[Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less

[Michael Bryson]

The reference to Mel Brooks was deliberate...can't
help myself...the 1968 "Springtime for Hitler"
remains the single funniest thing I have ever seen.

And of course, the cringing is Satan and Gabriel
accusing each other of toadying ("You were!" "No,
you were!") at the end of book 4. That has always
struck me as a comic moment...thus, back to Mel
Brooks...and what I often see as a faintly (to be
grossly anachronistic) Busby Berkeley quality to
some of the heaven scenes in PL and PR. Milton is
sometimes very funny...

Michael

---- Original message ----

  Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 14:11:30 -0400
  From: "FLANNAGAN, ROY" <ROY at uscb.edu>
  Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25
  words or less
  To: "John Milton Discussion List"
  <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
  >Michael: Wonderful to try the sonnet, but the
  image of dancing to the beat might be too close to
  Mel Brooks ("Springtime for Hitler" in The
  Producers, or "Puttin' on the Ritz" in Young
  Frankenstein) or Woody Allen (Mighty Aphrodite,
  choral scenes). I wonder what kind of dance Milton
  might have liked to dance in Heaven. The musical
  arrangement rings true: God must be a good
  composer, with musical children.
  >
  >I assume that it is the almost-bad angels who are
  doing the cringing?
  >
  >This could set off a wave of sonnets. Should we
  emend to "fourteen lines, unless you have a tail"?
  >
  >Roy Flannagan
  >
  >________________________________
  >
  >From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on
  behalf of Michael Bryson
  >Sent: Mon 5/18/2009 1:53 PM
  >To: John Milton Discussion List
  >Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25
  words or less
  >
  >
  >"Milton's Heaven"? Where? In Paradise Lost? In
  DDC? In a constructed (by the critic) version of
  the one that presumably resided in Milton's
  imagination?
  >
  >Here's a version of the one this critic sees (and
  therefore, in some sense constructs) in Paradise
  Lost, though in sonnet form (thus, of necessity,
  more than 25 words). The borrowings from Milton
  should be all too obvious, but otherwise the
  quality (or lack thereof) should be entirely
  blamed on me:
  >
  >Milton's Heaven
  >We dance and sing, in ecstasy before
  >The throne, with distances to cringe, not fight,
  >Or fawn and cringe and servilely adore
  >Our Heaven's awful king. What but His might
  >
  >Arranges every harmony and note,
  >With choreography controlling motion
  >Of angels' dances, learning steps by rote,
  >Turn, turn, kick, turn, in chorus lines' devotion
  >
  >To mastery of the dance the Master calls?
  >What though free will may yet illusion prove,
  >Or no, but solid show as Heaven's walls?
  >What matters is the dance in which we move.
  >
  >A tyranny or liberty in show,
  >The image is ourselves, and all we'll know.
  >
  >
  >Michael Bryson
  >
  >---- Original message ----
  >
  >
  > Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 13:17:54 -0400
  > From: Gregory Machacek
  <Gregory.Machacek at marist.edu>
  > Subject: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words
  or less
  > To: John Milton Discussion List
  <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
  > >The bliss of gratefully resigning one's will to
  that of a Creator who
  > >lovingly wills better things than you could
  imagine to will for yourself.
  > >
  > >Greg Machacek
  > >Professor of English
  > >Marist College
  > >
  > >It's the 25 word limit that makes the exercise
  fun (and challenging for
  > >academics!)
  > >
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  >
  >
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