Status Updates From Paradise Lost

Book VI is the best chapter I’ve ever read in my life!

Really it was a struggle and I barely ever connected or understood it but when I did there were a few lovely moments. I actually found myself feeling a bit sad at the end when they were walking out of Paradise and were so sad that they had to leave it all behind.

I enjoyed the language between Adam and Eve ('we are one, one flesh: to lose thee were to lose myself'). I did not like how anti-Eve Adam went after she ate the apple. He was really going on about how she had dragged him down with her etc. It really made me think John Milton didn't entirely like women. I also think to literally rewrite the beginning of the Bible, you must have a big belief in your own ability.

All the Satan in hell and then in Eden bits were really confusing and I was really lost. I don't feel like I much got to know Satan. I did like having Adam and Eve actually have dialogue and getting a closer look into them though. That was another thing, I had no idea who was saying what most of the time. There was some really beautiful language in it though.

This took such a long time to read! I started it for my course and got about half way through before we moved on. I then just finished it before the exams. I read the entire first half physically and the second half mostly audiobook. I don't actually think it really mattered which way I did it, it was still totally bloody confusing. I understood most of the Adam and Eve bits as that it just the Bible.