[Milton-L] Milton and Gardens: queries on JM's aesthetics

[Michael Bryson]

I love that scene, and that speech in particular.
Adam is trying--without much success--to talk Eve
into working by his side (rather than dividing their
labors) so they can...as my students like to
say..."throw down" in the middle of the work day.

Eve seems less than impressed by the idea...but a
great scene nonetheless.

I've plenty of experience with non-union labor (and
with sweatshop conditions). I understand all too
well the difference between work and punishment, but
I've seen (and lived) up close the merging of the
two (Bricks without straw is not an idea that has
disappeared). The two are merged in Genesis 3, and
in post-book 9 PL.

Michael Bryson

---- Original message ----

  Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:29:52 -0400
  From: alan horn <alanshorn at gmail.com>
  Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Gardens:
  queries on JM's aesthetics
  To: John Milton Discussion List
  <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
  > here in California, there are many people
  >> who might beg to differ about the pleasant and
  creative nature of working in
  >> the fields without respite, without end.
  >
  >Labor in Eden is specifically not "without
  respite":
  >
  >Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed
  >Labour as to debar us when we need
  >Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
  >Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse
  >Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow
  >To brute denied, and are of love the food—
  >Love, not the lowest end of human life.
  >For not to irksome toil, but to delight,
  >He made us, and delight to reason joined.
  >(IX, 235-244)
  >
  >Even in our fallen world, all work does not take
  place in non-union
  >sweatshops. There's nothing pro-worker about
  equating work with
  >punishment. Workers naturally seek better
  conditions, and when they
  >can they fight for them, but they also tend to
  understand the value
  >and dignity of labor.
  >
  >Alan Horn
  >
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