BOOK REVIEW | Paradise Regained by John Milton

Paradise Regained, while not at the same level of rhetoric and literacy as Paradise Lost, does offer an interesting insight into Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Milton uses language in order to assert Jesus as the Messiah, and Satan as an agent of evil, which is being used by God, to help that assertion. Paradise Regained is largely static. There is no real rise and fall of tension and there is no real climax, either. Rather, all of the stress is placed on the importance of language and silence.

When comparing Satan and Jesus' speeches, there is an immediate difference: Satan's speech is clouded in "persuasive rhetoric," whereas everything that Jesus says is plain and accessible. Jesus does not need fancy language in order to convey His message. Instead of trying to make Himself more confusing, the Messiah takes language back to its roots and uses it as Adam did (in a way that would be able to communicate with God directly) by keeping it as simple and as close to God as He can.

In his brilliant essay, "The Muting of Satan: Language and Redemption in Paradise Regained," Steven Goldsmith argues that the language Jesus is using is not the same as the language Satan is using. Rather than stay silent while Satan tempts Him, Jesus uses the fallen language in order to thwart Satan and beat him at his own game. In the process of using this language, Jesus is paving His way towards becoming the Messiah by silencing Satan so that His voice will be heard. Underneath all of Satan's fancy word plays lays absolutely nothing. He is the "linguistic anti-christ," who "has nothing to express."

Jesus finally asserts Himself as Messiah and readies Himself to be "all in all" with God towards the end of the poem:

"To whom thus Jesus: Also it is written,
Tempt not the Lord they God, he said and stood.
But Satan smitten with amazement fell."

At first glance, it is easy to see that Jesus and Satan are opposites: one is standing and the other is falling. However, the fact that Jesus "said and stood" is important. It parallels God's perfect speech during the creation of the world: "God said... and there was." This is the pinnacle of the poem - the point where Christ has officially triumphed over Satan and can now go public as Messiah. Satan is allowed to roam the fallen world and has even created a kingdom of his own in Hell and in the sky (according to Milton) where he perversely "blesses" people with wealth, glory, etc. Jesus has to enter the fallen world and first silence its biggest voice before He can redeem it.

"Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind."

According to Goldsmith, "the process of verification that is the purpose of Paradise Regained has been accomplished." By using language, Milton paralleled Jesus' own entrance into the world as Messiah by silencing Satan and glorifying Christ.

While I still believe this is not nearly as fascinating as Paradise Lost (and is also much shorter), it's still well worth the read if you've read the former. They really are two parts of a whole. Satan's temptation of Christ not only mimics his temptation of Eve, but it is also referenced throughout the entire poem whenever he feels foiled. This is the finale to Paradise Lost.

John Milton, Censorship, and the Murder of Reason. #BannedBooksWeek

In honor of #BannedBooksWeek, I figured I definitely needed to make a post on the horrors of censorship and how it limits intellectual growth.  Over the years, various governments, usually those based in religion, have banned books that they think have an agenda against their own.  Normally, these books do have a different point of view, but that is what makes them great.

I recently read John Milton's Areopagitica.  This essay is an appeal to the Papacy to drop the legislative censorship act that they had just put into motion.  It's a selfish piece.  Milton was viewed as heretic by many church members and he was afraid of his work being censored or unpublished.  However, regardless of his intention in writing it, the meaning inside of it is relevant: you need to read all kinds of books to decide what you think is right or wrong and you should never be limited in your intellectual - and ultimately moral - journey.

For Milton, books are not just things we passively observe.  They are active, alive beings that we must consume.  The more we consume, the more we can figure out our personal ethos and the more we will be able to see right from wrong.  If books that are deemed wrong by "tyranny and susperstition"* then members of society who can read will all begin to think the same, and in thinking the same there can never be any change.

I've pulled a few quotes for you that resonating strongly with me, as a reader:

"...for books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them."

"... as good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself..."

Killing a book is worse than killing a human being in the eyes of Milton because you are killing the living essence of reason.  Censorship is the act of killing reason.

I thought it would be good to look three banned books and explain why they were banned:

 Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Why was it banned?: It was banned because it went against "public morals" due to the wife taking on a lover while she was married.**  Although books with men taking female lovers haven't seemed to have ever been banned.

1984 by George Orwell

Why was it banned?: It was banned by the USSR because Stalin recognized it as a satire on his leadership.  He didn't want a revolution to take place.  The US almost banned this book as well during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Why was it banned?: It was banned due to the racial slurs, profanity, rape and other unpleasant images in the novel.  It is still one of the most challenged novels in schools today.

I chose these three books to focus on because I wanted to point out why different books are banned.  A woman taking control of her sexuality is scary and must be banned.  The people realizing how terrible their government is and being incited to revolution is scary and must be banned.  Racial slurs, rape, etc. is offensive and must be banned.  And these things must be banned even if the larger message, like Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, is actually anti-racism.  The books must be banned even if their message is one of the most revolutionary ones of history, because it contains "dirty words."  

Establishments will come up with any reason to ban a book, whether it be for sexual, religious or political reasons.  They will mask these reasons by trying to tell you that banning these books is "good for you" and "protecting your innocence."  But it's not.  It's good for them, not for you, and the act of censorship will never be beneficial to the individual.  Of course, you can run the risk of being "contaminated," and beginning to think in a more violent way, for example, but that is where Milton's personal ethos comes into play: that we must read as much as possible, see the reactions and the failures in history and literature, to grow and expand as a people.  As readers, and as people, I hope we will continue to fight for our literary freedom.

* All quotes by Milton come from the Oxford World's Classics John Milton: The Major Works.

** Information comes from Wikipedia and Bannedbooks.world.