Milton as Bad Fanfiction.
Jun. 9th, 2005 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katharosI was revising Milton as a rewriting of Genesis and I realised something.
Paradise Lost is a bloated piece of bad fanfiction.
Let's look at the badfic characteristics he displays.
1. Great big authors notes with lots of self-congratulation and boasts thinly disguising pleas for pats on the back.
2. Character bastardization and bashing of Eve. Character glorification and fan-wank of Adam, who of course MUST be given an heroic and self-sacrifcing reason for eating the apple.
3. Picking and choosing his canon - hard work, and that women would be subject to their husband
came AFTER the Fall as part of the punishment - Milton has them before it as well.
4. A Mary Sue. A big, honking great FAT Mary Sue, who dominates the story, overshadows the actual main character - God, warps the canon for his own purposes - in Genesis it's the SERPENT who tempts Eve. No where is Satan mentioned. Although Satan might be termed a SUCESSFUL Mary Sue, as we do end up more intersted in him than in the original main characters.
Andrew Marvell in his poem 'On Mr Milton's Paradise Lost' is concerned that "he would ruin... /the sacred truth to fable and old song' and 'perplexed the things he would explain, /and what was easy he should render vain.' Until 'But I am convinced now none will dare/ within thy labours to pretend a share...So that no room is here for writers left/ but to detect their ignorance or theft.' and that his work 'Draws the devout, deterring the profane./ And things divine thou treat'st of in such state/as them preserves, and thee, inviolate.'
Sorry chump, you were right the first time. Milton as original perpetuator of fandom cliches!
This complete pointless ramble was brought to you by the procrastination fairy, and the anything-is-better-than-actually-revising imp.
Still doing the Fic on Demand June Challenge. It's a comprimise. The bunnies get more for one hour every night, and in return they don't bother me during the day when I'm trying to revise.
Paradise Lost is a bloated piece of bad fanfiction.
Let's look at the badfic characteristics he displays.
1. Great big authors notes with lots of self-congratulation and boasts thinly disguising pleas for pats on the back.
2. Character bastardization and bashing of Eve. Character glorification and fan-wank of Adam, who of course MUST be given an heroic and self-sacrifcing reason for eating the apple.
3. Picking and choosing his canon - hard work, and that women would be subject to their husband
came AFTER the Fall as part of the punishment - Milton has them before it as well.
4. A Mary Sue. A big, honking great FAT Mary Sue, who dominates the story, overshadows the actual main character - God, warps the canon for his own purposes - in Genesis it's the SERPENT who tempts Eve. No where is Satan mentioned. Although Satan might be termed a SUCESSFUL Mary Sue, as we do end up more intersted in him than in the original main characters.
Andrew Marvell in his poem 'On Mr Milton's Paradise Lost' is concerned that "he would ruin... /the sacred truth to fable and old song' and 'perplexed the things he would explain, /and what was easy he should render vain.' Until 'But I am convinced now none will dare/ within thy labours to pretend a share...So that no room is here for writers left/ but to detect their ignorance or theft.' and that his work 'Draws the devout, deterring the profane./ And things divine thou treat'st of in such state/as them preserves, and thee, inviolate.'
Sorry chump, you were right the first time. Milton as original perpetuator of fandom cliches!
This complete pointless ramble was brought to you by the procrastination fairy, and the anything-is-better-than-actually-revising imp.
Still doing the Fic on Demand June Challenge. It's a comprimise. The bunnies get more for one hour every night, and in return they don't bother me during the day when I'm trying to revise.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 10:19 pm (UTC)I'm honestly not sure. I remember one of my lecturers bringing it up as an example of Milton diverging from Genesis, because he needed to keep Satan central as the adversary, for thematic and narrative reasons. N(Which then led to him having to find a way to justiy the snakes punishment if it was only possessed by Satan.) ot sure if he was the first to come up with it, but he would have been the first to popularise it.
*laughs* Yes, and all the pro-Milton critics trying to prove that he did suceed in that, and you can see HOW he suceeded if you just read it with a Miltonic mindview instead of your own. The question then of course is, why would you want to?