Of demonic days, past and present...

[felis_ultharus]

Oddly, when I did the recycling meme for August 18, the only entry close in 2005 (August 19)included a meme recycling past entries. There was also another meme, stuff about the Samurai Susanna, and the details of a very bad day.

My journal didn't start up until the end of 2004, so no August entries there.

In the here and now, I'm on Book 2 of Paradise Lost, and wondering vaguely what would've happened in the story if the fallen angels had taken up Belial's advice and tried to repent in hopes of being transferred to a minimum-security hell.

I think Belial's even cooler than Satan. It's quite easy to forget these are the bad guys. Milton's good guys are so bland.

At work, I marked a placement test for a woman named "Lamia," and now I'm wondering how someone gets a name like that. I wonder if anyone's running around with the name "Medusa" or "Scylla" or "Chimera."

I'm more than halfway through the great culling of my novel -- about two months ahead of schedule. I should be two-fifths finished by tomorrow.

Comments

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

Parents will give their kids the strangest and most horrible names. I'm never sure if it's ignorance or cruelty. Nor am I sure which would be worse.

Yay! for the novel. ^_^ I have about as much done on mine as you've got finished. ;)

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I'm half-wondering if it was an unfortunate coincidence -- her last name was Arabic.

Plus, total ignorance of Classical mythology may help. No one I pointed this name out to in the office knew what a Lamia was :)

I didn't realize you were in the final editing stages of your novel! Congratulations!

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

haha, no, I'm not even done writing it. I meant that I have about as much time left on this thing as you have already done. ^_^

[foi-nefaste.livejournal.com]

I read Paradise Lost while in highschool... and developped a (completely literary!) crush on Lucifer. 'cause, really, amazing character.

And despite everything, including two semesters worth of classes, I still love Milton's writing. His shorter poems are brilliant, too, but Paradise Lost might just remain one of my favorite pieces.

And yes, I fangirl Milton. I don't care about logic on this - while I might not agree with his politics or religion, he's been dead long enough that it kinda doesn't matter, and I LOVE his writing.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

He has a real talent for crafting words, for carefully-worked turns of phrase.

You know, the Modernists made a big deal of casting off form -- blank verse and epic style and such. For them it was about freedom.

But form really helps, doesn't it? And so does having a well-educated writer who knows what he's talking about, and wants to communicate it in relatively understandable language.

I think that's why there are New Formalists writing poetry in Canada now. People are sick of Experimental stuff with made-up words that says nothing, and is just prose with line breaks.

At least when Milton makes up words, you can tell what they mean -- and he usually grabs an adjective and turns it into a very descriptive adjective (as when Satan decides to go over the "abrupt" and into the "obscure" of Chaos -- and then into the "outer space" between the earth and the stars).

And I do think there's a statue of limitations on a writer's politics. Don't know if I'd read poetry by Jerry Falwell, no matter how good it was, just as I won't buy any more volumes of Cerebus until Dave Sim either dies or stops muttering insanely about "the homosexualist agenda."

Which is sad, because Cerebus is really good.

[sugar-spun.livejournal.com]

Years ago I saw a daytime talk show in which a young and terribly Goth couple were defending their choices. She was only 17, and they kept rats and their infant in the same room, the rats allowed to run free. They were trained not to bite and the little one was kept in quite a high standing crib, so I didn't really care about the allegations of abuse. Until, that is, they mentioned the child's name: Louis Armand Lestat. The child's probably in school by now. I bet he gets his head flushed every day.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

When I was a Goth, those were the kind of Goths I avoided -- anyone who'd name a child for Anne Rice characters has issues.

The child might be able to get away with just "Louis" -- maybe I've been in a francophone province too long, but I think he could get away with that. Failing that, Armand.

(I'm a firm believer that all children should have a normal first name, and a really unusual and beautiful middle name. That way, they get a choice.)