Paradise Lost and Faulkner –starting in October

 

“Meaning is an event, something that happens, not on the page, where we are accustomed to look for it, but in the interaction between the flow of print and the actively mediating consciousness of a reader.”–Stanley Fish, Surprised by Sin: the Reader in PARADISE LOST

In Paradise Lost, Milton dares to explore the Creation story at the core of the Christian belief, questioning how in a perfect vision pain and violence could exist. As Stanley Fish explains, it is our story that we consider in reading this epic work: Milton is deeply interested in understanding how humanity came to be divided from Heaven and what repercussions this has on our nature, our ideas around sin, gender, the natural world, justice…the poetry is majestic and the going may get tough: but to understand Paradise Lost is to probe deep into the structures of human spirit that we have inherited.

Heading off to Paris just now for two studies: Faulkner’s “The Bear” which will be happening in London next week as well and The Passion of New Eve  by Angela Carter…two mind-bending works that the Paris Salonistas have been willing to tackle…next up in London:

 

Faulkner’s “The Bear” Thursday October 4th 7-10 PM One meeting intensive (space remaining for three participants) *use the links or visit the events page to register*

Paradise Lost by John Milton Tuesday Evenings 8-10 PM, Thursday afternoons 1-3 PM (five week study) *use the links or visit the events page to register*

Here is one reviewer on Paradise Lost (Norton Edition–available at Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town):

“Milton is hard to read. There’s no way around it. He was incredibly well versed in Latin and Greek and the famous epics, and intentionally set out to imitate that style with this Christian poem. Thus, some of the sentences are close to thirty lines or more, and are almost unintelligible at first. I am a Latin scholar, so I am used to seeing this kind of writing, but Paradise Lost could be challenging to the uninitiated. That being said, it is definitely worth the effort. Milton set out not just to tell the story of the Fall of Man but also to “justify the ways of God to men.” It is frequently remarked that God is a secondary character and Satan is the most well-developed. I think this may be the same technique used by Dante to draw in the reader and have them commit the same sin as the characters. And this is what is most enjoyable about Milton: trying to unravel the many layers.

If you are a Christian, this book may ask some interesting questions. Milton was definitely pious, but he did have some interesting personal beliefs that may or may not have agreed with doctrine at the time.

If you are just a fan of the classics and great literature, I’m sure you will find Paradise Lost to be among the best poems in history, and certainly the best in English.

Finally, the Norton Critical Edition is superior in that it contains about 300 pages of criticisms and background information, all of which aid to one’s understanding and enjoyment of the poem. ”

Sin. Satan. Fall of Man. I think we are in for some fun.

The Passion of New Eve

Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve

Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve, published in 1977 is, in Carter’s own words, an ‘anti-mythic novel’, which was ‘conceived as a feminist tract about the social creation of femininity’. Three decades on, it has lost none of its shocking rawness with images that are just as disquieting today as when they first emerged from Carter’s iconoclastic mind. In this eerie picaresque tale the author presents us with her feminist study of the ways in which gender is constructed within a masculine order. At every narrative turn, mythological notions of the female form are played out in a dystopian future where political, ideological and moral engagements have shattered. It is, as Carter envisaged, ‘a bitter and quite uncomfortable book to read’ but one that challenges and destabilizes every conception of gender that we collectively hold. It is well worth the uncomfortable ride.

Here is a selection from a review of Passion:

“In ‘The Passion of New Eve’ the women are in control, in fact frighteningly so, and the tone of the novel is utterly different to that of her earlier work. Order and structure are replaced with chaos, representing the world which Carter creates for her readers. It opens with an obsessive monologue from a young man, Evelyn, who admits he has a strange and paradoxical relationship with women: he worships a mysterious screen goddess, but also humiliates the women he meets. This is not an unusual take, but it is dealt with strongly by Carter and one is quickly drawn into the strange world of Evelyn.

“Visiting America, he meets an entirely different kind of woman, one that he cannot dominate or humiliate. In a rapid succession of events, Evelyn is overtaken by a strange tribe of women in the desert, and in a bizarre twist of the most unlikely kind of science fiction, he becomes his own fantasy woman. Through the regeneration of the “New Eve”, Carter explores gender construction and reconstruction, as the misogynistic man becomes a “first woman” in an entirely unexpected manner, and explores an inverted Oedipus complex in which the man becomes his mother and the object of his own desire. Greek tragedy, religion, notions of time and space are all brought into play in this unusual work alongside the gender paradoxes and a notion of redressing the sins of a patriarchal society. Concepts of women and womanhood, particularly as portrayed by Hollywood and the media, are explored with an explicit, tub-thumping lack of subtlety that made the novel unpopular when it was first published…. The Passion of New Eve is a sensual novel full of foods and smells and colors, which acts upon the readers’ senses like a psychedelic drug. This is not always an appealing novel, but it is always interesting, and is key to her later novels.”
Reviewed by: Serena Trowbridge © 2003

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