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| Plate 8 from Gustave Doré's illustrations of Paradise Lost, depicting Satan "with thoughts inflam’d of highest design" (II.630) races with "swift wings [...] toward the Gates of Hell" (II.631). Whereupon reaching them, he encounters sitting "On either side a formidable shape" (II.649). |
The final lines from Book II of Milton's Paradise Lost offer readers insight into a legendary, and perhaps unexpected, encounter between Satan and his two children... Sin and Death. Offer a brief response and analysis to this text using the selections from Hakim Bey's The Temporary Autonomous Zone. How does Satan's plan align with Bey's assertion that "the TAZ is in some sense a tactic of disappearance"? (17). What conditions existed in the universe which God created which allowed for the "psychological liberation" (cf. Bey 20) of the fallen angels?
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ReplyDeleteSatan's interaction with his two children, with a greater focus on sin, closely mirror his relationship with the fallen angels that he cajoled into rebelling against God and Heaven. Satan promises Sin and Death that upon entering the newly created Earth, both "Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen / ... all things shall be your prey" (II. 841-844). They both readily agree, blinded by their father's promises and as such, Sin hands over the keys to the Gates of Hell. Her reasoning is aligned with the earlier reasons for rebellion, closely following this idea of "what has God done for me that I must keep to his word?"
ReplyDeleteIn "The Temporary Autonomous Zone", Hakim Bey argues that following a revolution, particularly a failed revolution, there is a "founding of a stronger and more oppressive form." This is true of Paradise Lost, where Milton's fallen angels do not simply give up once exiled to Hell, but rise up even stronger, intending to corrupt God's newly created Earth. There still exists this mindset of desiring to thwart God's plans. In a way, Satan must believe that by tainting Earth, he achieves revenge for his squashed insurrection. Bey further claims that there are certain "free enclaves" exist in society. Satan intends on twisting Earth into a "free enclave" for his demons and children (i.e Sin and Death).
To Bey, Psychological liberation is the realization of the oppressed. "We must know in what ways we are genuinely oppressed and also in what ways we are... ensnared in a fantasy in which ideas oppress us." The fallen angels, able to realize God's so-called oppression then launched a rebellion. The ability to analyze Heaven and it's hierarchy allowed to the fallen angels to desire change. The irony of Milton's work and its alignment with Bey's is that the demons exchanged one ultimate ruler for another. Satan plans on becoming the "God" of hell, masquerading his ambitions under false democratic actions. Whereas the demons concluded that they labored under God's yoke in heaven, in hell, when faced with a very similar situation, they are oblivious. This alludes to the question of whether or not the demons will one day rise up to overthrow Satan. The concept of psychological liberation makes this a query of "when", rather than "if."
Looking at Paradise Lost through the lens of social uprising, revolution, and a fight for freedom necessarily casts God as an oppressive entity, or the State, and Satan and his angels as the oppressed, or the people rising up. The fallen angels consider that Hell may be a refuge, or, in manner of speaking, a TAZ, a place where only freedom reigns. In Bey’s vein of thinking, it is less of a material change than a change of perception that allows the fallen angels to “make a Heaven of Hell.” But God is omniscient, and as such, Satan must find a different way of exercising his autonomy. His method of resistance is, in fact, not disappearance, because you cannot hide from God. What Satan does make use of is an indirect form of resistance, one composed not of the material realm of Hell or his army of demons but of his own decaying morality. As God is virtue, his blind spot, where a TAZ might make its home, is free will, and the possibility of vice, sin, and cruelty. Sin and Death, with this view, might be personified versions of Satan’s TAZ, and Sin’s decision to betray God by giving Satan the key to Hell is a betrayal of virtue, and thus Sin develops a TAZ of her own in defying God. As Sin, Death, and Satan continue forward to corrupt humanity, they allow their TAZ of vice to grow and evolve as human beings adopt it. Thus this TAZ is not a method of disappearance, but it does exploit a chink in God’s armor, so to speak, because free creatures can be virtuous or cruel, and Satan’s TAZ exists wherever cruelty is chosen.
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