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I am feeling generous, and giving it perhaps more stars than it deserved. It certainly was not Oscar material, but it also is not a simple rip off the the Blue Lagoon. One of the first things one has to do is reject geography. Where they find their oases in relation to where they got into problems is not rational, as some of them are clearly ocean related.
Some of the dialogue is atrocious, but then they are supposed to be quite young, so perhaps they might have said that. And it is based out of Baghdad in the early 19th Century.
As far as a comparison to Blue Lagoon, the problems they face and the perils they have to overcome are far greater than in that movie. They are not suddenly put in the middle of a tropical paradise. And the dangers continue from the "Jackal". Phoebe Cates, who is actually not a minor when the film was made, plays a stronger role, and the scenes of sensuality are at a much higher level than in the Blue Lagoon, and perhaps more reasonable. And for those really concerned, there is a fair amount of female nudity.
It is too bad there is no background information or soundtracks for this film, as there are things that would be interesting to know about behind the scenes. In Blue Lagoon, a body double (who was actually in her 30's) did many of the nude scenes. Were those nude scenes of Phoebe Cates or a body double? Whatever, they are done tastefully, and not unlike what could have actually happened in a situation like they supposedly were in.
And of all the actors in Hollywood, who decided to pair beautiful Phoebe Cates with Willie Aames in this story?
I rated this movie with 5 stars not to mention how the story written good or bad, or the performance of actors. But this is the first effort of Phoebe Cates and she shine in whole the movie. She acted very natural as real life, her body was so perfect. In fact, she never be such focus and pretty in other movies later. This movie should be rated as 5 stars if you like Phoebe Cates, a must to all fans.
This movie was not what I was told. It is a waste of money and I would not recommend it.
This is a blatant rip-off of "The Blue Lagoon," which I would normally find reprehensible. Since Phoebe Cates appears nude in this, however, I will overlook it. The fact she is onscreen most of the time makes this a must-own DVD. There is no reason to sit through the entire insufferable mess, just fast forward the movie to watch the fabulous Phoebe. The Classian DVD has very respectable picture and sound, with removable Korean subtitles. Yes, Aames' Willie is blurred, but again I am not complaining. I really don't know what seven minutes were cut, if any, from the original 100 minutes for this release. I don't recall anything additional from the times I first viewed it about twenty years ago, so it is likely nothing involving the glorious Miss Cates. Perhaps one day the entire 100-minute version, if it exists, will be released. Until then, scrape together $15 to get this Classian DVD and enjoy!
Beneath the flash, campiness, glam, humor, etc. is some very dark and intense emotion. Some of these songs contain deep despair, sadness, and frustration. Williams conveys these feelings with such haunting, delicate beauty though that I, like so many other reviewers here, find myself drawn back to the movie and soundtrack again and again.
I don't really know anything about the rest of his work, other than his big hits, but I can't imagine any of it delves into the same places. The only thing lacking in this soundtrack is more songs. I read somewhere that the "Never thought I'd get to meet the devil" interlude isn't any longer than the couple verses in the movie, but it'd be great to have anyway, along with any stuff that might have been recorded but left out of the movie.
P.S. I'd give anything (no, not including my soul) to have a phantom costume, or at least the mask!
Interesting music that went with a very interesting movie - must have for Paul Williams fans.
Diminutive composer Paul Williams got very little respect for his safe, pop confections in the 60's and 70's, but give him full credit for this brilliant parody of all the song styles of his day. 50's revival doo wop - check. James Taylor angst - check. Beach Boys surf culture - check. Alice Cooper spook rock - check. And all done as melodically and, in some cases, superior to the originals. It's the perfect companion piece to a movie that also skewers rock icons and horror movie cliches. And was there ever a better parody of the shower scene in "Psycho?" Nope, never. Watch the movie. Enjoy the soundtrack. Move over Andrew Lloyd Weber, Williams already beat you to the "music of the night."
Hollywoodaholic: Confessions of a Screenwriter
i ordered this cd as a gift to my pal who's way older than me. she went berserk when i showed it to her and played it all day, all night. i guess she has had a very fond memory with these particular songs. and i think they are nice as well, even if this album is more than 20 years old (is it?) it still sounds very modern, an interesting mix of musical, progressive rock and pop.
I've never heard anything else by Paul Williams but this soundtrack to the cult movie stands on its own as a remarkable testament to love gone awry. It follows the story of a man willing to sell his soul for one more chance, a tale of beauty and the beast and Faust and the devil, brilliantly scored and cheesily acted. All the music and lyrics were penned by Williams. My favorite line is the chorus from "The Hell Of It": Good for nothing / Bad in bed / Nobody likes you / You're better off dead / Goodbye Goodbye. Nice and depressingly loving. It also deals with the idea of stolen music (Celine Dion).
John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is a timeless classic. It's imagery, based itself upon 1500 years of previous Christian-cultural imagery, has shaped how the Western world views Christianity, sin, the fall, life, death, heaven, and hell.
The open-minded non-Christian reader would do well to read "Paradise Lost" to become a literate student of Christian imagery. The Christian, willing to work through the descriptive poetry, will gain new insight into Creation, Fall, and Redemption. In many ways, Milton bridges eras (the Middle Ages and the Reformation), cultures (Southern Europe and Northern), and religious groups (Catholic and Protestant).
It's interesting how much "folk theology" owes itself to Milton's "Paradise Lost." Modern views of the Devil, in particular, are often unknowingly based upon the poetic images from Milton. Fortunately, Milton is at his best in describing Satan, first as the unfallen Lucifer with all his glorious, God-created brilliance, and then as the fallen False Seducer in all his distorted and tormenting deceit.
For example, Milton speaks of how revenge, dark requital, propelled Satan's monstrous motives:
To waste his whole Creation, or possess all as our own, and drive as we were driven, the puny habitants, or if not drive, seduce them to our Party, that their God may prove their foe, and with repenting hand abolish his own works. This would surpass common revenge, and interrupt his joy in our confusion and our joy upraise in his disturbance; when his darling Sons hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse their frail Original, and faded bliss, faded so soon (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 40).
Surpassing common revenge, Satan lives to spite the Author of life.
By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence, but from the Author of all ill could spring so deep a malice, to confound the race of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell to mingle and involve, done all to spite the great Creator? (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 41).
Milton's depiction of the temptation in the Garden displays psychological brilliance and biblical insight into the nature of the human personality as designed by God and depraved by sin. Perhaps only C. S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" matches Milton's understanding of Satanic seduction.
For instance, so whose fault their fall? Milton, imagining God's words to Christ, declares:
For man will hearken to his glozing lies, and easily transgress the sole Command, sole pledge of his obedience. So will fall he and his faithless Progeny. Whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me all he could have; I made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though free to fall (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 63).
Well put. Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Made just and right and able to choose. Adam and Eve had all they could have from the generous hand of God, yet they transgressed the sole command, the sole pledge of loving, trustful obedience. Loving allegiance they chose to grant to non-god rather than to Father God.
Whatever could possess them to trade their birthright for one bite of the one forbidden fruit? When we last spied earth's Villain, he was tumbling toward hell. Having lost the battle for heaven, his hostility and hate triggers a new plan. Why a second siege on heaven's gates, when earth's shores suggest easier prey? As Milton envisioned it:
Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need with dangerous expedition to invade Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, or ambush from the Deep. What if we find some easier enterprise? There is a place (if ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven err not), another World, the happy seat of some new Race called Man, about this time to be created like to us, though less in power and excellence, but favored more of him who rules above. So was his will pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath, that shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed (Milton, Paradise Lost, pp. 39-40).
Readers also could benefit from his less known work, "Paradise Regained." Many have mentioned how difficult it is to write a riveting book about Heaven since the drama of evil is defeated and thus the tension is deflated. Yet Milton captures one possible vision of a future Paradise/Heaven as well as most. (Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" is, in my opinion, the best modern book on the topic).
There's enough already said about why and how Milton wrote this book, so I don't have anything to say about that. It's a story most people will be familiar with, and any surprises will involve the beauty of the language or a random, surprising insight into a character's motivation. In the end, Milton deserves to be called the greatest writer in English because of the pure strength and beauty of each individual sentence.
This is undoubtedly a difficult book to read. I teach a small bit in a sophomore high school English class, and I tell them, "This will be the most complex text you will encounter this year." We have to practice unpacking sentences one at a time and stating them in our own words in order to get their meaning. It's a slow process, and one that most adults will also need to go through.
But it's all worth it! Reading Milton might or might not change your view of God and man, but absorbing him will change your love of language. The words are vivid and powerful and beg to be read aloud. If you like your poetry Great in the sense of sounding larger than life and tackling humanity's major questions, Milton is it. (And, in my opinion, he even takes out other wonderful poets that I also love, including Dante, Virgil, Homer, and Shakespeare).
Justly placed at the head of the canon of Western literature behind Shakespeare and Dante by Harold Bloom, Milton stands as a towering creative genius in English literature and epic poetry.
Milton conceived of his vast epic as a way to justify the 'ways of God to man.' Strangely, the character of Satan is absolutely central to this epic more so even than Adam and the rest of humanity, and often one can't help comparing Satan and his journeys and battles against misfortune as akin to those of other great literary heroes, such as Prometheus, Odysseus or Aeneas. I feel in a way the message of Milton is more than just good Protestant Christian apologetics; if you read his passionate and brilliant defense of freedom of the press and of thought in works like Aeropagitica, I am sure Milton in a way showed the power of free choice and what heights it allows any being to soar to, even those who are damned. I always get a sense from reading Milton a great trust in the human spirit and an expectation to rise against tyranny.
While ultimately I feel Milton does not really justify the 'ways of God to man' in an intellectually satisfying way, and his vision lacks the brilliant unity of that of Dante, Milton is certainly a poet and genius of first order and probably the greatest writer in English after Shakespeare. His poetry contains great depth and beauty, not just the Paradise Epics but many other poems as well, and his learning and erudition are immense.
In Milton there is a great confidence in human reason and in the individual to prevail in the face of disaster and hardship. One can't help but admire Satan's stubborness and determination in the face of so much which goes against him, and his incredible efforts to achieve his goals. If you ever wanted an example of 'self-help' look no further than the devil in Milton; despite the most hopeless situations he never gives up. Perhaps conciously or unconciously Milton embodies in Satan and also in Samson our own present confidence in our creative abilities and our determination and intelligence to overcome any obstacles in our way, and perhaps in a world as turbulent as ours, that isn't such a bad hope to have after all.
Sufficiency is fluid. There is nothing that in Paradise Lost that can be described as simple. But sufficiency in the eyes of God, Adam and the various obedient angels consists of doing God's will and using the gift of free will given to all his sentient creatures to extol his greatness. Before the falls, both of the rebel angels and of Adam and Eve, the relation between God and his creations is almost always one to one and direct. God makes his creatures sufficient to withstand any and all evil, but by investing all with free will gives them the choice of whether or not to embrace the evil. Suffiency lies within all sentient creatures to do God's will, but one can only be proved sufficient by doing God's will. In short, to be sufficient in God's eyes is to do his will--no matter what!
That suffiency is fluid is vaguely clear through out the poem. There is never one definition of perfectly righteous or good behavior. Satan and the rebel angels needed only to accept Messiah as God and King; Adam and Eve needed only not eat of the tree of knowledge; Michael, Gabriel, and company had to take part in that farce of fight for heaven; Enoch, Noah, Moses and Jesus showed their suffiency by standing up for God against humanly impossible odds. The lists of lesser examples in the poem are too numerous to recite and keep this essay readable, but it is more than reasonable to conclude that depending on the situation anything from indifferent obedience to militant martyrdom will be sufficient. But, constant obedience is always the rule.
The same rule of suffiency should be applied to Paradise in a slightly modified form. God is the greatest of planners because he knows all. Knowing all, he makes plans for every consequence of every action. Had Adam and Eve resisted Satan in the garden, then it would have proved sufficient for two beings who did not know good or evil. That would have proved enough of a mockery to the aims of Satan, but after the fall God ordains it necessary to show that everything Satan ever does to mankind is utterly futile and leads only to more punishment and increase of pain. The fact that he will make the supreme greatness of mankind come from evil means shows his power to be without end, and Satan's unwillingness to accept this is what will ultimately destroy him and his host of rebels at history's conclusion.
The entire question of suffiency of all virtues is the meditation of Milton from the poem's beginning to the close. What is constantly necessary to remember in this poem is the distinction between virtue, or power, and true virtue, power used to celebrate and defend good. Milton uses this distinction to turn epic virtues on their head by investing Satan with so many of them. Satan is fearless, uncompromisingly defiant, willing to fight by whatever means are provided to him and he is inspiring. We can see shades of Aeneas, Odysseus, Scaevola, the Earl of Kent from King Lear, and numerous other literary and historical figures that seethed with defiance and did everything in their power to defy and defy and defy. What all characters put forth have in common though is that they used their powers in defense of people, home, freedom, and friendship. Satan uses the power still invested in him, his "courage never to submit or yield" to try to destroy, not create. Comically, he even seems to realize that he can, at best, be a mild irritant to God this way:
...If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still find means of evil,
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim. (I, 162-68)
This is power so completely abused that it barely requires further explication. Suffice it to say though, this is the same valor that we find in Adam when we are introduced to him for the first time in book IV, and that he disdains using in book IX when he chooses to follow Eve's lead by eating the forbidden fruit. Where the true virtue of the obedient angels and the classical epic heroes lies in their motivation for undertaking feats of violence, Satan's hatefulness, which grows as he further resists God, lies in the fact that he uses all his powers and intellect in the service of conquest, destruction, and wickedness. As becomes clear by the poem's end, when Michael shows Adam the tyranny of Nimrod, valor when in the service of wickedness is not a true virtue. True virtue and greatness can only come through God's favor.
Here it seems appropriate to move from suffiency in beings and their actions to the suffiency of Paradise. As Raphael points out in book VII, creation of the world and mankind took place in order show Satan and the rebel angels their superflousness by filling what they could have defined as a void when they were banished from Heaven. God loves all his creatures for the obedience and love they show him. But part of the nature of being omnipotent is that nothing is inexpendible and no thing is outside of his purview. Existence itself is by God's sufferance and for any permanence of good to come of a beings existence this must be accepted as indisputable. Milton's Satan would not be Milton's Satan if he accepted this necessity. He even had a chance to accept it in book II had he advised the Stygian council to accept the advice of Mammon--one who hates God as much as Satan:
...Let us not then pursue
By force impossible, by leave obtained
Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our state
Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek
Our own good from ourselves, and from our own
Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,
Free, and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear
Then most conspicuous, when great things of small,
Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse,
We can create, and in what place soe'er
Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain
Through labour and endurance. (II, 249-262)
God's wrath is infinite when provoked, and expulsion from Heaven is the punishment for attempting to conquer Heaven. There is no reason to believe that his ire would have been raised had the rebel angels simply accepted their punishment, because the punishment and the concomitant agony that the disobedient angels suffer would have been sufficient. The further disobedience of Satan is what makes more punishment necessary, hence the periodic metamorphosis into serpents the rebels undergo after Satan's return from Earth. Again, suffiency of actions by God becomes defined solely by decisions made by his creations. By seducing Adam and Eve, Satan showed God that banishment was not sufficient to quell his pride. Also, Adam and Eve showed themselves insufficiently obedient to deserve Paradise. It became necessary for God to alter all of their conditions in order to punish Satan accordingly, further dash his pride. For Adam and Eve the punishment was death and the misery of history. They proved insufficient of Paradise, nothing in Paradise itself was imperfect, insufficient, let alone deficient, accept for them after the fall.
God is the creator of infinite possibility in all his sentient creatures. He should not be viewed as the writer of a book with a singular vision who preordains events to make a specific conclusion. That would be fate or destiny and God did not impose these upon human existence. God has total foreknowledge of all events, but he explains to Messiah that this is irrelevant because free will gives all his creations choice. They would be worthless otherwise because,
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do, appeared,
Not what they would? What praise could they receive?
What pleasures I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled,
Made passive both, had served necessity,
Not me. (III, 103-111)
There needs to be the constant possibility of evil arising for good to mean anything. Good is totally impotent without the contrast of evil, in fact it arguably can not exist without it. Automaton praise would not be real praise of God.
When discussion of the suffiency of Paradise comes up in any definition of suffiency we enter into very dangerous territory. Adam and Eve voice no complaints about Paradise; they do not imagine the possibility of being happier than they are prior to their fall. Disobedience to God remains a constant possibility because of the absolute existence of free will. The universe that Milton has created is one where the actions of individuals is never foreordained and one in which absolute obedience to God is the only path through which any good can ever u come to the individual. There is also never an instance where what God asks is even in modest proportion compared to what he gives. At the same time though, Milton makes absolutely clear that obedience to God does not protect either his dutiful from horrors. One need only remember the nightmare of Eve at the beginning of Book V, or the awful description by Raphael of the hollowing that he hears coming from Hell when he is dispatched there during creation. But God never exposes his creations to truly painful tests of their loyalty, not by any standard that fallen humankind. Paradise is perfectly sufficient for Adam and Eve in the state they are in just prior to their fall. Neither one truly aspires towards bettering themselves in a way that would increase their happiness and still maintain their total obedience to God. They proved insufficient to remain in Paradise, but Paradise may have proved insufficient for the beings they were to become had they not fallen.
Raphael conjectures when he meets Adam and Eve in Book V, that mankind may one day transubstantiate into a more spiritual being that will be able to cross the boundary between Paradise and Heaven.(493-503) He is not given any information by God save the fact that Satan is hanging around Paradise, so it is purely conjecture to assume that this is possibility. The same is also true of the conjectures that Michael makes about the once possible future of unfallen mankind in Book XI; the progeny of mankind would spread out of Paradise and into the world at large. Eden would have proved not large enough to hold all of mankind. I do not believe though that this is a reflection upon quality of Eden, but one upon its physical size. There is also no reason to believe that the progeny of Adam and Eve would have been just like them. They may very well have been designed to exist in a state closer to our own. Milton's God is the definition of infinite variety and it is impossible to quantify what he would have done if...
Ultimately in Paradise Lost questions of suffiency are nearly moot. Milton's initial purpose in the poem "to justify the ways of God to man," shows this better than anything else. God asks so little, but the stakes are so high for the fate of mankind that it becomes horrible to see just what happens. Since God is infinitely complicated just as he is infinitely powerful. It seems to me that Milton came to the conclusion that God could not be justified, let alone by human standards. God gives all and asks nearly nothing. When he is disobeyed, no one of his creations has the right to question the actions he takes. Through his ability to show just how simple the arrangement with God initially was, he shows how futile it is to try to justify anything he does prior to the fall.
I ordered it. It said it would come in 1-2 weeks, but came in 2 days. Amazing.
After playing the demo I was sure this addition to the Burnout series would be great. After playing the game at a friends house after the release date all I can say is "no split screen?". What made revenge so great was the takedown mode and playing it with friends or at a party. The lack of not even being able to enjoy this game with someone next to you is well... sad. Even in the age of online gameplay being a must, being able to play with people in the same room is just as important as any other feature if not more. Shame on you EA.
Well, let me just say that the only other burnout I played was Takedown. This game--Burnout Paradise--is incredible. You can instantly go online while playing and have an open and free world to explore.
Pros
-Freedom (to drive anywhere, use any routes ect)
-Online play is a blast
-Wrecks looks great
-Good car selection
Cons
-No split screen multiplayer
-Car-specific events are irritating
I recommend this game even if you don't normally like racers. Its so free, open, and easy accesable to anyone to just enjoy. Probably a better choice than the Midnight Club LA game coming soon (just a guess).
I really wanted to like Burnout: Paradise. The graphics are beautiful, the soundtrack is fantastic with a few exceptions -- Avril Lavigne? -- and online play is integrated well. It's obvious that the developer was going for a seamless play experience - load times are pretty much non-existent. However, the cost in implementing this system is that simple commands like retrying a race or swapping cars is gone. Annoyingly after losing a race you'll find yourself having to either move on or trudge back to the start of that particular event. Another problem is that many of the events require a specific car or a specific class, here again you'll have to find a junk yard and swap out your car. I also noticed while playing that all of the events conclude at one of eight predetermined points and while you're free to choose a path of your liking there are realistically only so many optimal routes to race. Unfortunately with the `sandbox' environment you'll find yourself relying on maps a lot. The game has a great map - but you have to pause the action and go to a different screen to use it. The mini-map that you get while driving is essentially useless as you only see a small portion of the total map. I found that I'd usually start a race only to immediately pause the game and study the map for a route. Then along the way I'd pause a few more times to stay on track. Annoying. Winning cars in Paradise is actually pretty cool - many times you first have to find a rival and `take them out' in order to win their car. What's unexplainable is why the developer chose to give you a damaged car that has to be immediately repaired after selecting it. Get used to driving to the repair shop often. All in all Burnout: Paradise could've been the pinnacle of the series, as it stands poor choices by the developer in a few areas keeps the game from being great. Ultimately the game is enjoyable, especially for anyone new to Burnout, for veterans the shortcomings will be all to obvious.
I have played all the Burnout games and I have to say this is the worst. The graphics are top notch and the cars just as fast, but it's nothing like the previous Burnouts at all. It's more like Grand Theft Auto where you cruise around except you only do mini races and crash through a few things. If you are a fan of the Burnout series you will be very disappointed in this game. No dedicated crash mode. When you race you have to look for turns or short cuts. Miss a turn and you will be going halfway across the city and unable to catch up to the other racers. They should have called it something other than Burnout, but I guess the name will ensure sales. I'm glad I only rented this.
Ah, Burnout...
The series really peaked with Burnout 3. Paradise is good, but it is not the best in the series. I applaud the effort the developer made in creating an open city (i.e. sandbox environment), but there are several finer points missing from this game that could lead to your frustration. What I mean is that there is little help in keeping you on track. You have to either memorize the entire city layout or constantly glance down at the small map in the lower right hand corner to get your bearings. I've found myself bouncing around and getting severely lost during several events. The game will even reset you backwards sometimes! Plus there is no "retry" option. Quitting a race involves you coming to a dead stop and waiting for the game to realize you've given up. No mulligans for you.
An open city environment, as presented here, needs to take advantage of some of the more conventional design features we have seen in other games in the past. For example, games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas gives you the ability to set way points so you can use them to guide you to your objective. Even Midnight Club has arrows to point you in the right direction during a race.
Forget the "motion sensitive" steering option presented in this version. It is completely unresponsive. Stick with the old fashioned analog sticks. Not sure how the force feedback steering wheel option works. I don't have one.
To earn new cars you have to chase down the "driver" of your target car and make them crash. You then have to get that car fixed up before competing in additional events. This is a good and satisfying part of the game.
However, when I earn a new shiny car for achieving certain goals, it should be shiny and new. The game keeps with the "it's busted, so fix it" routine even with the supposedly brand new cars you earn in the game. Did someone forget to program new and undamaged cars as a reward? Hmm... maybe!
My biggest gripe is more of a personal preference than anything else. There is no option for a custom soundtrack in the PS3 version. It seems rather sad that one of the most advanced pieces of gaming hardware cannot do something their competitors started doing in the last generation of consoles. I've played previous version of Burnout on XBox and it is a wonderful feeling to be able to race to your own music. Having to deal with substandard low-royalty tunes makes the experience feel a little flat. But, that is just me. Perhaps everyone else can just deal.
I needed this book for a graduate course on Milton in a hurry. The bookstore ran out of copies and the professor insisted on this Norton critical edition. No other would do. It was brand new at a great price (better than the bookstore) with really fast shipping. I'm really satisfied with this purchase.
It is a laborious read, but John Milton's Paradise Lost is worth it. First published in 1667, Paradise Lost remains, many contend, the greatest poem ever published in English, and Milton is deemed second only to Shakespeare among the pantheon of English writers. When reading Milton, be prepared for hundreds of references to Greek and Roman mythology that few of us (myself included) are familiar with as well as works saturated in biblical references and allusions and much obscure vocabulary. Happily, this Norton Critical Edition includes hundreds of notes--footnotes, so there is no disruptive flipping back and forth! This edition also offers dozens of critical essays on Paradise Lost, some dating back to its publication, a couple of Milton's prose works and an extensive glossary. Whether reading for pleasure or for (school) credit, this NCE of Paradise Lost is a godsend.
I ordered this text to help write a paper, and it has ended up serving as my primary text for my research. The text is at least as good as any of the other editions I have looked at, the footnotes are top-notch, and the critical articles are some of the siminal works. My only gripe is that there are no visual markers in the text for the footnotes, they are simply at the bottom of the page, signified by line number. Because of this, I sometimes don't realize that there are footnotes on a particular line, but this is a minor problem.
I love Norton Critical Editions. Or I try to. Gordon Teskey's new edition of Paradise Lost is for the most part worthy of the praise it has received in other reviews on this site. However, it has one unpardonable flaw, which is the editor's tampering with Milton's poetic line. Teskey and the Norton editors have for some reason decided to make it "easy to read" by adding parentheses to complex syntactical passages that Milton wrote on purpose to be. . . I dunno. . . hard? This move to simplify the syntax alters not only the experience of the poem but, worse, its meaning. Take for example these famous lines of Satan's from Book I, the first words spoken in Hell:
If thou beest he but O how fall'n! how changed
From him who in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine
Myriads, thought bright! if he whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope. . .
The meaning of the lines is confusing because Satan himself is confused, and now speaking for the first time a fallen language. The "he" from line one gets dropped until line four, when Satan remembers what he's talking about after wandering through a few memories of his life before the fall. The reader is supposed to feel the confusion and torment of this run-on sentence. But Teskey uses parentheses to clean up the very mess Milton wanted Satan to make of the sentence:
If thou beest he (but O how fallen! how changed
From him who in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine
Myriads, though bright) if he whom. . .
This effectively dumbs down the poem and drastically changes it. And there is way too much of it in this edition. It is common enough to modernize spelling and syntax in editions of early modern poetry, but this is a bit too much. Readers don't buy this book because they want an easy read; most readers, even students, don't mind if it is a little hard and confusing in parts. Mostly, I bet they want to see what Milton and not his editors wrote.
I am always glad for an occasion to tread "with wand'ring steps and slow" through the lines of "Paradise Lost" yet once more. When I found out that Gordon Teskey, to my mind the great poet's strongest reader in many years, had edited a new Norton Critical Edition, I knew it was time to travel the path again. As his predecessor Scott Elledge did for a previous generation, Professor Teskey has created an edition and charted a reading experience of enormous richness for contemporary students and general readers alike, and forged a tool of unique value for teachers at all levels. The text is well edited, as it must be, with helpful but judicious modernization of some spelling. The footnotes are measured, thorough but never gratuitously scholastic, to serve the process of active reading. This is not an easy poem and no editor can change that, but one travels through it faster, though steady at speed, with Professor Teskey at one's side. The critical apparatus is also strikingly well done, with modern essays usefully divided by topics, such as 'On Satan' and 'On Feminism', in a manner that will serve all audiences well. Along with retaining essays by past titans of Milton criticism, from Marvell to T.S. Eliot, as well as much of the canonical modern criticism present in earlier Norton editions, this volume includes some of the best critical voices of the last twenty years, among them William Flesch, Regina Schwartz, Archie Burnett, Julia Walker and Mary Ann Radzinowicz. But these new contributions have been chosen, it seems to me, with a very judicious focus on their own lasting canonical value, rather than merely on their more recent dates of publication. Whether out of deference or editorial privilege, Professor Teskey saves the last word for himself in a short selection from an essay that has since become a chapter in his new book, "Delirious Milton" (Harvard, 2006), in which he charts a history of philosophical modernity through an inspired analysis of Milton's view of creation, divine and human. Whether you are coming to "Paradise Lost" for the first or the twentieth time, make this edition your primary text and make Professor Teskey's new study the next book you read. If you do, you'll experience a very fortunate fall followed by a delirium of the happiest sort.
Wow I cant believe this masterpiece has only two reviews. I bought this cd a long time ago because I was a major fan of Cradle of Filth, and Dani said in an interview that this was one of his favorite cds. I didnt take to this cd immediatly, but years later this is just awsome. I find the guitars on this cd just immaculate. Another reviewer complained of the drumming. It isnt the strongpoint of this cd, but it hardly ruins it. The sound has a doom, gothic sound but mixed with metallica. At least thats my opinion.
Gothic 10 Excellent guitar throughout this one. Towards the end you have some nice keyboards. This is primarily a guitar song. This is also one of the few songs on the cd that has female vocals. They are not overbearing like some bands are. They are just right.
Dead Emotion 9 A bit heavier than the last one. Lots of good growls. The guitars are a mix of choppy riffs and spiraling solos.
Shattered 8 It might be a little repetitive at points but dont mistake repetitive for boring. It sounds so good you wont care.
Rapture 9 Not really much I can say to describe this except that it is really good. A bit darker than the first three.
Eternal 10 This is the classic paradice lost song to me. Too good for words. Definantly my favorite.
Falling Forever 7.5-8 I wouldnt really say that any songs on here are weak, but if I had to pick a weak song this would probably be one of them. Still hardly a bad song.
Angel Tears 6 I really dont know why they put this on the cd. Its just a couple minutes of guitar. The guitar is good but they should have just made it into a song.
Silent 7.5 This one has really good guitars, but it kind of just goes on too long.
Painless 9 After a few letdowns if that what you want to call them. This song gets back on track with one of the best songs on the cd.
Desolate 8 Very dark instrumental. Brooding doom. Sounds like a horror film.
Rotting Misery [Doom Dub] [*][Dub] 10 My second favorite after eternal. The riffs are just bad a$$, and there is a lot of good keys too. Brooding and dark.
Breeding Fear [Demolition Dub] [*][Dub] 8.5 This sounds very death metal oriented which is out of character for the rest of the cd. Very good.
So if you are into gothic or doom metal like My Dying Bride, Tristania, or Cradle of filth. Or if you are just a metal head you definantly need this one in your collection.
This monumental Paradise Lost album is beautiful, haunting, surreal, dark, dramatic, and, well, Gothic! Unfortunately, the drummer's time is murderously unsteady and ruins this otherwise magnificent tome! Arrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.
Their second and by far their best album, "Gothic" combines the brutal doom/death approach of their debut with beautiful melodies and the occasional orchestra and female vocals. Probably the first to do so and certainly the best, this album created an entire genre. (Although present day "gothic metal" has nothing to do with this dark masterpiece). Beautiful guitar melodies and awesome grunting by Mr. Nick Holmes, the best grunt ever in my opinion. An album with no weak moments and many classics like "Shattered", "Rapture", "Eternal", "The Painless" and off course the title track. Present day Paradise Lost sucks pretty bad I admit, but on this album they were certainly for real! Poser Marilyn Manson goths of today, please stay away from this album 'cause it was not created for you and you couldn't handle it! For true metalheads though this is the ultimate doom/death album.
This is a sequel to Paradise Lost. It also is written as classic literature.
This book is about when Jesus was baptized and the temptation in the wilderness.
Recommend reading at several sittings.
The star rating is given purely for the edition of Paradise Regained published by First World Library. This book is every bit as fascinating as its predecesor Paradise Lost, however I highy dissuade you from buying this particular edition because the words are in size 14 Times New Roman, thus extremely difficult to read, and it is much too expensive for an edition of its quality.
This is what illegal drugs will get you "Paradise Lost," even if it is regained!
I have maybe a half-dozen editions of "Paradise Lost."
Whenever I need to reread it quickly, I pick up the Signet Classic edition. It's got to be my favorite.
There are more thorough editions, certainly. But the thing I like about the Signet edition is that it's got this whole Goldilocks thing going on with the footnotes. Not too few, not too many.
In the text, words and phrases that are glossed at the bottom of the page have a little circle (a degree sign) next to them. You look down if you need to; if you don't, you keep reading. I like this because many editions don't indicate in the running text when something has a gloss: one must flip to the back of the book to hunt this out for oneself.
Additionally, there are not so many footnotes that they clutter up half (or more) of the page: I'm sure you're familiar with this sight.
Originally this was edited by Christopher Ricks (of Cambridge). In addition to the bibliography, chronology, and footnotes, he also wrote a short introduction. That unremarkable introduction has now been supplanted by one done by Susanne Woods, to which I am also indifferent.
The Signet edition also fits snugly in your hand, as other, meatier editions do not.
Too bad Amazon buries this edition in the back pages. I had to hunt around a while before I could find it!
"Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" really entitle John Milton to be called Shakespeare's successor. While the material may seem to be drawn out at times, we must remember that Milton is exercising his mastery of the English language. It is my opinion that you will enjoy this book the most after you have read the Bible. Basically, "Paradise Lost" is this. Satan has been defeated by the forces of God; Satan tries to cheer up what's left of his defeated forces; he contemplates another move; like a good leader, he listens to what his different allies have to say; he then journeys out of hell to find something he can use; God becomes aware of Satan's 2nd wind and fears that man will be corrupted by Satan; Jesus offers to sacrifice himself for the salvation of man; the angel Uriel sees Satan and warns the angel Gabriel of Satan's presence; Gabriel goes to Eden and explains to Adam how God's angels defeated Satan as well as the story of creation; Satan gets Eve to eat the forbidden apple; in sorrow, Adam decides to share Eve's fate; before being cast out, the angel Michael encourages Adam by telling of the coming of Christ. It is interesting how Milton was able to make Satan human and sympathetic. One really interesting thing is that Satan tricks Eve into eating the forbidden apple, but he honestly thinks it is an absurd rule God gave them: "...can it be a sin to know, / Can it be death? and do they only stand / By ignorance, is that their happy state, / The proof of their obedience and their faith?" (Book 4, Lines 517-520). If I may be permitted a slight digression, in "Bedazzled," Peter Cook as the devil hinted at how he thought this was absurd: "I'll tell you why Adam and Eve were so happy. They were pig ignorant." The most frightening thing about this book is that at times, Satan does have reason on his side. Moving on to "Paradise Regained," that is a longer and more articulate telling of Christ's temptation in the desert. While some people may find it disturbing to see a human, sympathetic, and at times very rational Satan, Milton truly deserves to be called William Shakespeare's successor.
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