectures are interesting for all of their information about Milton’s life, and for its exploration of Milton’s other writings. Less interesting, however, are the key points of the lectures. Professor Rogers is painting a portrait of Milton as a rebellious heretic against orthodox Christianity, and one who is scandalously sensual. The thing is, however, that the line of orthodoxy against which Milton is being contrasted is either very particular to his time and circumstances or else theoretically derived without much of a relationship to the actuality of Christian theological understanding. I have thought time after time that these lectures sound like the professor has determined his thesis and is working like a sculptor in clay to make the details all fit and point the right way. I was just this weekend commenting to my wife that I’m betting he had a book in the offing during the lectures and that the lectures were part of his working out of the details. Revisiting the Open Yale site today I see that, “He is currently working on a book on Milton’s relationship to antitrinitarian heresy, entitled Milton and the Heresy of Individualism.”

Lewis’s biases are that of orthodox Christianity. His reading allows Milton his Christianity, and keeps primarily to what is to be discovered within the poem. This approach is less sensational, but makes far more sense to someone experienced with Christianity from the inside. I’m with Lewis in thinking that it’s better to temporarily try to fit myself to the work’s view of the world than to try to make the work fit my view of the world. I guess I’m guilty of being scandalously old fashioned.

Technology

• Paul Barry, Head First Python, Chapters I–IV (unfinished)

I normally have a difficult time with programming books. They are either too rudimentary and I lose interest because it’s not keeping up with my brain, or they are too advanced and I get bored and then lost in the endless stream of technical information. This book strikes a nice balance. It’s relatively entertaining, and relatively fast paced. It certainly feels like I’m learning useful stuff and making quick progress.

Uriel Deceived, Browne on Women, Chaucer, and Jefferson

Reading Log for December 14–19, 2010

• Chaucer, by G.K. Chesterton, Introduction
• Paradise Lost, Book III
• Religio Medici, Part I:25–60; Part II:1–9
• Thomas Jefferson, Letter To Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., Paris, Aug. 27, 1786

Paradise Lost, Book II

Whew… when is the last time I was shocked by an image? Satan and the legions have decided that rather than immediately wage another battle against Heaven, they will see if they can find the rumored world of a new race called Man in order to institute a new depravity called Marketing. Satan is the only one with large enough cajónes to set about finding a way out of hell and to the new world. He arrives at the Gates of Hell.

Before the Gates there sat

On either side a formidable shape;

The one seem’d Woman to the waste, and fair,650

But ended foul in many a scaly fould

Voluminous and vast, a Serpent arm’d

With mortal sting: about her middle round

A cry of Hell Hounds never ceasing bark’d

With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung655

A hideous Peal: yet, when they list, would creep,

If aught disturb’d thir noyse, into her woomb,

And kennel there, yet there still bark’d and howl’d

Within unseen.

That’s way more disturbing than vagina dentata. I mean, it’s one thing to have teeth, but it’s a whole different order of magnitude to have Cerberian hounds charging out of the nether orifice. Later she reveals that the hounds chew on her bowels when they’ve withdrawn into her womb.

Onward with the freak show. Satan asks her who the hell she is and she gives her reply:

Paradise Lost, Book I; etc.

I won’t promise this to be short. I don’t expect it to be long. As I type this, my head feels plagued by a sticky, snotty Beelzebub, and my lungs are wracked by infernal flames.

The imperial “We” have read Book I of Paradise Lost—hence the chthonic body imagery—as well as several more sections of Religio Medici and part of the first chapter of A Map of Misreading.

Milton and Browne: Just a wee clip

Just a brief update today as I’m not feeling well, but want to keep up with the record of my reading, consisting of:

• “Lycidas”
• “The Fifth Ode of Horace, Book I”
• Religio Medici

Lycidas: Drowning Allusiveness

“Lycidas” is a poem I’ve been anticipating on my journey through Milton’s poems on the way to my real destination, Paradise Lost. It’s included in Bloom’s anthology of English poetry and he speaks very highly of it, calling it “the best poem of moderate length in English.” “Comus” was the first poem to really draw my attention, despite the reputation of “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.” “Lycidas” is generating a progressively intensifying awe.

Milton Resources

I believe my friend, Paul, has been holding out on me. For shame! Okay, he left a trail of clues, but still… Paul made a few comments in his post on Milton’s Areopagitica for which I hadn’t found the sources, although to his credit he did mention “Professor John Rogers” and, in a separate, unrelated post, iTunes U. Wait… damn my eyes, what’s this? “I also often download lectures from iTunes U (currently working through a Yale course on John Milton) and audiobooks from Librivox which run the gamut from excellent to unlistenable.” Friend Paul, I have wrongly accused you. I am the schmuck who isn’t observant.

Enough with the self-castigation. Here, in no particular order, are the resources I’m currently using:

I Kill Your Idyll: Preceding Milton with Cervantes

I haven’t made much progress in Milton since my last post. I’ve found myself re-reading several of his poems, in particular “L’Allegro,” “Il Penseroso,” and “Arcades.” These are mid-length short poems running less than 200 lines each. They’re also thoroughly pastoral, and it has occurred to me that I may be experiencing some dissonance in appreciating these poems because of my recent reading of Don Quixote.

Minor Milton

Continuing with Milton as my 8 year old daughter, cuddled up with me, reads most of Where The Sidewalk Ends.

• On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity
• The Passion
• Song: On May Morning
• English Sonnets (1,7—23)
• On Shakespeare
• On The University Carrier
• Another of the Same
• An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester
• L’Allegro

I’m decidedly apathetic about most of early Milton. So much of his earlier work is decidedly local, both in time and place. He lauds personages which have little relevance to me tonight, and the verse itself doesn’t particularly grab me. There are exceptions, however.

And malt does more than Milton can / To justify God's ways to man.

Right around the time I was finishing Don Quixote, Paul posted his notes on reading Milton’s Areopagitica and Of Education, and it seems he’s currently working through Milton’s English poetry, including Paradise Lost. My own reading project has been idling due to “life circumstances” and personal wishy-washy-ness, so… why not?