With Love, from Oxford: Social Proof UPDATE

So I did finally hear back from the illustrious William Poole of Oxford. He was surprisingly warm. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use his feedback for the version of the paper I turned in for this class, but intend to in the revised version I hope to present at BYU's English Symposium.

See our brief exchange below...

Dr. Poole,

I’m a masters student at Brigham Young University studying John Milton. My current research project argues that the passages of Paradise Lost dealing with Babel should be read as a theodicy of God’s forcible obstruction of communication. Further, I believe contrasting Milton’s earlier claim that restricting the flow of knowledge is “contrary to the manner of God” (Areopagitica) to Book XII might offer some insight into how Milton’s views were affected by his imprisonment and the burning of his political tracts following the Restoration.

In the course of my research, I came across The Divine and the Grammarian in the 17th-Century Universal Language Movement. I’m still digesting it, but it was a fascinating read. Understanding Milton’s response to or participation in this movement would surely strengthen (or correct) my argument, but I can’t seem to find any sources on the subject. Could you point me in the right direction?

Respectfully,

Jake Clayson

Dear Jake Clayson,

Apologies for my tardy response, but I've been very busy with interviews for the last week or so.
I'm not sure if Milton had any direct contact with the universal language movement -- most of their texts appeared after he was blind, and he was culturally and politically remote from most of its proponents, with the possible exceptions of Francis Lodwick and his friend Abraham Hill. But in terms of ideas, I think Milton would have been interested but sceptical. He would have known of discussions of the possibility of a 'real character' from Francis Bacon and probably John Wilkins's Mercury too: but my feeling is that Milton would have considered the epistemological confidence of the movement to be misplaced. The standard book on all this is Rhodri Lewis's Language, Mind and Nature: Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to Locke. Have a look at that and see where it gets you. 

Good luck with your research!
All best,

Will Poole

Babblers vs. Nimrods: Milton on Gods Gatekeeping Ethics

Here's my final research paper. I plan to submit it to the 2014 English Symposium, “Mightier than the Sword: The Power of Literature and Literacy,” so please feel free to send any critique you may have my way.

A Teaser...

For many historians, the pamphlet wars of the seventeenth century largely define the English Revolution as the first modern revolution “complete with a nascent public sphere, people beginning to perceive themselves as public actors, and, most importantly, a free press that empowered both” (Wheeler 340). It was in this context that Milton’s political pamphlets—including Areopagitica, which defends the very principles the seventeenth-century pamphleteering depended on—was published. The novelty of widespread, printed public debate was not lost on those of Milton’s era. Bookseller George Thomason, Milton’s friend, collected some 22,000 pamphlets 
and other publications between 1640 and 1660 to commemorate their historical significance (Pooley 231). In contrast, Royalist detractors—publishing their criticism in pamphlets, ironically—often used post-Babel babble as a symbol for the budding public sphere and to “restore authority to the King’s language” (Holston 18).

My final paper: A reflection

Before I go off on explaining my process for finally getting my act together and completing this final essay, I do just want to make it clear that I really did learn a lot in this class.  I greatly enjoyed the class discussions, and I feel that I gained a better understanding of how to read and analyze poetry.  I think I understand a little better just why so many Romantic poets absolutely loved Milton.

This is the story of how I finally completed my final paper the hard way.  As many in the class may have noticed, I missed a number of classes, which certainly didn’t help my ability to keep up with the reading and writing load.  I fell way behind in completing this essay, which is why it was turned in late.  Truth be told, I felt kind of swamped by the material—I mean, how do you come up with anything remotely original to say about an author who people have been debating for nearly 400 years?  As such, I felt like I was at a bit of a loss to come up with anything.  I was, however, drawn to the idea of looking first at Milton and Oliver Cromwell, specifically at the idea of Cromwell as inspiration for Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost.  I even wrote a short essay on that subject, which you might now recognize as forming a portion of my final essay.

Final Paper: Ambitions and Passivity: An Examination of Milton and his Works in the Light of Revolution

Here is my final paper.

There once was a paper...

So, here is the finished product of my paper: Ta-Da! I had a wonderfully positive experience researching and writing it. I think the most fun I had was through networking. Figuring out that there were people on the other side of the country (or planet as the case may be) who were not only interested in what I was interested in, but also interested in how my ideas developed. 

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way...

The world is a very non-linear place. I'm not sure when I first realized this fact, but here are the top three BYU experiences (listed in no particular order) that most impressed that fact on me:

• Watching Kurosawa's Rashomon at BYU's International Cinema as an undergrad
• Discovering the art of the personal essay as Pat Madden read Asymptosy in the Harold B. Lee Library
• Reading, researching, and writing about Paradise Lost

 Very little went as I imagined it would. I took the class because I wanted to read Milton's grand epic, but found myself most excited when we picked up Areopagitica. I suppose the libertarian literature/media I've been ingesting over the past few years got me primed for Milton's views on gatekeeping, intellectual freedom, etc. Initially, I figured I'd pursue what Chelsea later delved deep into (Snowden and all). But after some conversations with Greg, Google, Gideon, and (of all people) one of the masterminds at More Good Foundation, I thought very seriously about applying Areopagitica to the present shifts in LDS public relations and CES policies (see: Mormopagitica).

In retrospect, I think I would have enjoyed following the Mormon rabbit further down the rabbit hole, and almost wish I could have a do-over. But when I sat down to write the shorter writing assignment (which, like Greg, I found invaluable), I felt a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of wrapping my head around such a multifaceted issue without the benefit of three-hundred years worth of historians winnowing away at the facts. And I was becoming enamored by both the harmony and dissonance I saw between Areopagitica and Paradise Lost. Specifically, I was fascinated by the fact that Milton decries forcible gatekeeping in Areopagitica as contrary to "the manner of God and nature," but saw a God who Paradise Lost who proscribed the spread of knowledge in a variety of ways. I couldn't help but ask why Milton would have reversed this claim after being so unjustly censored and imprisoned by the restored monarchy.

Ironically, as I started to research in earnest, I found myself connecting much more frequently in person than online. I think what I appreciated about face-to-face social research was how quickly I was able to get social proof each time. Whether it was a chat with Greg as we crossed campus after class, an intrusion on Gideon or Jason Kerr in their respective offices, or conversation with fellow graduate instructors in the carrels of the JFSB, conversing real-time gave me the chance to instantly pick up some new insight and gauge (sometimes through non-verbal feedback) whether I was on track.

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.

Reflection

Like many of my peers, I also (relatively) enjoyed writing this paper because I'd come to love my self-chosen topic over the course of the semester. We had ample opportunity to reach out-I used blogs, traditional articles and interviewed with a Milton professor, Dr. Kim Johnson, on campus. 

Typically, my papers are a less than three day process-outline, then write. I wrote my first paper on the female pursuit of knowledge in Milton's works. I did much research, several blog posts and discussed the idea in my Transatlantic Literature/Women's Studies class. Dr. Siegfried and Dr. Johnson helped me formulate a narrower scope-Milton's portrayal of Eve as evidence of his "Feminism". Overall, I am very happy with my paper. 

I was surprised to hear back from the conference I submitted my paper to-no acceptance/denial yet-but still, it was more exciting than I thought it would be. For me, I have learned not to be so afraid of reaching out to others. People have a lot to say and experts love to be asked about their topics of expertise, so why not glean from their wisdom? In talking with my Transatlantic Lit class, several Milton classmates and multiple professors, I definitely put more effort into understanding my subject than I really have ever done for a paper. It's something I will try to do in the future. 

Which key?: Unlocking Milton (social proof and scholarship)

I don’t think I have ever been more satisfied with a research paper in my whole career of paper writing! Maybe its because I had it almost entirely done a full day before it was due or because my ideas had had plenty of conversation and percolation. I actually managed to get to the point where I was in control of the paper rather than the paper in control of me.

The Milton controversy with Christianity and paganism was something we talked about from the beginning of the course. My blog posts pretty well document the progression of my idea itself (first here, then here and here). I initially thought I would focus on what kind of Christ Milton was depicting and why. But research, interviewing with Dr. Burton, and some of your suggestions led me more in the direction of why the use and then rejection of classical allusions and just letting the Christ and Christianity aspect work itself in.

The social proof aspect was what I think really made this project for me. Realizing that anyone could be a potential help, even if its just that I am able to reach a higher plane in talking with them made it exciting. I bounced ideas off of my husband, was super helpful in that regard. We so often assume people won’t be interested that we don’t say anything. (But really, we are writing the paper so that people will be interested, right? And if we hope to publish we need people to be interested.)
Another cool moment (that didn’t even hit me till right now) was actually in talking with my mother-in-law. In passing she asked what my paper was about, while I was working on it and I started to go through my thoughts. We had a nice little conversation about it, about Christ and classical learning, etc. What I had forgotten was that she was born and raised in the Catholic church before she became a member of the LDS faith and so had more of a background in to Milton’s world and what he was dealing with than I ever will. As it was, our brief talk helped me start to think more along the lines of what of Milton’s environment would have lead him to write what he did.

I started to get a little anxious-crazy when I realized I had a question and a good start on research but not really an answer. My vital claim was missing. Turning to the text in an in-depth effort to locate the bits and pieces I had been finding in my research cleared this up for me. The text sparked my question and after a look at what was going on, gaining an understanding of the pertinent background other than my own limited one, my answering could be found by returning to the text.

It’s like finding a lock and searching the whole house for the key. Once you’ve found a couple likely ones you can’t remember exactly what the lock looks like and so you have to take them all back to see which one fits.

The Incredible Journey through Paradise Lost

When I was reading Paradise Lost, I was instantly drawn to the character Satan. I found his character, his language and his almost protagonist role to be much more fascinating than any other character in the poem. I knew that I wanted to write my paper on an aspect of him. In one of my posts I talked about how I noticed some human characteristics in Satan  link. Another blog post showed how I had noticed some similarities between Satan and Milton link. I decided to focus on this aspect, which was how my first topic came about. I looked at this relationship from a religious point of view, trying to see how there may be a correlation between Milton's radical religious ideas and Satan's character. However, as I did my social media research and bounced my ideas around with friends, scholars and Professor Burton, I changed my argument to Milton using Satan as a tool to prove that rhetoric and words are separate from morality, thus making Milton's connection to Satan more rhetorical than moral.

Dr. Milton or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Proof

Now that the initial "Praise the Lord it's done!" phase of my paper is over, it's quite nice to take a look back over my writing process and see how I succeeded and how I need to improve. This assignment was a bit different from most others I'd had, and it was interesting to flex some academic muscles I wasn't too familiar with.

The End

          Wow, has this paper just stressed me to the point of insanity. I don't know what it was about this particular assignment, but I think I kind of wanted to show everyone (okay, mostly just myself) that I don't have to like an author to write a good paper.
          Which brings me to my next point: no, I did not grow to love Milton that much. Despite the fact that I named my fish after him, he just didn't stick out to me. I'm still glad that I chose this major authors course over the others because at least I've learned something about the works and the life of an author other than Shakespeare...who I am sick of.
          I'm not used to being very social about my school work, especially papers or essays, but the first step in socially optimized research is to TELL PEOPLE. I don't necessarily procrastinate enough to be considered really irresponsible, but I do like going at my own pace. The last unit of this class, the research unit, has been the most difficult for me. To talk to everyone about the progress of my paper (or lack thereof) is just way out of the ordinary for me, but near the end, I had several people (like my parents, an old high school teacher) reading drafts of my paper to give me feedback. but I can already see how I'm going to benefit from it.

My Experience with Milton

Literati at their finest.

To start off, I had to take this last opportunity to post a picture of Paradise Lost, the band that has plagued all of our research efforts.

Now on to the story of my paper. I didn't come up with the idea for my topic by any noble means. I just enjoy disagreeing with people. I thought that it was just too easy to read Adam as symbolic of humanity and asked myself, "why could that be wrong?" Since it's so much more fun to prove people wrong than it is to prove them right, I stuck with that topic and it turned into what I hope is a decent paper. (If not, I blame the Fall.)

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Well, as the semester comes to a close, I wanted to talk a little bit about my research process for the paper that I finished last week on the humanity of John Milton's Satan figure in Paradise Lost. They say that sometimes looking back on where you've been can be one of the most important things in helping you to move forward, and Heaven knows well enough that with graduation soon approaching, I could use some perspective.

All in the all, I really enjoyed researching the topic. It's one of the most fundamental concepts in understanding Paradise Lost, and I felt like there was a little place cut out for me in terms of being able to contribute to the overall conversation. My research really began with Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin, one of the most influential works of criticism for PL. I started reading it about a month into the semester and got through most of it by the time that I needed to start actually drafting, so it was really influential in terms of helping me to form my research question. I build my question around a question that I felt Fish had neglected to some extent, that Satan can in some sense be seen as a regular human character with regular human vices. As a result, my paper was largely a response to his criticism. I got some really valuable feedback along the way, though, and that really helped to shape my research.

Venue Submission Report!

I was looking for places to submit my paper, and I wasn't having much luck until Elise posted this source. From their website:

"New Academia is a refereed journal published quarterly by Interactions Forum, Pune. 

The Journal strives to publish research work of high quality related to Literature written in English Language across the World, English language and literary theory. The aim of the journal is to give space to scholars and researchers to publish their works."

I feel it suits my topic fairly well. I was initially a little shy about submitting my paper, as I feel it's not  up to snuff for publication, but this call for papers has an editor as part of the process, an experience I'd love to have! 

On the Creation of Modern Comparison

Except this is really my last one of my undergraduate career.
Still, it feels never-ending. Probably will be.

I'll be honest: there's very little of Milton that I felt any connection to. Scott wrote a post about T.S. Eliot and his thoughts on Milton, and I responded to it with the following: "Verbose inefficiency seems a good description for what I've been annoyed with."

There were only a few times that I found myself interested in Milton's work. Those times were his Divorce Tracts and Areopagitica. That's not to say that I didn't find class discussions and the primary texts interesting. I just mean to say that Milton didn't astound me with his poetry the way that Eliot does. I don't like very much poetry, so I will always be more fond of prose.

Venue Submission

I emailed a proposal and attached my paper to Dr. Corns with the British Milton Seminar. I doubt I'd be able to attend but it was a neat experience to actually submit a paper to a conference!

I also submitted my paper to the BYU Scholars Archive.

Man of Sin: Complete at Last!

Well, it's done! I'm finished with my paper, and I've submitted it to a couple of different venues. Here's the link for anyone interested in reading the full version.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oHVteZi_KNdkVsd0tndng1SUk/edit?usp=sharing

Publication Venues and an UPDATE

So after much searching I'm in the process of submitting to this call for papers. It fits relatively well. I have to submit a CV and 300 words abstract. Has any of the other venues you guys are planning on submitting to asked for a curriculum vitae? It makes sense I just didn't realize it was common.

I'm sad this CFP has already passed because my papers fits along with it beautifully! But its nearly 2 years old. Oh well.

Wait!! I just stumbled on another venue. I'm liking this fit better so I'm going to send them an email and see if I can submit.

*************UPDATE**************
So the 3rd venue I talked about above had a $550 article handling fee, so I decided against for fear I might somehow actually be accepted and then have to pay it.

I also sent a proposal to the British Milton Seminar.

Also, for those interested, I found this bit of submission etiquette or publication ethics that I wasn't aware of.

Milton's Paradox: Justifying Classical Allusions

Whoa, I missed the memo we were posting these on here;] So here's mine!