KEV67 Posted July 3, 2023 Posted July 3, 2023 Started reading Paradise Lost by John Milton. I knew the style was lyrical, but it is even more different than I expected. It appears to be a 288 page poem all written in iambic pentameter. Quote
KEV67 Posted July 20, 2023 Author Posted July 20, 2023 The book was published in 1667, which was a few years after the Restoration of Charles II. Things must have become a bit more relaxed, religiously. I would not have thought it was safe to write fiction on sacred books. 1 Quote
KEV67 Posted August 5, 2023 Author Posted August 5, 2023 Although I am not following it very well the vocabulary is recognisably modern English. Shakespeare often seemed like a foreign language to me, particularly when I was at school. With Paradise Lost, it is not that I do not understand the vocabulary; it is that I keep on switching off. I do not pick up on many of the references. Most of these references are biblical, Old Testament, a bit of New Testament and Apocrypha. I suspect Paradise Lost is like James Joyce's Ulysses in that you need to study a whole degree to understand it properly. Quote
KEV67 Posted August 14, 2023 Author Posted August 14, 2023 God made Adam, then he made Eve in Book VIII. Now in Chapter IX they have to spend all their time gardening. Doesn't sound much like paradise to me. I am not into gardening. What are they gardening with? Surely they have not had time to develop metal implements yet. Quote
KEV67 Posted August 23, 2023 Author Posted August 23, 2023 The gardening tools were explained a little further on. Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit. If I understood correctly they then have a game of doctors and nurses. What I do not understand is that the only real knowledge this fruit of the tree of knowledge has given them is that they were not wearing any clothes. Why does it matter? There is no one else around. They have already seen each other naked. God already knows and the angels are above that sort of thing. I suppose it is a metaphor for something. Quote
KEV67 Posted September 6, 2023 Author Posted September 6, 2023 Finished it, just don't test me on any of it. Quote
KEV67 Posted November 19, 2024 Author Posted November 19, 2024 My take was that humans, being knowledgeable, know when they are doing wrong. Therefore, humans can sin. Animals do bad things to each other, but they are following their instincts. Therefore animals do not sin. Some sins can be forgiven, but some are so bad that only God could forgive them, because the victims are not in a position to. That is my opinion of original sin. Quote
friendofbooks Posted November 19, 2024 Posted November 19, 2024 Oh, I read it a few years ago. I was left with some strange emotions after finishing it. The writing style is quite complex, poetic, and at times, a bit melodramatic, which made it pretty difficult for me to read. Quote
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