[Milton-L] Fw: "Milton Regained . . ." by Charles McGrath

[Kemmer Anderson]

Feisal, McGrath and Kimiss just served you up an 
icon. Good timing for your conference. Kemmer
At 04:08 PM 9/26/2008, you wrote:
>Not to dispute the authority of Professor Barton 
>or Disney's Thumper, but the McGrath article is 
>not 'defamatory' in the least.  It has its 
>imprecisions and it is simplistic in its 
>interpretation of the term 'Puritan poet,' but 
>it also has some glowing (if equally simplistic) 
>passages on _Paradise Lost_: 'But of course 
>that's what makes great poems great: they're 
>open to multiple interpretations. At this show 
>there is even a painting in which Satan 
>announces: "Getting knocked out of heaven was 
>just a stepping stone. Now I have a better job 
>and my life is full of opportunities." As 
>Johnson wrote: "Milton's delight was to sport in 
>the wide regions of possibility; reality was a 
>scene too narrow for his mind. He sent his 
>faculties out upon discovery, into worlds where 
>only imagination can travel."'
>As for the sculpture, the artist has labeled it 
>'Milton' and what has been taken to be a 'pointy 
>beard' is in fact an extended tongue.  I'm not 
>persuaded that 'any expert on the seventeenth 
>century' would know this to be a representation of Charles I.
>One would hope that Miltonists are not so 
>narrowly partisan that they cannot endure a few 
>newspaper sentences over-emphasizing for 
>attention-grabbing effect aspects of the poet's 
>life that we know to be true--the work he set 
>for his daughters was certainly drudge-ish, after all.
>I appreciated the link.  I also appreciated the 
>detailed attention that this exhibit received in the Times.
>
>Feisal Mohamed
>
>
>On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Richard 
>Durocher <<mailto:durocher at stolaf.edu>durocher at stolaf.edu> wrote:
>Dear Carol,
>
>    Well said, and well done.
>
>   Best wishes,
>
>   Rich DuRocher
>
>
>On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Carol Barton 
><<mailto:cbartonphd1 at verizon.net>cbartonphd1 at verizon.net> wrote:
>For those who can't see it lower in this 
>message--the e-mail address for Letters to the 
>Editor at the _Times_ is <mailto:letters at nytimes.com>letters at nytimes.com.
>
>My note to the editor is below.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:cbartonphd1 at verizon.net>Carol Barton
>To: <mailto:letters at nytimes.com>letters at nytimes.com
>Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 11:16 AM
>Subject: "Milton Regained . . ." by Charles McGrath
>
>Letters to the Editor
>The New York Times
>620 Eighth Avenue
>New York, NY 10018
>Subject: "Milton Regained: A Helluva Party" 
>(Charles McGrath, 25 Sept 2008, Book Section)
>
>Sir:
>
>I read with disgust Charles McGrath's flippant 
>and irreverent mis-characterization of John 
>Milton, which is as inaccurate and irresponsible as it is derogatory.
>
>To begin with: any expert on the seventeenth 
>century ought to know at a glance that the 
>"sculpture of John Milton by Arthur Kimiss" 
>shown below is in fact a sculpture of the head 
>of Charles I--or does Mr. McGrath think Milton 
>wore a crown, in addition to taking "a dim view 
>of dancing," harboring his "Turkish contempt of 
>females," using his wives--much less his 
>daughters--as "drudges and amanuenses"--and the 
>other claptrap he ignorantly reports?
>
>It doesn't sound to me as if any of this--his 
>article or the exhibit it describes--was "put 
>together lovingly." I'd suggest that Mr. McGrath 
>take the good advice of a character who is 
>apparently closer to his reading level: Disney's 
>Thumper. "If ya can't say nuthin' nice--don't say nuthin' at all."
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Carol Barton
>
>
>CAROL BARTON, PH.D.
>
>"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up 
>people together to collect wood and don't assign 
>them tasks and work, but rather teach them to 
>long for the endless immensity of the sea." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
>
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