At that time, in the 1960's, I was impressed by Milton's idea that demons, escaping from Hell and travelling to Earth to tempt human beings, posed as the various pantheons of pre-Christian religions. It makes sense, sort of, that one belief can explain others.
So - might the destructive Gods of Ys in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys Tetralogy be numbered among the many demons of James Blish's Black Easter/The Day Of Judgement? There are definite similarities.
We who write or read this blog appreciate such ideas in works of fantasy but they are very real in some people's heads. Today in Lancaster, a Christian Zionist preacher interrupted and denounced the regular weekly Palestine Solidarity rally in Market Square. It was that intervention with its apocalyptic language that has turned my thoughts back to Milton, the Andersons and Blish. (I had been having a friendly, if one-sided, conversation with that preacher before he did that.)
Afterwards, one of the Muslim stall-holders told me about their Antichrist equivalent. This reminded me of a Blishian demonic pronouncement about the Antichrist which I have quoted five times on this blog, a powerful statement implying that human beings are bad enough already without needing to be misled by an Antichrist!
Our fiction resonates with some of our fellow citizens' mental constructs. And Lancaster street life is sometimes pertinent. Next we should return to Poul Anderson's Technic History.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
About half a century ago I struggled my way thru Milton's PARADISE LOST. It was a struggle because, alas, it was a hard, heavy, ponderous slog to read. The poem has some striking and interesting lines, but not enough to avoid me getting a bad impression of it.
By contrast I loved Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, which I first started reading in February of 1972. Unlike Milton Dante had that all important talent: he knew how to tell a story, with me racing thru all three parts of John Ciardi's translation of the COMEDY in that winter of 1972.
I became such a Dantean that I went on to read Dorothy L. Sayers' translation of the COMEDY by 1973 and her two volumes of essays about Dante's life and work. Next came reading Dante's LA VITA NUOVA, his political treatise DE MONARCHIA, and a collection of his surviving letters. Last, I read Allen Mandelbaum's translation of the COMEDY in the mid 1990's.
I recall how one of Sayers' most interesting essays was a comparison of Dante with Milton, with her concluding that despite the latter's real abilities as a poet, Dante was far the better and more fun to read. Sayers also pointed out, for example, that Dante's vision of Hell was vastly more realistic than Milton's (who tended to make Hell far too comfortable). Also, like most Protestants, Milton denied the existence of Purgatory, and I found his treatment of Heaven unsatisfactory.
Conclusion: Milton is worth trying at least once but Dante was far the better poet and writer. Dante also left his mark on science fiction, with Anderson mentioning him in OPERATION CHAOS. Anderson's grim depiction of the Adversary and the hell universe of that book owns far more to Dante's INFERNO than to Milton's work.
Plus, of course, there's Jerry Pournelle's and Larry Niven's interesting take on Dante: INFERNO and ESCAPE FROM HELL. Albeit I don't believe in their premise, Hell is shock treatment by God, attempting to get thru to the souls of those who died impenitent.
I would have gone to pro-Israel demonstrations in Lancaster!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
In THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT, Blish wrote that "Dante had seen and Milton imagined" Satan.
Our street life is vibrant. You could certainly organize a demonstration.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have read THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT and I should reread it--to say nothing of mentioning it in my first comment above. Not quite on topic but related there's also Anderson's "Pact," his amusingly sardonic inversion of "pacts with the devil" stories. I hope and think Dante enjoyed reading it in the next life!
Blish was right, Dante was far more accurate in his depiction of Satan than was Milton. The Adversary is the enemy of God and mankind, consumed with rage and hatred, not a grandly Miltonic "archangel ruin'd."
Anderson, Blish, Pournelle, Niven all mentioned or touched on Dante/Dantean themes. Did any other SF writers do as much?
Good, re pro-Israel demonstrations!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I don't know about other sf writers but there is a lot that I haven't read and don't read.
We could mention CS Lewis who quotes from the opening lines of the COMEDY in THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH although I did not know that that was what he was doing until I read Dante years later. THE GREAT DIVORCE has an inspiring figure, George MacDonald, showing Lewis around the hereafter.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang, high time I reread FROM OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, PERELANDRA, and THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH. And I completely forgot about THE GREAT DIVORCE and THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS. Perhaps that is understandable given my preference for hard SF over the "soft" SF written by Lewis.
And what did you think of Dante's COMEDY? I was tempted to call his poem an example of hard SF/fantasy before remembering how he insisted in his letter to Can Grande Della Scala that the COMEDY was based on a real vision given him of the afterlife.
I'm almost sure Stirling also read the DIVINE COMEDY.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
A long time since I read the COMEDY. Can't remember much. My brother-in-law, John Lambert, has self-published his own translation which you can find by googling it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I've quoted some bits of the COMEDY in this blog. I'll google for Mr. Lambert.
Coincidentally, I've also started reading Sayers' novel WHOSE BODY (Harper & Row, undated but I got this book in 1975) and this is what I found in Chapter I (Wimsey speaking): "Thanks. I am going to Battersea at once. I want you to attend the sale for me. Don't lose time--I don't want to miss the Folio Dante* nor the de Waragine..." With the erudite Sayers writing in a mock serious footnote: "This is the first Florentine edition, 1481, by Niccolo di Lorenzo. Lord Peter's collection of printed Dantes is worth inspection. It includes, besides the famous Aldine 8vo. of 1502, the Naples folio of 1477--"edizione rarissima," according to Colomb. This copy has no history, and Mr. Parker's private belief is that its present owner conveyed it away by stealth from somewhere or other. Lord Peter's own account is that he "picked it up in a little place in the hills," when making a walking-tour through Italy."
I sensed Sayers having a little fun at herself with that footnote!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment