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

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.

Social Proof Update!

So this was my email to Professor Insalaco and here is her response.

Elise,

Erasmus is a very good place to start, especially his work on the Praise of Folly. He employs a lot of classical allusions in that piece, as well as some allusions to the comedia del arte that was popular in the Italian middle ages and Renaissance. The mixing of those two tends also leads one to think of the passion plays that were also popular at that time. So, Erasmus definitely relies on both the Bible and the mythological tradition in his writing, using it to defend the Church.

I would also look at Montaigne's Essays. Although he leans more heavily on Classical models, he also combines Biblical and Classical references. He is interesting because his education was almost entirely humanistic, with little influence of the Church, which was rare at that time in France. So, he is at one extreme of the spectrum.

Another author is Thomas More and his Utopia. Many of the practices of the Utopian society can be seen in the Spartans of Greece. Again, his allusions are mainly Classical, but the story is being retold by Raphael Hythloday, so there are overtones of Christianity in his work. However, the Utopian society's religion, or lack thereof, is certainly far from Christianity. Although More's work is more Classical than Christian, More himself was a devout defender of the faith.

I would also look at some of the art at the time. Michelangelo's paintings of the Sistine Chapel are very interesting since they combine Classical and Biblical allusions simultaneously. He paints Sibyls next to Biblical prophets on the pendants of the ceiling. Moreover, Michelangelo paints many of his figures like Greek and Roman gods and goddesses in ancient statues. Also in the Vatican is a famous painting of the School of Athens by Raphael. Here there are no Biblical references, only pagan philosophers engaged in teaching and learning. Interesting that this painting appears in a chapel in the Vatican where Christian theologians were teaching, learning, studying and influencing Christian doctrine.

This topic is complex since there are no cut or dry answers. These artists and authors were mainly devout Christians who had studied the Classics and appreciated the ancient ideas. They also realized that art and literature have languages all their own. Much of that artistic language uses pagan symbols to convey ideas, even if they are Christian ideas.

Offhand I cannot think of anyone who is an authority on that subject, but a good place to start would actually be C.S. Lewis. His scholarly works cover the time period that you are talking about and he himself was a Christian dealing with the pagan tradition. I know that Bruce Young in the English department has done a lot of work on C.S. Lewis and Christian themes in English literature in general. I would contact him as well.

Good luck!

Sister Insalaco

And a second email a little bit later...

Elise,

I just looked at my copy of the Praise of Folly, and I found some authors who are experts on humanism during that time period. I would research the writings of Robert M. Adams as well as Paul Oskar Kristeller. Mikhail Bakhtin may also have some research on your topic as well.

Hope that helps!

Sister Insalaco

Not all of this will work into my paper as I'm focusing on Milton but having ideas and examples from other people will definitely help to back my argument!

Social Proof Efforts, pt. 1

Social Proof thus far:

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:

Social Proof and Preliminary Writing for Paradise Lost

It is interesting to note that in many

depictions of the fall, Satan is depicted

as neither man nor beast but rather as a

cross between the two.

I posted recently on my personal blog about my interaction with Harold Bloom as pertaining to my current research of Satan's humanity in John Milton's Paradise Lost. I had originally contacted Bloom based on some reading that I had done from an article by Paris Kaye, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that he as well had responded to my query as of this last Saturday. I sent a similar email as I had sent Dr. Bloom, and Mr. Kaye sent me a number of different resources to look over as I go about formally drafting my research:

• Bloom, Harold; Genius; Warner Books, 2002, pp 47-57. 
• Jung, Carl G.; Answer to Job Fiftieth Anniversary Edition (trans. R.F.C. Hull); Princeton University Press, 2002 
• Jung, Carl G.; Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 1): Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious: 2nd (second) Edition; Princeton Press, 1971.

Mr. Kaye additionally wrote:

Perhaps, some allusion to the Faustian legacy as presented by Christopher Marlowe (A.K.A. Dr. Faustus). Marlowe’s dramatic work is instructive not only because it was accessible to Milton (and arguably influenced Milton) but presents an anthropomorphic perspective in terms of deities ascribed human traits. Jung’s work, especially Answer to Job, delves into the psychology of a benevolent despotic deity and the archetypal duality of the collective unconscious.

It's interesting to me that though Mr. Kaye is not, as far as I can tell, a formal academic, his feedback was much more rigorous and helpful than was that of Dr. Bloom. I think it shows that sometimes our best resources are found in the most unlikely of places.