Epics of Peace

Yesterday, I watched Branagh’s Hamlet for a while before I settled down to read Paradise Regain’d. It was one of those fortunate strokes that really increased my appreciation of the book; if you read it as a sort of closet drama, the speeches just swell with intensity. An early speech by the narrator really sets the tone for the mission of Jesus, neatly superimposed over the desires of Milton:

To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,
Then to subdue and quell o’re all the earth
Brute violence and proud Tyranick pow’r,
Till held it more humane, more heavenly first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make perswasion do the work of fear

I suppose that’s why I value writing so much. I do believe that persuasion is more effective a tool against tyranny than the gun, or blind fear.

This morning, I turned on Bravo to find Wenders' Faraway, So Close I was touched more deeply than ever by the old guy in the library who desires an epic of peace, rather than war, to propel the world. He laments the loss of the great storytellers, saying (paraphrased) that “When the world loses it’s storytellers, it has lost it’s childhood.” I agree. To cite Tom Waits:

I don’t wanna grow up.

I think that Paradise Regain’d was Milton’s effort to write an epic of peace, but it gets lost in the shadow of Paradise Lost. It should have been a play!