[Milton-L] Kirmss Sculpture

[John Rumrich]

For my post of the day, I plead guilty to being a fan of Terrance  
Lindall's illustrations--I guess that's pretty obvious to those who've  
seen his work on the cover of the Modern Library Milton.

That said, I'm an amateur and have no business telling you what you  
should like.

If you want to check out his illustrations of PL, mostly of Satan,  
here's a link:

http://www.wahcenter.net/gallery/lindall/plates/1.html

Plate 3 in particular rocks my world, as a surfer friend of mine is  
wont to say.

With every good wish,

John


On Sep 29, 2008, at 10:33 AM, Yuko Nii wrote:

> 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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