Jul
14
Meaning, responsibility, ???
July 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
First off: I really loved today’s class. I feel sort of like I derailed the topic of discussion, but the things we ended up talking about have been weighing much on my mind these days so I’m hugely glad we got a chance to discuss them.
I’m hung up on authenticity in a big way. [...]
Jul
9
Milton’s Eve
July 9, 2008 | 1 Comment
I think my largest problem with Milton’s attitude towards women is that I continually want to forgive him. I so much enjoy his works and I honestly love his attitude about marriage so I just try to brush aside the undeniable inequalities that happen from time to time. Which is perhaps being a [...]
Jul
8
God, Creation, Meaning?
July 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
So we can’t really answer why God decided to create it all. Part of this, I maintain, is that we can’t really get into the head of a being like God. There by definition has to be some sort of ineffability going on there, considering that God knows so very much more than [...]
Jul
8
Ira Glass Interview
July 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
I added this to our class Delicious feed, but I think it’s worth bringing up again (or in a more obvious way). Ira Glass conducted an interview largely about storytelling. The whole thing is worth watching, but what I want to highlight is in part three. I actually followed Emma’s lead from [...]
Jul
7
Satan, God, & Responsibility (again).
July 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This is what’s been weighing on my mind recently and has only been exacerbated by today’s class–if it doesn’t relate enough to be counted as a Milton post, let me know and I’ll write on another subject, but this is what is urgent to me today.
There seems, throughout Milton’s works, to be a recurrent [...]
Jul
4
Epics and smaller stories.
July 4, 2008 | 3 Comments
I’m interested in the way we tell stories, not just in the specific language and creation of those stories, but the changes in how we tell them. Next semester I’m taking a class that deals with this specifically–Forms of Narrative–and I’m pretty excited about it, actually.
It seems strange and sad in some ways–Milton [...]
Jul
3
From “A Man for All Seasons”
July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Sir Thomas More: God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand [...]
Jul
3
Gratitude & “In Place of a Curse”
July 3, 2008 | 2 Comments
I was gathering my thoughts yesterday and getting ready to write them out when the umwblogs site went down for maintenance. I should have written something out but I’m too dumb to do that so I just went to bed instead. Anyway, here’s another try.
It seems to me that Satan’s inability to be [...]
Jun
30
Self-doubt & Responsibility
June 30, 2008 | 3 Comments
The discussion today about Milton’s consideration of self-doubt and self-esteem really caught my attention. Milton knows he has a gift, and he knows that God has given him this gift in order for him to use it; he sees that there’s no point in denying this. Denying it would, in fact, be a refutation of [...]
Jun
25
Riotous growth.
June 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
“The very act of restraining growth creates growth.”
We see this everywhere, from the pruning of a plant to damming water. Deny something and it’s liable to burst forth further, at least if it’s a true thing. From experience I can say that trying to squash something you’re worried of and scared of, if [...]