From: Duncan Kinder [duncan@neoclassicists.net] Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 6:36 PM To: Milton List Subject: Peter Ramus' LogicI I am looking for an online edition of Milton's discussion of Peter Ramus' Logic. If there is one, I would appreciate being told its URL. Duncan C. Kinder dckinder@mountain.net From: John Hale [john.hale@stonebow.otago.ac.nz] Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 1:49 AM To: milton-l@richmond.edu Subject: Eighth Otago Milton Marathon, July 29 A Progressive Paradise Lost Performance I've just overseen an all-day Milton marathon, on somewhat new principles. People may be interested to hear what they were, and how participants as I have responded to the changed event. But first some background. The last three marathons have been increasingly rehearsed, because teams have each performed a Book together. The last two of the three have been in direct competition, too, with judging and (liquid) prizes. In 1999 the judging was in the hands of those, mainly my Milton class, who had stayed all day and heard all the teams. In 2000, by contrast, judges were invited experts from outside the city, hence benevolent neutrals. This latest way of judging went much better. However, members of the Milton list have commented on the increasing elaboration of the event, with an implication of over-elaboration. For don't most marathons simply get in a ring and read round it, unrehearsed and individualised? The team-event certainly needed more organisation from me, and also though by being competitive it could stand up to the more public scrutiny of larger numbers (and media attention), all that made even more work for me. So, coming to July 29 2001, I tried a reversion to simplicity. Only four Books were read by teams, two of which were my students anyway, for whom the rehearsing has huge benefits, tangible and other. (Books I, II, IX, X) The other eight, we read in the traditional ring. What was new, was the (as it were) new dramatic unities being tried out. We met in four different places - three houses of staff, one student flat. Timetabled as one reading-stint, then lunch at my own house, then a second stint, then a dinner-break, DIY, then adjourn to the home of the Professor of Classics for the final stint. The unity of Place was sacrificed. For what benefits? Negatively, we all got out of the warm and stuffy midwinter interiors into fresh air, three times; avoiding a certain claustrophobia I'd sometimes felt after being cooped up in a single venue for ten-plus hours. Positively, the hosts were generous and interested, and laid on good grub, and joined in the readings. We all saw some"stately homes" we'd not been inside before. The student flat was the revelation: gorgeous stained glass windows, of paradisal flowers, or grapes, all quite thematical. They look great in the photos. In fact, the windows were said to be more valuable than the rest of the house, a run-down rambling brickish place. The unity of Time was of course made harder, however. We started at 9 am and finished at 11. 14 hours is still within Aristotle's permitted span of 24 hours for the events of a tragedy, but in terms of body-time (real-life duration) it's a big ask. I felt fresher than I've ever previously felt as I went off after dinner to the final stint, Books IX-XII at 7 pm. But I was done for when it was all over, and I'm still catching-up on the rest of life. The unity of the Action is what matters, nonetheless. Tiredness afterwards is not important if the poem as a whole makes more sense thus punctuated. So far the response has been favourable. I'll quote some in a later posting. Does it depend on how the poem is divided up? Is a partition into three groups of four Books sensible, question-begging or legitimate? I do see the poem that way, and all the more so after this reading. A self-fulfilling satisfaction perhaps, is it? What future modifications now suggest themselves to readers? I felt good the moment I thought of doing it progressively this year. And I still don't want to go back to how I began these marathons, which was over successive lunchtimes (about two weeks it took), nor to the 'staple' method, of performing the whole poem in a single place and unrehearsed. The excitements of rehearsing, not to mention the teaching benefits from students' intense attention to small portions they prepare, make me unwilling to revert completely, to what now seems a less laborious but somewhat underdone procedure. What do other people think? What gives *you the biggest buzz, the most memorable all-day Milton-experience? John Hale From: John Hale [john.hale@stonebow.otago.ac.nz] Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 10:08 PM To: milton-l@richmond.edu Subject: Milton-research Symposium, Oct 25 In connection with the celebrations of the grand opening of Otago University's new Information Services Building, alias superb new Library, I am holding a one-day symposium for people who research Milton. Thursday October 25, 2001. Those invited have, till now, been people from NZ who teach Milton or publish on him or are doing research-degrees in Milton studies. People, that is, working in New Zealand in the first instance (as we have never got together before). And known Miltonists from Australia, mostly so far in the Sydney area, but going wider. The aim is to meet round the table, informally, and tell each about work in progress and about common problems in researching and teaching Milton. Not, repeat not, full-dress seminar papers: the emphasis is wholly on process, not product. All over in one day, and including a public lecture on John Martin's illustrations to Paradise Lost, and a good look at the Library's holdings - including an 1827 imperial quarto of the splendid Martin volume (and the 1688 Tonson, and a Breeches Bible, and more, from Otago's very good special collections). It occurs to us that, unlikely as it does seem (what with the Murfreesboro event just before i)t, there just MIGHT be an itinerant Miltonist or two out there who would like to come along on the 25th. Is New Zealand on the way back from Murfreesboro for some of those attending there, or at least does the air ticket thither allow of very major sideways movement? (There is that story of the pilot who mistook 'Oakland' for 'Auckland' . . .) The purposes would be to meet us here, see the books, join in the research-exchanges, and do a tourist swing through NZ and OZ whilst on the move. . . Such an itinerant would need to have a world air-ticket and free time. I have nil finance, but would see about hospitality. Bear in mind that US dollars and most other major currencies go a very long way in this country at the moment! If you're at all interested, and have a real possibility of coming out this way, please contact me to talk over possibilities. It CAN be done: Peter Schwartz just visited. Best wishes, all John Hale From: Erika Gaffney [egaffney@ashgate.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 3:49 PM To: milton-l@richmond.edu Subject: new series: Literary & Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity This message uses a character set that is not supported by the Internet Service. To view the original message content, open the attached message. If the text doesn't display correctly, save the attachment to disk, and then open it using a viewer that can display the original character set.