Help Wanted

          Hello, everybody. My name is Carmen. I enjoy ginger ale, cleanliness, and the wild west. My favorite poets are Cummings and Bukowski, and I aspire to be compared to them--poet to poet--at some point in my life. I'm a junior/senior studying English and any future involving the National Geographic magazine would simply set my heart aflutter! I'm not a cold person, but my default face looks mean. (I'm trying to be better.) Please approach me, because I would love to chat.
          Babies kind of intimidate me because I feel like they know a lot more about 'all of this' than any of us do, BUT I try to hold and interact with as many as I possibly can because I've found that they possess an unspeakable quality that seems to heal a shriveled, blackened part of me that I have previously believed to be forever maimed by the world forcing me into it's den of cynicism and despair. Also, their eyes are full of wonder and they make silly noises. And those mini toes? Irresistible.

          In class, Professor asked us why we were studying Milton. I didn't say anything. My reticence had less to do with my general reluctance to speak out, and more to do with the fact that I am really only in this class because the other Major Author courses interested me far less than this one did...and I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I don't have an affinity for Milton at all.
          I've read a bit of Paradise Lost--enough to know the story--but I have yet to delve deep enough to develop this sort of admiration that many of my classmates seem to have for it. I know it's one of those classics that, not only the English Major, but anybody who would identify themselves as a "reader" should be familiar with.
          I've found that I seem to unconsciously shy away from many works published before, like... the 19th century. And I know that includes so many influential reads, including Paradise Lost. I would love to get to this level that some of you have reached because you just seem to adore this work. Please help me out! I'm very excited to get started.

Here is a picture of me and Ben and the ranch.

(Don't be shy--bring them along: 

any babies of the Adorable persuasion are permitted.)

The Avid Dancer

Image courtesy of Braden Nesin Photography

Hi, it's me. I'm here, and not even under duress! Blogging? Sure thing. feelintheblues.wordpress.com is my normal blogging spot. Feel free to check it out if you're interested in social dance, particularly west coast swing and blues.

Introductions, and Literature of Loss

Well, hello there, everyone. My name's Greg Bayles, and in case there was any doubt in your mind, the bespectacled fellow to the left is, in fact, me. I'm from Las Vegas, NV, and I'm a senior (yikes!) studying English. I love reading and writing, and I have aspirations to write novels (though during school, I mostly write poetry because of time constraints). Among other hobbies are pretty much all water sports, swimming being the most prominent of these; playing and composing on the piano; riding my bike at night; and making new friends. I'm also an unabashed Slavophile, and I speak Russian fluently. Generally, I like to think that I'm a fairly easy-going guy most of the time, though that's probably a common sentiment among the up-tight and crotchety as well. In any case, I'm excited to get to work with everyone, and I'm really glad for the chance to dive into Milton.

Blogging as a Tool for Studying Milton

creative commons licensed
by Drew Brayshaw

Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.

--John Milton, Areopagitica

A blog is a sort of streaming fountain, and is perhaps a modern way through which truth can flow and not sicken into the muddy pool of conformity about which Milton speaks. My students and I will blog here about John Milton, his works, and his relevance for today. Team Milton will be our joint effort at exploring his writings and ideas, then developing these into more substantial pieces of writing or media to be shared beyond this blog.

Milton worked out his ideas very publicly, often, publishing pamphlets and interacting with others on the issues of his day. I think he would have taken to blogging very well! But then again, maybe he would not have written Paradise Lost if he had been a blogging superstar. In fact, the more I think of it, the less his great masterpiece is like what is done on blogs.

Could blogging be an impediment to knowledge or to creating great art? Does this sort of public, online, informal writing serve the serious purpose of studying and publishing about a famous author? Is a blog a stream in which truth can flow or grow? Or is it a trendy and superficial thing, and are we merely conforming to a current type of popular expression when we could more profitably learn and express ourselves through more traditional means? Give your opinion in the comments.