[Milton-L] Symposium on Milton's Samson

[Harold Skulsky]

I have had time to read only Stanley Fish's little talk (on four things
one can do with SA). There is nothing particularly arresting in it, as
far as I can see, and certainly nothing new. But I would be much obliged
if someone have the kindness to explain the miraculous transformation on
display here. 

The Fish of yore I knew and despised was a fellow traveler of Rorty at
his nihilistic worst, given to shamelessly outré manipulations of
whatever text was at his mercy — in short, the phenomenally popular
operator of a three-card monte game whose time had come. The Fish on
display in the current little talk is a cuddly elder statesman, a
venerable teddybear of old-fashioned historical intentionalism (is
Hirsch still with us?), gently rapping the knuckles of anachronists and
other poachers in the margins of other men's books, and leaving behind a
tinkle of mild but affectionate laughter. Perhaps the miraculous
transformation is merely another (unremarkable) reminder that what goes
around comes around. Still, I can't resist the suspicion that there is
something afoot here — something important that eludes me.