Paradise is Lost and I’m Going to Find It

I’m finally reading Paradise Lost by Milton!  My main motivation (besides it sitting on my shelf for 8+ years because I couldn’t understand it the first time) was that the character Jace reads it in The Mortal Instrument series.  I figured if Jace can read it, then so can I.

Cassandra Clare, who wrote The Mortal Instrument series, has a very active tumblr so in 2011 I thought it would be a great idea to send her a question about how Paradise Lost relates to her books and see if by some miracle she would answer it.  I totally didn’t understand how tumblr worked because it was months before I realized that she had actually answered me privately.  I’m going to copy my question and answer here (I hope that’s okay Cassandra!). I was completely giddy that she had answered me!

I want to read Paradise Lost mostly because Jace read it. I’m planning on reading it next year (as well as re-reading the first 3 TMI) and I had a few questions for you. How did Paradise Lost influence The Mortal Instrument Series (Especially the first three books in the series)? What do you think readers would gain from your books if they read Paradise Lost? Have you read Paradise Lost? What did you like the most about it? I LOVE YOUR BOOKS!!!!! – Jessica B

cassandraclare answered you:

Much of our whole concept of the War in Heaven and Satan’s fall comes from Paradise Lost. So everything that has to do with angels and demons, with Valentine’s “non serviam” (I will not serve, Satan’s motto) the birth of Hell, the ranks of demons…all that’s from Paradise Lost. But be warned it’s many hundreds of pages of dense poetry.

Oh I know. I know that all too well :)

To prepare myself for many hundred pages of boring dense poetry, I have 4 books to help me along.  That’s right. FOUR.

1. My copy of Paradise Lost that I bought who knows how many years ago, but it has my maiden name in the cover so we’re talking at least 8 years. The footnotes in it are very helpful.  And the cover is pretty.

2. The Plain English Copy (that apparently won the Dumdown award and proudly shows it on the cover).  I’m about 18 pages into Paradise Lost right now and I’ve been reading the poem first and the plain english translation afterwards to see if I’m understanding what’s going on, and I am! No one is more amazed than me.

3. My kindle edition so I can take notes, highlight stuff, search inside it if I need to and look up words in the dictionary.

4. The Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis.  I’ve already finished this book and it’s helped me understand the poetry better.  C.S. Lewis has great notes in the back as well, and I’ve been referring to them as I read.

And guess what?! I’m on page 18 and its already farther than I made it last time I tried to read Paradise Lost (I know this because my underlining and notes to figure out what the heck is going on abruptly stop at that page).  And reading those 18 pages last time took me weeks, whereas I’ve only been reading Paradise Lost for 2 days now.  I deserve an award of some kind…

…because reading Paradise Lost is totally harder than blowing up the Death Star. TRUE STORY.

So, for the next month I’m going to be reading Paradise Lost (in its many forms on my nightstand ) and then I’m going to immediately re-read The City of Bones, The City of Ashes and The City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.  Then I will write about what from Paradise Lost I found in those books for my Classic Double Challenge.  Lots to look forward to!

I’ve got lots of posts planned this month, but book reviews are going to take a nose dive since I’ve caught up on all but 2 of my book reviews.  I will be posting about my thoughts of Paradise Lost as I read along on my tumblr if you’re interested. :)

I’m going to finish Paradise Lost this time.

Never give up! NEVER surrender!!