Lecture 1 | Satanic Schemes in Slow Motion (Book 1) | Paradise Lost in Slow Motion
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This lecture considers the attractiveness of Satan’s character through his language-namely his rhetoric.
Rhetoric is a particular kind of public discourse. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “rhetoric” as:
"1.a.
The art of using language effectively so as to persuade or influence others, esp. the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques to this end; the study of principles and rules to be followed by a speaker or writer striving for eloquence, esp. as formulated by ancient Greek and Roman writers."
I want to suggest in this lecture that part of what makes Satan so alluring and so persuasive is his use of rhetorical scheme. In classical rhetoric, figures of speech are divided into two kinds: tropes and schemes. A trope plays with meaning. A pun, which involves is a double meaning, is a trope. Metaphor, similes, allegories are all tropes. They involve a change in signification.
Schemes play with the order and arrangement of words. We'll explore how Satan's rhetorical balancing act of language, the same act that gives his rhetoric the semblance of perfection and argumentative weight. We'll highlight some of Satan's antithetical imagery and antithesis, epanadiplosis, chiasmus, and antimetabole to find out how he uses his rhetoric to seduce.
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Well done! I’m really looking forward to more content on Paradise Lost-my favorite English poem.
_Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n._
I came back again after finishing Book 1. Your comments were so insightful, especially on Satan portraited as such a seductive character that even readers didn’t stand a chance, which made it so convincing how he successfully seduced Adam and Eve in the Garden of infinite grace, and how he led astray the whole humanity afterwards.
Great job breaking it down without killing its impact.
Well produced and interesting
I hope you keep making videos🖤💚
I am only halfway through the video and have to go to work, but this thought popped in my head, has there been any thought or discussion that the luminous nature of Satan beginning was the light heaven fading from him slowly? Or maybe I misunderstood your use of the word luminous and it is simply how enticingly cunning he is?
Regardless the paradox you talk about throughout is so awesome to me - in the first two books especially.
I fuinded and began to read “Paradise Lost” in translate by Arkady Steinberg. I guess I will return to these lectures after reading the book.
I am trying to find the quotes to follow along and mark my book. Can you give the line numbers when you read a quote? It would help me a lot! Thank you for sharing your perspectives of this amazing poem!
I'll do that next time, but most of the line numbers are included in the text shown on the screen!
I think it is a good point about encountering Satan as a figure of defiance rather than a villain in the way that Macbeth or Iago is a villain. I think Milton's Satan is similar in this sense to Captain Ahab.
"Hark ye yet again- the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event- in the living act, the undoubted deed- there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike though the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. Take off thine eye! more intolerable than fiends' glarings is a doltish stare! So, so; thou reddenest and palest; my heat has melted thee to anger-glow. But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat, that thing unsays itself. There are men from whom warm words are small indignity. I meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder Turkish cheeks of spotted tawn- living, breathing pictures painted by the sun. The Pagan leopards- the unrecking and unworshipping things, that live; and seek, and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel! The crew, man, the crew! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this matter of the whale? See Stubb! he laughs! See yonder Chilian! he snorts to think of it. Stand up amid the general hurricane, thy one tost sapling cannot, Starbuck! And what is it? Reckon it. 'Tis but to help strike a fin; no wondrous feat for Starbuck. What is it more? From this one poor hunt, then, the best lance out of all Nantucket, surely he will not hang back, when every foremast-hand has clutched a whetstone. Ah! constrainings seize thee; I see! the billow lifts thee! Speak, but speak!- Aye, aye! thy silence, then, that voices thee. (Aside) Something shot from my dilated nostrils, he has inhaled it in his lungs. Starbuck now is mine; cannot oppose me now, without rebellion."
Just subscribed. I have the book and need support on this beast of epic.
Welcome!
In thinking of Milton's Satan, my mind goes to the first movement of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. In particular the end of the first movement: th-cam.com/video/swULVZ5zLkM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=BHrV7bqb-pzC4fI0&t=1548 Much better if you listen to the whole thing!
Is Lecture 2 missing?
forthcoming!
Western mythology, so rich in its imagery.
Milton didn’t see it as mere myth, bro, and nor should you.
@@aclark903 Firstly, I am not a bro. Secondly, telling other people how they should view the world (and especially mythology) is not particularly helpful.
@@aclark903real
You understand this is fiction right lol? He chose the style of epic poetry for a reason... because it's the language of mythology. It's not an essay, it's not a history, it's not a biography. It's literally mythology. @@aclark903
Greetings from Australia.
Do you perceive PL, especially of Satan's vaunting character, to be ''Christian'' Midrash? Thanks!