Milton marathon

I promise you that there were more people than appear here - a captive undergraduate class, by the look of it - at the English Department's nose to tail reading of Paradise Lost today.  And they were all older than the small guy to the right of this image, too - but I'm delighted he was getting full exposure to Milton at an early age.  Unfortunately I didn't arrive at the right time to get one of my favorite pieces - rather, a chunk of God rather laboriously and precisely explaining his position vis à vis Christ's role - just after the "sufficient to have stood but free to fall" section, which puts forward such a persuasive argument for free will.  What I'd never noticed before - and I guess that's because I've always tended to gallop through the abstract theological sections to get to some poetically richer lines - is how often Milton has his God say "I"?  Is this firm authority, or egotism?

It was good, anyway, to spend half an hour communing with Paradise Lost - thanks to Steven Minas for organizing this!

If I had a suitable image to accompany an account of this evening's triumphant election results, I would include - but these seem, indeed, such a victory for right feeling and for justice that I hope the spirit of Milton is in itself appropriate enough.