Genesis has:
a Stapledonian cosmic timescale;
the Miltonic/Frankensteinian question whether it is right to create human life.
Lewis had written:
A Preface to Paradise Lost;
Perelandra in which God/Maleldil creates a second Adam and Eve on Venus.
Frankenstein's monster quotes Milton' Adam. This is quite a literary sequence since it traces back to the original Genesis. "Go with God," in the words of Blish's Jorn the Apostle.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would expect educated people like Mary Shelley to have read Milton's PARADISE LOST.
Truthfully, I found PL a hard struggle to read even just once. The second time I tried reading it, I gave up after four or five books. Some very readable parts, but too much of the rest was heavy and ponderous.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Only the first three or so books are regarded as any good, I think.
Paul.
"What though the day be lost?
All is not lost:
Deathless hate, and study of revenge
Courage never to submit or yield..."
-- which is one of the reasons later critics said "Milton was of Satan's party, though he didn't know it."
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I agree!
Mr. Stirling: I agree, and that line, "Deathless hate, and study of revenge," is a good definition of fanaticism. Yes, Milton was far too sympathetic to Satan.
I far prefer Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, despite needing to read it in translations (3). Not only did I find the story of Dante's visions of the afterlife* far more readable and easier, I approved of how he did not glamorize evil.
Ad astra! Sean
*Dante insisted in his LETTER TO CAN GRANDE DELLA SCALA that his COMEDY was based on a real vision
Sean: Milton was an example of the contortions that the wackier versions of Calvinist Protestantism could lead to!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I did not think of Milton like that, but it makes sense.
Ad astra! Sean
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