Epic Poetry and Psychological Complexity (was NPPF Canto 1: 1-4 some random notes)

[David Morris]

--- Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Milton's God has given Mankind REASON to govern FREE WILL.  For Milton, God
made Man capable of falling and knew he would fall, but did not make him fall. 
Hence, God's greatest gift is REASON and the freedom to excercise that reason
in the act of choice.

What was the choice offered?  The answer is Obedience or Disobedience.  Reason
was exactly what the Biblical God DIDN'T want.  Read the story in the Bible and
you'll see that it was when Eve began to question God's command (at the
serpent's prompting) using this precious reason, that she disobeyed.  Reason
was the enemy, and Satan was the vehicle.

> Most readers are aware of the Christian mythology behind the Adam and Eve
story.  As a result: Milton puts the reader in the position of God in order to
show us that *knowing an event will happen* is not the same as *causing it to
happen.*

I strongly disagree.  The entire situation was of his manufacture.  God put
Adam and Eve into an environment which he created  with a big fat trap in the
middle of it: a temptation.  Obviously he didn't inform Adam and Eve of the
full nature of its dangers, or their *reason* would have kept them in line (you
don't think they would've walked off a cliff just for the experience, do you?).
 But then we wouldn't have a story to read.

David Morris

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