Social Interaction

First off, I don't know how my paper would have turned out if I hadn't done this process, but I know for sure that it wouldn't be as well-focused and well-informed. The sources I was able to attain from this process are more useful than the one's I had found on Milton. Now, the correspondence.

I got around to emailing two people, Dr. Vincent Blasi, a professor of Law at Columbia who wrote an article on Milton and the First Amendment. He hasn't emailed me back yet (and I'm really not sure he will), but this is the email I sent:

Dr. Blasi,

I am a student at Brigham Young University studying English, and I am currently writing an academic paper about the importance and influence Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have had on the idea of freedom of information and our current government systems in relation to John Milton’s works, in particular Areopagitica.

I have read your work on Milton’s Areopagitica and the Modern First Amendment, and I really like how you analyze Milton’s opinions on religious differences and building the nation’s religious renewal. I think it is important to remember how religiously grounded the issues of State were at that time. I particularly like your statement later on in that piece of scholarship where you state, “Evil can be combated, he was convinced, only from within: by the vigilance of a population accustomed to challenging authority; by the ingenuity and integrity that a licensing regime is bound to discourage; by the hard work of discerning, confronting, refuting, and choosing that censors seek to disburden citizens from having to undertake.”  Given that statement, I am curious, do you think it is possible to relate Milton’s work to what people like Assange and Snowden are trying to accomplish in our day? The way I see it, Milton’s religious beliefs drove him to write as passionately as he did in his day, just as Assange’s and Snowden’s beliefs about the principles of free nations drive them to do what they are doing.

            Even though Milton’s intents may have been mainly religious, his Areopagitica has been utilized in the secular field. How can utilizing works like Milton’s Areopagitica, in your mind, inform the public of the seriousness of the information Assange and Snowden have given us today? Whether we are religiously or secularly motivated, the goal for transparency, justice, and tolerance seems the same. Do you have any sources that I could look into, or have you written anything else regarding Milton and the First Amendment?

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Chelsea Adams

Because I was worried about receiving an answer from him (I'm sure he's busy enough as a law professor), I also emailed Dr. Jason Kerr here at BYU. Here's the email I sent:

Dr. Kerr,

I am a student here at Brigham Young University studying English. I am currently writing an academic paper about the importance and influence Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have had on the idea of freedom of information and our current government systems in relation to John Milton’s works, but in particular Areopagitica.

Dr. Burton informed me of your interest in John Milton and his politics, and I was wondering if you might be able to suggest sources or contacts I could look into. Do you think it is possible to relate Milton’s work to what people like Assange and Snowden are trying to accomplish in our day? The way I see it, Milton’s religious beliefs drove him to write as passionately as he did in his day, just as Assange’s and Snowden’s beliefs about the principles of free nations drive them to do what they are doing.

            Even though Milton’s intents may have been mainly religious, his Areopagitica has been utilized in the secular field. How can utilizing works like Milton’s Areopagitica, in your mind, inform the public of the seriousness of the information Assange and Snowden have given us today? Whether we are religiously or secularly motivated, the goal for transparency, justice, and tolerance seems the same.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Chelsea Adams

I received a reply within a day or so. Here's what he sent back:

Chelsea,

Thanks for your email! You've chosen an intriguing subject. Assange and Snowden are controversial because their commitments to freedom of information run afoul of "reason of state." So if I were pursuing this topic (and you shouldn't feel obliged to go in this direction), I'd think about how the principles put forth in Areopagitica, written when Milton was a private citizen, with his practice as a functionary in the Commonwealth and Protectorate governments. The authority on this is Robert Thomas Fallon, who has a book called Milton in Government. I believe that the Yale Prose also contains his state papers, which in any case you can find on EEBO (published in 1694, as I recall). You might, I am suggesting, probe the question of whether Milton's handling of sensitive information has anything in common with that of Snowden and Assange, all considered with Areopagitica in the background. In any event, those are my thoughts upon reading your proposal; use or ignore them as you see fit. I'd be happy to discuss your project in person after the break, if you so desire.

Best,

Jason A. Kerr

I decided to take my paper in the direction he suggested, which is a bit more biographical than I had first intended my paper to be. I also looked into Fallon's books, and I got two of them as well as about a half a dozen more that surrounded those on the shelves in the Library. If I don't have enough information to write my paper now, I don't know that I ever will.