[Milton-L] Kirmss Sculpture

[Yuko Nii]

Thank you Jeffery. You are a scholar and a gentleman. And, of course,  
my apologies to Carol. It is not my intention to cause unhappiness.  
That is Satan’s business, and the devil has the best of it at times..

I would like to say that I always thought that intelligent and learned  
persons had a sense of humor. I am confident that Milton did. You  
should read his diatribe against “jingling verse,” which is in my  
Pomfret edition.

In any case, I believe in the great dialectic as I have observed in  
the discussion of Kirmss’ “abomination.”  In the fires of the conflict  
of opposing forces, the gold will be separated from the dross.

We are all aspects of the Mind of God, so said Leibnitz.  The  
permutations and combinations of the exercise of possibility and  
actuality in that Mind, as expressed by Aristotle in book Delta of his  
Metaphysics, creates and reveals the world.

In the beginning was the “WORD.” It was an idea. God separated the  
light from the dark, creating the dialectic and the possibility of  
opposites. In that He created the possibility of a perfect opposite to  
Him, a perfect Evil. In fact Satan was a necessity in the mind of God,  
as all possibility is actualized.

All of that can also be seen in Plato’s Theory of Forms. Everything is  
a reflection of Prefect Ideas.  Then Leibniz. Then Bishop Berkeley’s  
“Esse Est Percipi.”

Milton’s age was the Age of Enlightenment. How appropriate! And, I  
believe that Milton, as a profoundly educated man and great thinker  
was an Idealist. I think that if he had revealed his true thinking on  
the nature of God, he would have been considered a heretic. I am sure  
he knew the thinking of Leibnitz, although Berkeley came after he died.

In any case, I love the Milton List. I think that you should look at  
Milton’s description of Satan’s “size,” etc., as more of a metaphor.  
Milton is talking about spiritual dimensions. All is idea made  
corporeal in description for his purpose.

Meanwhile, I have to go sweep up after the Grand Ball.

Blessings to you all!


Terrance Lindall
Provocateur

On Sep 29, 2008, at 3:53 AM, Horace Jeffery Hodges wrote:

> Posted by 'Yuko Nii':
>
> Yes! The WAH Center DID hire an ARMED Epic security officer to guard  
> Kirmss sculpture alleged to have defamed world's greatest poet,  
> following an email campaign protesting his work. The issue was  
> resolved when Kirmss' wife Ellen explained the work to Professor  
> Carol Barton who initiated the campaign.
>
> In response, Carol wrote:
>
> Thank you so much for that nonsense post, Yuko Nii. I alleged no  
> such thing, either in relation to the sculpture, or to Arthur  
> Kirmss. My "protest" was against the article's author, Mr. McGrath.  
> You really ought to get your facts straight -- but apparetly, that's  
> not something the WAH center considers important.
>
> Just to clarify things a bit, the message that you are responding to  
> was from Terrance Lindall. He and Yuko Nii use the same email  
> address, but he neglected to sign his post. There's no way that you  
> could have known this, of course.
>
> I realize that the object of your anger was Mr. McGrath's article in  
> The Times, but I was under the impression that you really didn't  
> care for the sculpture. Perhaps my impression stemmed from this  
> remark:
>
> As I've already told Mrs. Kirmss privately, it would never have  
> occurred to me that anyone would sculpt *either* "the Lady of  
> Christ's" or the highly fastidious Martyr king with tongue extended  
> in that fashion -- and to me it looked like Charles' Van Dyck beard.
>
> I read this as meaning that you thought the sculpture inappropriate  
> as a depiction of Milton. That doesn't mean that you thought that it  
> defamed Milton, of course. At any rate, I may have misunderstood you.
>
> From the start of this controversy over McGrath's article, I've  
> thought that we Milton scholars ought to be drawing attention to why  
> we love Milton. Of course, we should correct popular errors when we  
> notice them, but why get so angry about them?
>
> As for Mr. Lindall's post, I can understand that you wouldn't find  
> it very funny, but take it with good humor, Carol. After all, you  
> were pretty hard on him:
>
> And I'm so glad McGrath found such authority and reliability in his  
> esteemed source, Mr. Lindall, who can "channel" Milton's thoughts,  
> has published his works in such respected venues as Heavy Metal, and  
> is (by his own acclimation, of course) among the 'top five best- 
> known illustrators of Milton in the world,' and part of the great  
> tradition that includes William Blake, Henry Fuseli, Gustave Doré  
> and even (though his Milton work was inferior) Salvador Dalí."
>
> Lindall is a well-known illustrator of Milton. William Kerrigan,  
> John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon have chosen one of his  
> illustrations for the cover of their recent book, The Complete  
> Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton. You can see it here:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poetry-Essential-Milton-Library/dp/0679642536/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222674410&sr=1-1
>
> Mr. Lindall is a genuine fan of Milton, and his WAH Center'  
> celebration has been in the planning for several years. It's a  
> serious effort to honor Milton . . . along with a bit of  
> surrealistic humor.
>
> Jeffery Hodges
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