[Milton-L] "Making Milton Matter"

[Michael Bauman]

Friends,
So far as I can see, we can't make Milton matter, or make Milton relevant, anymore than we can make the sun rise in the morning or set again at night.  He already does matter, and he already is relevant, though some folks don't yet know it.  Milton matters and is relevant because his life and works inform and enlighten us about what it's like to be a human being in a fallen world, a condition to which we all are subject.  He knows the burdens of blindness, of grief, of guilt, of fractured homes, of oppressive authority, and of determined opposition.  Life has few agonies or triumphs that he has not met.  He knows the joys of friendship, of love, of faithfulness, and of achievement.  He knows full well, and he communicates both memorably and effectively about, the enduring virtues of courage, endurance, purposefulness, and faith, as well the the fundamental importance of a relentless pursuit of truth against all odds.  He knows both the beauty and the burdens of high obligation.  If I cannot communicate the power and the relevance of those stupendous things, I am in the wrong profession.

Michael
________________________________________
From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Carrol Cox [cbcox at ilstu.edu]
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 7:47 AM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: [Milton-L] "Making Milton Matter"???? was Smokey Mountain...

Salwa Khoddam wrote:
>
> [CLIPI] I teach Milton and I find it
> difficult to persuade my students that Milton matters, despite my evident
> passion for this great writer. A few suggestions would help me a great deal.

I don't understand this concern to "make" Milton matter -- in fact it
seems hardly coherent to me.

In the first place, this is merely a special case of "Making Literature
Matter," and as Northrop Frye remarked a half-century ago, defenses of
poetry are seldom persuasive to anyone who isn't already inside the
ramparts. Those persuaded don't need to be because they already are, and
those who need to be persuaded will not be because the premises won't be
intelligible to them.

A certain proportion of the population will like to read.

A certain proportion of that sub-population will discover that they like
to read Milton.

He will matter to them, in the f uture as in the past. What point is
there in trying to MAKE him matter?

Carrol

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