Mr. D’Amato
Humanities Capstone – 12th Grade
BASIS Independent Brooklyn
Course Notes:
Tue 9/4
- initial brainstorming cloud centered on the “military-industrial complex”
- mention of The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone and its availability on Netflix
Mon 9/10
- Satan is justified in his rebellion & esp. w/his reign in hell
o he & his demons turn their place of punishment into a place of “paradise” for them
o cf. I.254-255 “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n”
§ the universe inside the mind (godhead)
§ the mind is eternal
§ calls into question one’s free will
- Satan is not justified in using other creation
Tue 9/11
- The difference between God and created beings is simply due to omniscience, omnipresence, etc. (objectivity)
o This is in contrast to one’s own subjectivity; the ability to change one’s mind is indeed true, their perception of their reality is important for this motivates action and the future material reality… yet they cannot change the present material reality in totality as God can
o cf. Sartre’s No Exit “Hell is other people.”
Wed 9/12
- the nuclear war threat in recent history… between North Korea and the US via Trump’s blind threats
o the concern was that NK would bomb us back, not that we were bombing them… the concern was the retaliation… the concern wasn’t the potential abuse of human rights nor the immense loss of life that would ensue
§ human nature causes concern for the self
§ conditioned to think polar… it’s you or them! Thus one’s own survival is paramount
§ “if I can’t have it, no one can”
- Turning to the text Paradise Lost
o associating the monarchy of Britain with God, whilst Satan is associated with creating a “democratic Hell” therefore is not Milton making a claim about democracy via this association
§ cf. divine right and the Anglo-Saxon Church
§ therefore making any revolutionaries anti-God, anti-Monarchy
§ Satan is a usurper
§ Satan seen as a god… cf. II.475-480, II.506-523
§ British history is wrought narrative of rebellion and failed attempts at changing hands of the crown
o To kill “god?” if god is the prime author of all…
§ Barthes, “Death of the Author”
· Cf. The Golden Compass series
· Cf. The Book Thief
Mon 9/17
- Why the grotesque imagery surrounding Sin? Is there Biblical reference to this? Or is Milton’s creation?
o One purpose is to disassociate Satan from this angelic roots; very literally he has family ties to hell
o A warning to the reader… you will see Sin and Death
§ The influence of Dante’s Inferno - a WARNING!
§ The “age old” scare tactic: fear-based society
- Irony is that Sin does not place the fault where the fault lies, and rather decide to scorn God by releasing the keys to Hell
- Sin suffers the most (born in Heaven, yet cast out immediately, guilty by association… raped by her own brother/son Death! (cf. II.788-809)
o Why doesn’t Death take her?
o Sin is the only character who is identified with a feminine gender… and her womb is disfigured, she is “hourly” punished”
o VIP -> Satan and the Fallen Angels are the first to experience trauma from war as “veterans”, while Sin is the first character to experience trauma/PTSD as a “citizen/victim”
§ Satan is not sympathetic, seeks revenge (external)
§ Sin’s reaction is to endure (internal)… again this is a typically 17th century vision of the feminine
· Sin as the first woman
· Is there a precedent for women existing?
· What is the commentary upon women begin suggested by this image of Sin?
o The ramification of lust (cf. II.791)
o Lust for POWER, rape as a “taking of power”… metaphor for taking power from and over
§ Cf. WWII rape of innocents , the Rape of Nanking
§ It is more about power than any iota of honor in war
§ Suggestion by the text, regarding misogyny: default to feminine is to endure
§ “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned” while in this text the woman is not allowed to express that fury!
· Men are expected to be angry, while the woman is not expected to act out
Tue 9/18
- Chaos is the space which was the universe before creation
o Open or Closed Universe Theory
o Big Bang – the seat of creation “The Womb of Nature” (cf.II.911)
- Satan asks Chaos and all the attendant powers for guidance, light, to gain his path to Earth… make a deal with them by offering Heaven and that empty space to them once the battle has won
o Akin to the Star Wars Saga, rebellion against the Empire of Light – the story of the underdog
§ Thus, the characterization of Satan causes sympathy in the reader; it humanizes him and thus we connect
- Satan’s path creates a “roadway” thru Chaos for Sin and Death and all the remaining devils to easily follow to Earth to continue their corruption
- Book IV, the blame is shifted away from God when the rebellious angels decide to throw themselves from the wall of heaven
- Redemption is possible as provided by the one returning rebellious angel (cf. VI.24)
Thur 9/20
- Juxtaposition of Satan and the Messiah (cf. VI.109-103 v. 109-114)
o Pay attention to the ADJs… features of the speaker of the poem… how does the TONE shift in this book versus other books? Does the tone offer a sense that the speaker has an opinion? Ã the shift comes from the archangel Raphael
§ Hard to divorce the speaker from Milton, yet
- Before this battle readers haven’t seen such a violent scene
o Contrast to how Satan is portrayed in Book I, where the reader is more sympathetic
o Lucifer is portrayed as less angelic, less divine, farther fallen, more demonic… he is losing his moral compass which is becoming more and more skewed
o Milton chooses to begin the epic in media res, which changes the readers’ view of Satan
§ Milton was imprisoned for this epic poem v. Dante’s DC which was received by the general public as a condemnation of the Church
· Dante’s DC draws a parallel to modern-day whistleblowers (or, antithesis… this is the opposite in that it would indoctrinate citizens, keep the populace complicit)
- Where is Milton’s ethos?
o The text is fictional, yet it draws upon a ton of classical Latin and Greek texts as well as the Bible
o His poem was viewed as heretical and was burned
- The linear progression of the image of Satan’s character in a non-linear (chronologically)
o Milton’s revealing of his character
§ The “rigging” of the vote in Hell
§ His treatment of his daughter
§ His battle with his son
- Can Free Will exist without the dichotomy of good v. evil
o In this text there exists an objective good…
Fri 9/21
- Co-text A.L.Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
- Abdiel’s speech against Satan’s unnatural rebellion
o Is, then, conflict natural?
o If we all came from chaos and thus desire (naturally) to return to Chaos (cf, Freud’s commentary on human nature and our tendency for destruction)
§ ENTROPY!
o Then, a question is does the conflict arise from those who fight or those whom are manipulated to fight
§ Akin to a move in chess where the pawns are selected and moved by “invisible hand” of the “general”
o People are caught up in ideology… how guilty were the citizens and soldiers who followed or were forced to follow some of history’s worst Apostates (e.g., Hitler, Stalin)
§ How much blame can be placed on the individual versus the commanding officer(s) or commander-in-chief
§ Also, the people, the citizens, were manipulated to become part of the surveillance state
§ Soldiers are not meant to think, they’re meant to do
· “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.” (Tennyson II.6-7)
Wed 9/26
- Milton’s text goes into great depth and detail… How does this presumption affect Milton’s ethos and the audience’s reception of the text?
o The speaker of poem claims to write prophetically, which causes many readers (given our responses in the class) to feel that the definitions provided by the text are too limiting, for God is limitless
o To assume that one can speak prophetically, definitively, about these events is blasphemous NOT out of respect or worship
§ It’s not your place to interpret God…
§ cf. Judaism won’t spell out G-d’s name out of respect, in Islam prophets aren’t godly or divine and would not be able to “report” about
§ Thus, this text illuminates the differences between the Christian faith and other faiths
· in ideology v. in practice
§ Milton isn’t alone in acting like he knows what God’s wants, commands, etc.
o Christianity is the most violent religion!
§ This text is a living example
§ Also, consider the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and/or the witch trials
§ Tied into the white race
§ Also, interesting to note that these events are Christians v. Christians
- The “Engines of the Anarchist Crew” in Book VI is such a human thing… to create gunpowder and cannons
o Misery loves company (more Dante?)
- How does the imagination serve to function as the underpinning of our “horror” over this text?
- *** the non-linear plot could signify Milton’s attempt to imitate God’s timelessness and omni----“ ***
Thur 9/27
- The final lines of Book VI end with a warning to Adam, which seems unwarranted
o The tone of this message is “almost like Raphael expects Adam to defect”
§ “defect” from God’s message and command, as Satan did
§ What chance do humans have in comparison to angels who are characterized are “close to perfection/divine”?
§ Using the analogy of “grape juice in water” to explain how easily evil corrupts… infects… Also, you can use paint as an another analogy, darker colors will overtake lighter ones
§ Rebellion is a potential which was ignited in the minds of Lucifer’s army (cf. VI.810-813)
§ This shows the immense power of evil (cf. the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment)
- The contrast between godly perfection and human goodness
o Goodness defined in terms of resisting temptation
o Humans are not perfect… one cannot be perfect, yet we can choose to be good (the concept of free will)
§ The rebellious angels choose to throw themselves from heaven’s walls is very significant
§ OT God is angry and vengeful v. NT God who is more kind
o Perfection… Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
§ Apriori existence
§ Plato believed that we lived in the shadow of the ideal world
§ The world and the universe are forever moving toward chaos… human nature and the battle between light and dark (empathy v. selfishness)
- Good v. Evil
o For every Hitler there is a Mother Theresa
o We hear more of the bad than the good
o The bad news sells better than good news
§ Attraction to conflict via biological and like associations (we were made to struggle in order to succeed)
§ People are interested in conflict is dynamic, whereas perfection is static
§ There is some much more room for ____ with conflict
§ Milton unintentionally approaches this by choosing to write about a time of tumult, thus he engages his audience
§ A dichotomy is necessary for meaning to exist, the need the opposite
Fri 9/28
- Eva’s response: the creation of pain, along with the creation of sin at his rebellion (punishment is pain)
- Cass’s response: is everything angel’s create inherently bad/imperfect?
o With the idea of free will comes the idea that war and death and sin are inconceivable to humans, we don’t really have free will if we don’t fully understand what we’re doing then do we really have free will while we’re doing it?
- The idea that the war is worth it if the cause is “just” “valid”…
- This is not a physical death of the angels, yet there is a death of harmony… accord… Chaos reigns
o The value of life to the value of an idea
- Satan desires to face God in battle as catharsis
o If a victor then it’s over
o He sees himself as different… he struggled with it for a long time… spirit v. self (THE WAR WITHIN LUCIFER)
- “unjust peace” undeniable parallels to systems of oppression
o God as a violent oppressor, this is the only instance in which it is an unwinnable war
o Oppressed v. oppressor
- In the War on Terror – a war on ideology
o The US never has to stop fighting this war, akin to the Cold War
- Did Satan win then…? Did he win in a way, b/c he is known to all, his name alone survives
o Posit God and Satan as equals in opposition
o He managed to shift the perceptions of millions, did this not then shift the reality
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