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

[Dr. Larry Gorman]

You think he means to be?

 

________________________________

From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu
[mailto:milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Bryson
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 1:20 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less

 

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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