other thoughts on The Dream and Trickster...

The Dream as travel narrative: except this one travels both on Earth and in the heavens- the ship takes him throughout Europe: Denmark, Norway, etc. “After a few days a north wind sprang up and drove the ship between Norway and England…” (p-12) and with the Daemon, instead of to the New World, we're hearing about the heavens “Fifty thousand miles up in the ether lies the island of Levania.” (p-15). In both locations, we read specifics about mileage, winds, the rigors of traveling, how long a journey takes and what the days and nights are like.

So funny, because he mentions the idea that “the whole of Levania does not exceed fourteen hundred German miles in circumference, that is a quarter of our earth.” (p-27) and while this is a comparison, like any other travel narrative makes between what is home and what is foreign, it also includes a qualifier of “German” miles…making the comparison even more specific, than just a comparison using generic distance. (there was a really funny parallel with measurement in Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose, where one of the character’s is trying to get information and is sidetracked by a monk’s description of various modes of measurement within the same country (tablets, trabucchi, emine, brente and tankards (p-269).

By contrast, its interesting to note that Trickster Travels, in referencing Yuhanna al-Asad and his book The Cosmography and Geography of Africa, mentions that al-Asad didn’t try to give locations using latitude, longitude, or number of days traveled (p-101), but instead attempted to use an estimate o distance in (unquantified) miles. travel narratives, no matter where theya re located or who they involve always try to bring back the idea of how it compares to what the reader knows, and how it can be (in some way) measured and quantified.

Role of Man and Woman/ Paradise Lost

Milton clearly cast Adam and Eve into typical roles. He mentions a few times that he would tell Eve to do somthing and she listens to him and follows his orders. Another time Raphael comes to visit and discusses how the earth was created and sends Eve into another room.

The warning that Raphael gives Adam about Eve being evil puts doubt into his head about her, if he was warned why let her go about her chores on her own. I thought that Milton was contradicting his own writing, everything was being put forth infront of us, if Adam would have continued in his machismo role, she would not have agreed for her to go on her own.

Adams Knowledge

I thought Adam's interest in what was beyond his world was quite intereting, although he didn't "know" much, her still seemed curious about the beyond. He was fascinated abou the other worlds, this also could support that Milton was a Copernican follower. He also describes god as light;
"Hail holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first born,
Or og th' Eternal co-eternal beam
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, [ 5 ]
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethernal stream"
Act III, line 1-7

Milton's motives and authority

One of the things that intrigues me about Paradise Lost is Milton himself, and his reasons for writing it. We have learned a lot this semester that helps to put this poem in context, much about the period's history and the mindset of the people. But, at the heart of Paradise Lost is John Milton. Why did he choose to take Genesis, a story that has already been told in the Bible, and essentially rewrite it? And given that so many people at this time believed in the Bible and the story of Genesis, based their entire lives on it, in fact, what gives Milton the authority to rewrite it? Why should people read this poem and think critically about it? It seems to me that Milton may have been taking a big risk at the time by choosing this subject matter and doing what he does with it. In book 5, Raphael explains to Adam that there are problems with relating a story of a religious nature with all its mysteries, in a way that can be understood and beleived. I think one of the ways in which Milton reconciles these problems of authority is through the use of his muse. Several times in Paradise Lost, Milton invokes a muse to tell his story. While the poem is partially based on Genesis, it is also largely a product of Milton's imagination. By invoking the muses, Milton manages to make the poem a divinely inspired peice and it is perhaps this that gives him the authority. To what extent did Milton beleive in this divine inspiration? How much of it was just an oppertunity for social and religious commentary? I'm not sure, but it seems likely that it was a combination of the two. Regardless of his motives, Milton does seem to be successful in acheiving a great authority over such a controversial topic.

God respected Man's Integrity

Man's fall is in a lot of ways paralllel to the fall of Lucifer.Lucifer sought to usurp the glory of God and achieved darkness.This applies to Man as well,"affecting Godhead and so losing all"( III,206).Man was created to stand in personal integrity and work within his own realization but not some one else's potential.His goal is defined by Raphael, "which best may serve to glorify the maker, and infer Thee also happier" ( III,99).But man also must respect his own integrity.His fall came through improper self assertion,"Oft times nothing profits more Than self esteem, grounded on just right Well managed ( VIII ,571-73).The direction given to human life is within human choice as Eve tells the serpent, "we live law to ourselves,our reason is our law"(IX,653-54).Another aspect of divine respect for man's integrity is the establishment of "pleasant labor," the task of tending the universe as a garden within the harmony of God," Man hath his daily work of body or mind appointed , which declares his dignity... while other animals remain unactive , and of their doing God takes no account,( IV,618-22)

Authority - Subject Relationship

I remember my first day of high school (a million years ago) when my English teacher was reviewing the rules of the classroom and how we (the students) were expected to behave and interact with each other. I specifically remember him saying that he wanted us to treat him appropriately although he wasn't going to demand respect from us. As a kid I thought this was an interesting idea. Up to that point, I had always been told to respect my teachers simply because they were the authority in the classroom. Mr. Wood was the first teacher/authority I knew who understood that real respect was something to be earned and not demanded. We, the students, had a choice to make... We had the freedom to respect him or not.

For some reason I have always been interested in issues pertaining to power and control (not sure if this is good). For this reason, the following passage from Book V stands out for me.

God made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee, but to persevere
He left it in thy power, or ordained thy will
By nature free, not overruled by fate
Inextricable, or strict necessity;
Our voluntary service he requires,
Not our necessitated, such with him
Finds no acceptance, nor can find, for how
Can hearts be free, be tried whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By destiny, and can no other choose? (V.524-534)

When I think of 17th century England, I am automatically engaged with a society that was struggling with issues of power and control. I think the concept of the absolute sovereign is very interesting and very convenient (in terms of controlling the masses). Although Milton is concerned with obedience to the divine authority in the above passage, the concept can clearly be used with authority to the governing body. Milton addresses the relationship between the authority and the subject. I believe he is stating that obedience is only valuable when the subject has the choice. If the subject chooses obedience, than that authority has the internal (conscience) and the external (voice, action) obedience of the subject. When the subject is forced to obey, the authority has only the external obedience.

Hell as more than just a place

I was intrigued by one aspect of the first group of books in Paradise Lost: the idea of hell as not "only" a geographical locale, but one of the mind as well.

To wit: "The mind is its own place and in itself/Can make a Heaven of hell, a hell of Heaven"

The footnotes for this section have a lot to say about how Satan's "heretical" talk here can be traced to Amaury de Bene of the 13th century and the Stoics and the idea that heaven and hell are states of mind rather than places. But it's also interesting, as the footnotes note, that within this you can see the idea that heaven and hell exist within one's own self. It's interesting that this vaguely heretical idea can exist within the scope of legitimate theological paradigms.

In Book IV Satan says "Which way I fly is hell;myself am hell" (Line 75). This first stood out to me because Robert Lowell cribbed it for Skunk Hour, which I knew before, but had never read the line in its' surrounding context.

The Lowell line in context: "A car radio bleats, "Love, O careless Love...." I hear/my ill-spirit sob in each blood cell,/as if my hand were at its throat..../I myself am hell;/nobody's here–"

In Lowell's poem, the speaker is not in hell, merely a declining Maine sea town. But like Satan, the speaker is in a torment of his own minds making. Only in this case, the depression of Lowell's speaker, unlike Satan, is a jarring but important insertion into the ordinary flow of the poem. It isn't what the poem is about, but it is what the poem becomes about, which is what makes it important. The torment of Satan is complicated: within the same group of lines where he proclaims himself a hell, he laments the lack of room for repentance or pardon, a dread of shame and an opening, lower deep which we never really see or hear explained. Satan's anomie and depression seem understandable here, indeed even sympathetic, like Lowell's narrator, but his characterization, as it unfolds throughout the rest of the books, seems to paint him as a decidedly unsympathetic character, one who wants to destroy innocence.