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/lit/ - Literature

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4843306 No.4843306[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Hello, /lit/, newcomer from /mu/ here.

By newcomer I mean I'm hardly well read at all! But, i'm taking an introduction to literature class in college right now and we just wrapped up Milton's Paradise Lost. A few questions for you all:

Was anyone else really fascinated by the characterization of Satan in the poem? I had never before encountered a work that looked at Satan as a person with his own hopes and desires. I really empathized with his feeling betrayed by his creator, and his questions about why he was made the way he was.

Are there any other works that explore the Devil's mindset and tries to rationalize his actions? I'm a practical atheist, and I'm not really interested in Satan as a religious figure, just as a character. I'm also interested in how different authors approach the problem of the existence of free-will in a universe with a God that can foresee the inevitable future.

I've read The Iliad, The Aeneid, and the Inferno for this class as well, and really enjoyed them all. What are some other works like these I should read?

Be kind, I'm trying to expand my horizons here, haha.

>> No.4843314

His Dark Materials
William Blake
Gnostic shit

>> No.4843317

read a bunch of shit by the Romantics IMO

>> No.4843322

>>4843306
>>4843317
Yes, the English Romantics had the same fundamental misreading as you did so they are worth checking out.

>> No.4843329

>>4843322
It's not a misreading. Yes it's opposed to what Milton was originally saying but it's a creative and productive re-interpretation so I'm not sure we can just dismiss it as a misreading, you know

>> No.4843342

>>4843329
It is a misreading. You've missed the whole point of the poem if you've fallen for Satan's charm without regret or embarrassment. Humanity has learned nothing since the fall because we are still being tricked by the efforts of that 'classical hero' despite our knowledge of an existent omnipotent christian hero.

>> No.4843346
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4843346

>>4843342
>despite our knowledge of an existent omnipotent christian hero

>> No.4843350

Read Lolita.
The book is extremely eloquent, and manages to concretely explain that there was indeed sexual intercourse between the protagonist and Lolita, yet frames it in such a way that it is unfappable.

>> No.4843355

>>4843342
yeah dude i know. but even though the romantics were wrong their interpretation was still original + creative + powerful + productive so maybe it is more interesting to look at it and how that interpretation manifests in their work and aesthetics instead of just saying "they are wrong and dumber than me".

>> No.4843364

>>4843342
I'm well aware that Milton's goal with the work was to show that Satan was wrong, and that Adam and Eve's submission was the success to Satan's failure. I just find his persistence in being wrong interesting. I'm often guilty of the same prideful refutation of authority for its own sake that he exhibits. I'm not holding him up as a hero, by any means, but rather as an example of what I ought to do less.

interest =/= hero worship

>> No.4843365

I do hope you listen to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Moonlight Sonata at least once a day, proletariat scum.