War of the Words

Hey BlogReaders and BlogAuthors, follow my ruin:

- John Milton is the author of Paradise Lost
- God is the author of John Milton
- God is therefore responsible for his everything in the poem

There is definitely some evidence of God's influence / design on the narrative. Think about the epic voice who calls upon the muse of the Holy Spirit in the beginning of book one. The epic voice, which takes us through Heaven and Hell, quite literally, appears to be partisan to the God camp. Who IS this epic voice? God? Milton? Some other omniscient presence? I see a sort of heteroglossia to the epic voice here, which is somewhat contrary to Bakhtin's treatise on the epic vs. novel, but I would argue that Milton's epic is not the standard type of epic that Bakhtin treats.

In this sense, how can God, as author of everything but especially PL, possibly be heroizing Satan? I think Satan's character is given as a poor role model for humanity (if an attractive one).

P.S. What is the point of a Post Script in a "movable type" environment?

P.P.S. If you have seen the movie Author! Author! (1982), we can talk about that too, but I don't really see how it's relevant.