This Day in Metal

June 1st 2015 #ParadiseLost released the album “The Plague Within” #NoHopeInSight #Terminal #CryOut #FleshFromBone #HeavyMetal

Did you know...

Book I is epic! And I mean that in every sense of the word. Milton does this amazing thing where he plays with epic conventions. Paradise Lost has everything you would expect from an epic poem in the traditional sense: grand battles, great love affairs, supernatural interventions, a journey into the underworld, lists and lists of heroes, and some crazy epic similes. In keeping with tradition, he starts in medias res or in the middle of things. The first part of Book I is a summary of what is to come told by our faithful narrator who is transformed from a traveling bard into profit. One of the things that makes Paradise Lost so awesome is that Milton beautifully mixes Judo/Christian traditions with Greek/Roman conventions to create the epic of all epics.

This can also make it a little difficult to read.

It is hard to tell where the story starts since Milton gets caught up telling the history of the universe before he even begins. This is kind of a big topic to have as an aside. Also, at the end of Book I he spends several pages listing the legions of hell. Again, this is part of the epic convention—listing heroes and praising gods is a major part of every epic poem—and if you managed not to get bogged down in the incessant naming, you see that Milton is actually doing something really interesting here. Satan’s devils are a mix of biblical baddies and polytheistic gods from other cultures. He even calls attention to this by pointing out that Osiris, Isis, and Orus are Egyptian. This is a subtle way of preaching a monotheistic doctrine. Oh, you worship the god Osiris, eh? Did you know he is one of Satan’s cronies? Okay, maybe it isn’t so subtle.

However, the real meat and beauty of Book I is the dialog between Satan and Beelzebub. Here Milton starts exploring the great theological questions. Keep in mind, Milton isn’t humanizing Satan, but rather exposing the Satan within all of us. However, he isn’t saying, you feel anger? You must be possessed by Satan! Instead he is showing how, ever since the loss of Paradise, Satan is an intrinsic part of us all.

In Book I, Satan has just lost the battle of Heaven. He a conflicted and confused individual who is trying to appear confident and undefeated in front of his troops. His heroic flaw (in the classic sense) is how he focuses on negative emotions like jealously, hatred, resentment, and pride to poison everyone else.

The fallen angles are transformed by their plummet into Hell. They are quite literally distorted from angels into devils by the fall. Satan uses this to belittle Beelzebub, pointing out how ugly he is just to make him angry. Satan then uses that anger by redirecting it saying “Joined with me once, now misery hath joined in equal ruin” (line 90). Basically saying, we are in this together till the end. He later goes on to say, oh and by the way, this is God’s fault. Satan is one manipulative dude who never takes responsibility.

He is also an impressive orator.

He takes his dilapidated army and pulls them out of the muck, making them kings of their new domain. His words inspire legions. He flatters them. He shames them. He makes them love him. All the while, he rages against God and plots to rise up again. He will not be so easily defeated.

Book I ends with the start of a “great consult” or meeting of all the important peeps in Hell. It is kind of a cliff hanger since we don’t get to see what they are talking about till Book II.

to read the entirety of Paradise Lost before my two o' clock tutorial, when I have lectures from eleven 'till one.