[Milton-L] Fetishizing Greatness, was Re: Is Paradise Lost

[Carrol Cox]

gilliaca at jmu.edu wrote:
> 
> .>
> >How could one's pores not be opened, one's circulation quickened, to
> >encounter the rears and vices of the English Navy presented  with such a
> >straight face?
> 
> NOw you've done it!  I'll need to drop my current murder mystery and dig out Mansfield Park again!

I think there are three crucial keys to MP. One is getting rid of
assumptions of what prim Miss Austen can possibly mean. The second is
seeing that Fanny's famous weakness/timidity  is an illusion brought
about by the titanic forces arrayed against her.* And the third is
recognizing that in comparison to Mrs. Norton, Iago, Goneril, and Regan
are playground miscreants. (*Perhaps only a woman could have appreciated
just how titanic those forces indeed were. And it took Austen three
preparatory novels to reach the heights of MP & Emma.)

Carrol