[Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber
jonnyangel
junkopardner at comcast.net
Tue May 12 23:04:03 EDT 2009
You¹re asking all the wrong questions. (btw, I liked your paper.)
The Christ of PR was a Nazarite, as was Samson.
Why did Milton place SA after PR?
What was Milton going through when he was blind and imprisoned, having his
books burned, and losing his financial ass in fines when he was released?
Why?
Why?
Why?
And am I going to have to get off of my lazy poetic ass and write an
academic essay that should have been written years ago?
Please just tell me that you¹ll write it, so I can just focus on the poetry.
- Jonathan
On 5/12/09 10:31 PM, "Michael Bryson" <michael.bryson at csun.edu> wrote:
> Samson was, indeed, a Nazarite. As such, he was set apart, and supposed to
> live up to certain vows...but he fails to do so. He fails, in Judges, as a
> bringer of peace, as a deliverer of the people. In SA, who aside from Samson
> himself, and/or Manoa and the Chorus (contesting with one another to see who
> can be most bloodthirsty in their fantasies to explain what might be the cause
> of the shout that "tore the sky" near the end of the play), regard Samson as
> "God's champion"?
>
> I am going to re-ask some of the questions I raised (to no apparent effect)
> earlier:
>
> 1) What exactly are the "ungodly deeds" of either Dagon, or any other member
> of the Ugaritic/Philistine pantheon in SA?
>
> 2) What exactly are the deeds--of any kind--of any deity of any pantheon or
> religious imagination in SA? What deities exist outside of the words and
> claims of the characters in SA? Where do the deities appear? What do they say?
> What do they require? What do we know about them--in the context of
> SA--outside of the claims their worshipers make about them?
>
> 3) Why should readers credit Samson's point of view? Particularly since Milton
> takes from the reader, in the use of dramatic form, the very certainty over
> some of Samson's actions and motivations that Judges provides through its
> onmniscient narration?
>
> If there is no particular interest in discussing these questions, I won't
> insist on them further. But it seems to me that such questions are important
> for understanding what is going on in SA (as opposed, perhaps, to what is
> going on in what gets called "terrorism" or "suicide bombing" in our time and
> place).
>
> Michael Bryson
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 18:48:32 -0700 (PDT)
>> From: Dalian Tross <daliantross at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber
>> To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >There is a distinct difference between a "Nazarite" and a "Nazarene".
>>> Samson was the former.
>>> >
>>> >--- On Sun, 5/10/09, Salwa Khoddam <skhoddam at cox.net> wrote:
>>> >
>>>> >> From: Salwa Khoddam <skhoddam at cox.net>
>>>> >> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber
>>>> >> To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>>>> >> Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009, 4:16 PM
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Jeffery wrote: "The expression "Suicide
>>>> >> Bomber" refers to anyone who blows
>>>> >> himself or herself up to kill others, usually in a
>>>> >> terrorist act." Is
>>>> >> Samson a "terrorist"? Or a
>>>> >> "freedom fighter," or "God's
>>>> >> champion"
>>>> >> elected (he was a Nazarene) to avenge the tribe of Judah?
>>>> >> Religion and Politics
>>>> >> were not separate for Samson nor for Milton (as supported
>>>> >> by his political
>>>> >> pamphlets).
>>>> >> Salwa Khoddam
>>>> >>
>>>> >> ----- Original Message
>>>> >> -----
>>>> >> From:
>>>> >> Horace
>>>> >> Jeffery Hodges
>>>> >> To: John
>>>> >> Milton Discussion List
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Sent: Sunday, May
>>>> >> 10, 2009 1:00 AM
>>>> >> Subject: Re:
>>>> >> [Milton-L] Samson as suicide
>>>> >> bomber
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Carrol Cox wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> "'Suicide
>>>> >> Bomber' refers, of course, to Arabs,
>>>> >> who have replaced 'dirty
>>>> >> commies' in the mythology of u.s. politics.
>>>> >> But that is not the
>>>> >> elephant but merely the context. The elephant is
>>>> >> that, through
>>>> >> discussing Samson in theological terms,
>>>> >> one implies that the
>>>> >> suicide
>>>> >> bombers of the daily newspaper are acting
>>>> >> or claiming to act
>>>> >> from theological motives -- that they are
>>>> >> religious fanatics. But they
>>>> >> are acting from strictly secular motives, as a
>>>> >> study of a year or so
>>>> >> established: they represent frustrated
>>>> >> nationalism!"
>>>> >>
>>>> >> The expression "Suicide Bomber"
>>>> >> refers to anyone who blows himself
>>>> >> or herself up to kill others, usually in a
>>>> >> terrorist act. The bomber can
>>>> >> be any ethnicity and any religion -- or even have
>>>> >> no religion.
>>>> >> Currently, most such bombers are Muslims
>>>> >> radicalized by Islamism. They
>>>> >> may act out of a combination of motives, but
>>>> >> religion is certainly one
>>>> >> of these. Moreover, regardless of the motivation,
>>>> >> Muslims would be
>>>> >> unlikely to engage in "suicide" attacks
>>>> >> if these had not already been
>>>> >> declared not acts of suicide and if these had
>>>> >> not already
>>>> >> been theologically justified by Islamists.
>>>> >> According to such
>>>> >> Islamists, the reward for the
>>>> >> Muslim 'suicide' bomber is paradise
>>>> >> -- which is why they are called by Islamists
>>>> >> "martyrdom
>>>> >> operations." Religion certainly plays a
>>>> >> major role in the
>>>> >> phenomenon, and it cannot be ignored.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Jeffery Hodges
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> _______________________________________________
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>>>> >> http://johnmilton.org/
>>>> >>
>>>> >> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>>>> >>
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>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
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>
>
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