Adventures in Miltonland

We made it! Hooray!


To say I'm completely satisfied with my final paper would be a stretch, but I tend to never be satisfied with my final product when writing a research paper. Always one more thing to add or change to make it better. However, one of the things that strengthened my paper and guiding it to where it ended up was the specific research approaches we took in this class. The process to write this paper was very refreshing, and I even used similar strategies to write a Poe-Hitchcock comparison paper for another class in which I was struggling to find sources for. It was quite the journey, and a good one too.

Final Milton Paper

First! Good luck with finals everyone!

The Dangers of Extreme Individualism in the Pursuit of Freedom

Liberty and Freedom Turned Sour: Annotated Bibliography

Alright. Bibliography time.

Working Thesis:  Though Milton fights vehemently for freedom and liberty of the people in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, his later ruler-subject interactions in Paradise Lost show that the ideals of liberty and freedom have limits and can become rhetorically dangerous, hindering one's real freedom and the freedoms of others under the same government.

1. Social Graph

• David Gatenby, one of my closest friends and a fellow literary nut. He started college as a comparative literature major and then got bored because he had already read and written papers for fun about all the books he was asked to read for his classes. Also one of my most politically interested friends, always up to date. Great to discuss ideas with about anything literary or political.
• My father, who I actually bounced some ideas off of today to tighten my thesis a bit.
• Greg, Heather, and Chelsea all have a lot in common with what I am writing about and found some great sources and ideas through their research and blog posts. Hopefully I can return the favor.
• William Kennedy. A fellow English Major who is graduating next semester. He just wrote a few papers on Paradise Lost so his mind is fresh on the subject.
• Dave Sewell. My boss and CEO the company I work for. He just got elected to the Provo City Council. I'm interested to see how someone directly involved in local government has to say about freedom, liberty, and the responsibility of citizens.

Waving The Banner of Freedom For Personal Gain

Whew. Finally back into the swing of things. I've been really sick this week and am finally recovering so this is my attempt to begin catching up on my research work for my final paper.

In considering what to write my final paper on, I am drawn to a few ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while. I want to explore deeper the concepts from my last paper about freedom and submission (personified incorrectly by Satan and discovered by Eve). 

We live in a country founded on ideas drawn from Milton's of freedom and liberty from tyranny and many of the early founding fathers drew on these principles for their own writing and ideals. I feel that many have continued to hold on to the words of liberty but have lost the real meaning behind them or only used them as a face to help them find personal gain. Kind of like what Stanley Fish explains in his essay, "There Is No Such Thing As Free Speech"  In thinking about current situations and ideas, the words freedom and equality get thrown around recklessly and many seem to have a "down with the government I should get to do what I want cause I'm free" mentality. What are the consequences of seeking freedom through such means? I want to argue that this idea is what ruined Satan, and his actions and fate outline how this attitude actually destroys freedom. I don't want to focus so much on government, but the roles of citizens within the frame of government.

Is Freedom something achieved through government or is true freedom, freedom from government?

Basically there are two kinds of "freedom" one is negative and destructive and one provides progress and actual freedom for the individual. I found an awesome dissertation by following one of Professor Burton's ideas on his post that helped me discover the terms I was looked for to articulate the distinction.

Working thesis: Milton's On Tenure of Kings and Magistrates alongside his representation of Satan and Eve show the bounds in which freedom must be exercised to produce desired liberty. True freedom cannot be found without submission.

Still working to discover specifically what my conclusion is, but this is the frame work for my argument.

Christ’s Awakening To Divinity

 I’ve always found it interesting to think about what Christ thought of himself as he grew up. To what extent was he aware of his divinely appointed mission? What did he know about his heritage and what did he not know? How did he feel as a youth growing up, did he feel more mature, different than everyone around him? So many interested questions that we have little to no knowledge about from Biblical Accounts. We have accounts of Apostles writing about the divinity of Christ but nothing written by Christ himself about his life or mission. In our own Mormon literature, Jesus the Christ offers some insight into some of these possibilities but beyond that we don’t have much.

The first chapter Paradise Regained offers an interesting perspective on some of these questions in a narrative written from the perspective of Christ. I think Milton did a fantastic job at diving into these questions and creating a persona that I could see as a very possible reality for what the young Jesus may have thought.

Two Falls, One Redemption: The Fates of Satan and Eve

Here is it! The paper! So much to explore, so few pages to explore it all in. I finish it late last night and decided to sleep on it and read it again in the morning to make sure it make some kind of sense. Here's hoping! It was extremely interested to consider the similarities and differences in the characterizations of Satan and Eve in Paradise Lost. I feel like I only had the opportunity to scratch the surface of the discussion and hope to delve further into some aspect of it for my final paper. Enjoy!

Pre-writing, Strength in Submission

I want to look at the perspective of Eve's nature through contrasting her decisions and fate with Satan's to show that Eve's weaknesses end up becoming her strengths, and without them, though the fall may not have happened, redemption would have not been possible without application of those same weaknesses.

Thesis:

While Eve's portrayal in Paradise Lost seems to set women as the weaker gender, the great irony of Milton's epic poem is that it ennobles weakness and degrades strength; Eve finds redemption in her “weakness”, while Satan remains fallen because of his “strength”.

  

Quotes:

“All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?”

Book 2 Lines 106-109

“O then at last relent: is there no place Left for repentance, none for pardon left? None left but by submission; and that word Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduced With other promises and other vaunts Than to submit, boasting I could subdue Th’ Omnipotent.”

Book 4: 78-88

“But what if God have seen, And death ensue? Then I shall be no more, And Adam wedded to another Eve, Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; A death to think. Confirmed then I resolve; Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe: So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life.”

Book 9: 826-833 (dependance on Adam)

Adam “And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee Certain my resolution is to die; How can I live without thee, how forgo Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined, To live again in these wild woods forlorn?”

Book 9: 906-910

Basic outline:

1. Introduction
2. Characterizations
   A. Weakness of Eve
   B. Strength of Satan
3. Two falls
   A. Eve's decisions
   B. Satan's decisions
4. One Redemption
   A. Eve's dependence
   B. Satan's refusal to submit
5. Conclusion

Exploring Scripture Through Prose

The act of exploring scripture through prose is a very interesting idea. It is easy to think that it would be a dangerous attempt, being forced to take so many liberties and explore things the scriptures often remain silent or vague about. Is it always a good idea? What are some of the pros and cons? Right now I'm having a hard time thinking of any legitimate cons. We could obviously never call it doctrine, but imagining and recreating the great events of scripture in such a way opens doors of thought that are super interesting to explore. I would love to read/write a tragedy of this type from the perspective of Moroni, maybe starting from the point of Mormon 8:

 1 Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father.

 2 And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed.

 3 And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not.

 4 Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not.

 5 Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not

That's some great tragedy material. And, like Samson in Milton's tragedy, reading such an exploration could cause the reader to have a greater appreciation for what Moroni had to go through and reflect on his situation. I found Milton's Agonistes extremely redeeming for Samson as a character in a way I had never pictured Samson in my reading of the scriptural story.

Satan and Achilles, True Heroism

What makes a character a hero? Is it great accomplishments, firm morals, courage to fight through any situation? Talking about Satan as a hero figure in class on Wednesday made me realize that he is not much worse of an individual than many of the great heroes of the Greek epics. Think about Achilles, the great "hero" of the Iliad, was he really any better of an individual than Satan? He didn't rise from the depths of defeat, he groveled in it, quit when he was offended, and channeled his rage into nothing more but blind revenge. Achilles might have been the devil who would start a war with heaven anew. I never liked Achilles nor did I even seen any heroism in him at all, at least in his depiction in the Iliad.  It's an interesting comparison to think about. Satan's journey to earth also contains a lot of parallels to Odysseus's journey home. Both are portrayed as masters of trickery, deceit, and disguise. One was considered a great hero, while the other the reason for all unhappiness in the world. But are they really that different in character? I feel a little better sympathizing with Satan considering
Achilleus and Odysseus weren't the most heroic of figures. Oh and they were both favored by certain gods as well. Satan had nothing. Perhaps that may be the root of our sympathy for the devil in Milton's great tale. Satan has all odds stacked against him (like GOD) and yet still he finds the strength within to fight a losing battle. Thankfully none of us have to fight such a fight, nor do I think we would ever want to. If the devil can use revenge, hatred, and his suffering to push towards a hopeless goal, can't we fight on even stronger terms against him to do what is right and survive this mortal experience? Unlike Satan or Sisyphus, the rock we roll up the mountain of our life will reach the top, and we aren't the only ones pushing it.

The Influence of Dictation: Writing By Voice

The more I continue to listen to Paradise Lost the more fascinated I become with the fact that Milton dictated the entire epic. Composing verses in his head, committing them to memory, and pulling them out later for dictation, what a mind! The idea makes me wonder how dictation would have affected Milton's work and how different methods of transcription influence the writing they produce. Does Milton's epic find its greatness from being created orally rather than constructed on paper?

First of all the work is transmitted through another human being. It becomes a performance, to a certain degree, subject to the reactions of the transcribers, and would seem to force the author to become more self-conscious of the work he is creating. I found an interesting article that contrasted this setting with the rise of other sorts of transcription, especially voice recognition software that has been rising in popularity among writers. One author, Richard Powers, described the idea as "a return to 'writing by voice' as done by authors through history."

The Sonnet of Nephi

We can't leave out Nephi's Psalm! It's such a personal and moving piece of scripture that it demands a Sonnet of its own! 2 Nephi 4:16-35.

Though wretched man is all that I can see

Encircled with temptation, O weak flesh!

Your love still finds me, so I plead with thee

Invigorate and make my soul afresh

Saved oft from enemy and hell alike

Raised up on wings of Spirit I can't deny

My weeping heart, your boundless grace will strike

And free me from these woes with piercing eye

Awake, my soul! Taste freedom through the Lord

Cry unto him, and know that He will hear

He'll visit me with mercy, not ignored

I'll trust in him, whose love is always clear

    My flesh is weak, but He won't leave me poor

    And so I'll praise him, ever, evermore.

Eduation and Motivation

  "The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith , makes up the highest perfection."
-John Milton, Of Education

I'm attempting this semester to change, to some degree, my perspective on my education. It's become more of a chore than an opportunity, and my focus has shifted to simply surviving and just getting to the end rather than taking everything I can from the experience.

Team Smith

Yes, my name is Jon Smith and I have the most common first and last name in America. Well, it's Jonathan Smith to be exact, but close enough. Don't get me wrong, having such a common name does have its perks. Filling out any sort of form is extremely easy when you name is the example name. You're jealous, I know.

Eagle Mountain, UT is where I call home. I'm a Junior, majoring in English (of course) and hope to be teaching Seminary after I graduate. I enjoy music, cinema, and a good game of golf when I get the chance. I'm quiet to those who don't know me, and loud to those who do. A little too loud at times.

I love being an English major. I've always been the kind of person who preferred writing essays to tests and had my nose buried in a book when I should have been paying attention in class. I've written a few scripts for film and am currently "working" on a novel. I wish I could remove the quotations, but will school starting they won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Discussing the many elements of literature and cinema, especially characters, is what I live for. Be careful if you get into such a discussion with me, I may never stop talking.

Paradise Lost blew my mind the first time I read it, and has been high on my list of favorite works ever since. I have a soft spot for the epics of Virgil and Homer and The Histories of Herodotus. Milton captures their greatness in so many ways while portraying a subject that is so very close to home. Since my dream is to teach Seminary I approach religious topics like the Fall with great passion, and love to explore their possibilities. I'm excited to get deeper into Milton's works and explore his life, legacy, and what made him so great. Team Milton! Woot!