Paradise Lost

Now for those of you that aren't aware, I've just finished one hell (pun) of a paper on the character of Satan in John Milton's Epic poem, Paradise Lost. It was a fun time.

Well not really, but I sound like a mopey little emo kid if I say it was a goddamn bitch.

In any event, I have learned something from this experience, something very very valuable.

1. All, and I mean all, scholarly papers are bullshit.
2. You can't say anything about a character has thousands of lines in a poem 12 books long in 8 pages.

So I wrote 11, clever ehh?

However, I really liked the poem in and of itself, and Satan is one badass of a character. I mean seriously, can you imagine what milton was thinking in his little brainstorming sessions.

"Let's see, let's see, I need to write an epic, preferably about something epic.... Oh! I know! I'll write about the the battle between heaven and hell, make it 12 books long, famously ambiguous, and have the main character be Lucifer."

...

Of course some Scholars will say that the main character is the Son of God, or Adam, or just straight up God, ignore them, they're commies.

I just really liked the whole thing, I mean it just feels like epic done right. Sure the Iliad is sweet (lets go fight a ten year war over some dumb bitch!), and the Odyssey is really cool (I'm gonna wander around the mediterranean for 10 years, after spending 10 years at troy (convenient how those numbers work out, isn't it?)), or... the battle between heaven and hell that shaped the entire Christian mythos and has the origin of original sin, man getting kicked out of paradise (hence paradise lost, Milton is a clever bugger ain't he?), and Satan fighting God with cannons (I kid you not), ohh and Angels throwing mountains at each other. In short, it's a good time.

Plus we have this character, Satan. Now I know what all of you are thinking, which is how interesting could Satan be? He is after all, evil, like Darth Vader Evil, not exactly a deep and varied guy. Except that he is a deep and varied character, who leads a republican revolt against the tyranny of God, who is conflicted over his methods (Gasp!), values freedom and personal choice, and yes is a power hungry devil, but a cool one.

I liked Paradise Lost, and if you have a hankering for a 17th century epic that will most likely leave you feeling confused (and slightly disheveled) then you should pick it up.

Angels killing each other with mountains and cannons, need I say more?