Arminianism, from ....

.... the theological writings of Dutchman Jacobus Arminius.

Free Will and "Freewill"

A Latin tag (summing up Tully's On the Laws, and thus likely to have appealed to the Humanist Milton) pertinent to contributions that several of you made to lecture today regarding Milton's treatment of free will in book III of Paradise Lost, goes:

legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus: "we serve the law in order to be free."

Additionally, the lyric from Rush that came to mind in our class discussion today is Freewill, written by Neal Peart. Perhaps ironically, it is a secular -- indeed, a dogmatically anti-religious, version of the defense of absolute free will given by God the Father in Book III of Paradise Lost. As always, comments welcome.

Important Upcoming Events for SFU English

Two upcoming events, arranged by our estimable Department, will be of interest to students of English & well worth your attending.

1. Honours Information Session
   Thursday, Feb. 23rd, 11:30 am
   AQ 6093
   
2. English Career Panel, or, What to Do with Your English Degree
   Monday, March 6th, 3:30 pm
   Maggie Benston Centre, Rooms 2290-2292

Reading Break

I hope your reading break is productive. By all means stop by for discussion, answers, or review of essay outlines & draughts.

Group Project: urls

Please add the url of your group blog to this post in a comment, the better to exchange ideas between classfellows.

Expanded Office Hours at Reading Week

During the reading week I will be keeping all my regular office hours, but I will also be having office hours during the scheduled class times. So, next week I will be available for drop-in as follows:
Monday: 9:30-15:30
Tuesday: 11:30-15:00
Wednesday: 9:30-15:00
Thursday: 13:30-15:00.
Friday: by appointment.

Monday's Lecture

Monday, we will continue with a second successive week of concentration on Paradise Lost in lecture. As two or three of you have suggested, the reading break the week following will be a good opportunity for all the class to compleat Eikon Basilike ahead of its lecture.

Earl of Rochester: "A Satyr Against Reason ...."

As promised: "A Satyr against Reason and Mankind by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester." The link is to an excellent version, "edited and annotated by Jack Lynch."
We will discuss & enjoy together in an upcoming seminar.

Dinosaur MSM perceives Blogs, but Dimly

Typical ponderous MSM giant BBC has this sensation of "blog" passed up its length of nerves to its brain-stem. One bit of sense, though tiny:

I regard the blogosphere as a source of criticism that must be listened to and as a source of information that can be used.

The MSM doesn't get blogging, obviously; as dinosaurs always lack the perceptive & cognitive faculties to adapt to the smarter, faster, better new species which have already marked them for extinction. But here, one dinosaur at least sees its nemesis.

Update: The Old Order stirs, notices the rise of blogging, & responds rather peevishly ....

Intriguing Student Remark

In seminar today, I demurred from giving the name of a certain major public figure of recent memory embodying the anti-Hobbesean view represented in the Metaphysical poetry & Milton's Paradise Lost. At the close of the class, one classfellow gave a name, which was so shocking that it has now stimulated me to follow up one particular faint memory that I have. I shall do that probably this weekend & see if I can make an even more interesting -- & alarming -- effect that I otherwise would have....
My thanks to L.W.

Hobbes-Metaphysicals Polarity: New Affirmation

From today's Arts & Letters Daily, is a very readable article on a new book that continues in the tradition of Hobbes' anti-metaphysical (& anti-theistic) polemic: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett. In the article, written by Adam Kirsch, is a very helpful application of our course thesis, & the following quotation is a précis of it:

For the best atheists agree with the best defenders of faith on one crucial
point: that the choice to believe or disbelieve is existentially the most important choice of all. It shapes one's whole understanding of human life and purpose, because it is a choice that each of us must make for him or herself. To impress on a man the urgency of that choice, Kierkegaard wrote, it would be useful to "get him seated on a horse and the horse made to take fright and gallop wildly ... this is what existence is like if one is to become consciously aware of it."

Mr. Dennett would have benefited from a ride on Kierkegaard's horse. For what dooms his book, not just in literary but in logical terms, is his complete failure to recognize the existential demand of religion. "I decided some time ago," he writes, "that diminishing returns had set in on the arguments about God's existence," and so he leaves God out of his argument entirely .... Mr. Dennett proceeds to analyze religion anthropologically, as a behavior, an institution, and an aesthetic taste. But .... the definition so completely misses the actual substance of religious experience....

Mid-term Essay: Topics

Write on any one of these three topics, according to the criteria in the syllabus.

1.] Book I of Hobbes’s Leviathan gives an account of what man is. Accepting that Leviathan is a creative work of seventeenth century literature, give an evaluative analysis of Hobbes’ creation of the literary character he names “Man”; in the same way that, in a different course, you would give an evaluative literary analysis of, say, Charles Dickens’ charaterisation of Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist. In addition to the specific details of character that the text contains, you will further elaborate and judge Hobbes’ portrait of “Man” using your choice of some associated literary elements, such as the plot of Leviathan, salient facts of the author’s biography, the social context in which the book was published, or any other characterisations -- historical or contemporary -- to which “Man” may be associated artistically.

2.] Milton’s Paradise Lost contains what may appear to be an internal stress, evident in its opening determination to “…assert Eternal Providence/ And justifie the ways of God to man.” [I,xxv-xxvi.) Asserting that Divinity’s attributes are eternal and provident is safely orthodox; however, not only declaring that Omnipotence requires advocacy but then arguing a legal brief as His barrister threatens heresy. This charge is heightened in many readers’ minds by the intensely appealing characterisation (not, carefully note, the character) of Satan. Drinking yourself, then, from the cup of the Lady of Christ’s perhaps damning presumptuousness, write a paper in which you “….assert Paradise Lost’s orthodoxy/ And justify the ways of Milton to man.” Specifically, concentrate on the characterisation of Satan in Books I-II, and argue that every single statement that “th’ Apostate Angel” (I,cxvx) makes is a Lie, by selecting some choice lines and explicating them in reference to the inner logic and content of Milton’s epic poem.

3.] From our Penguin edition of The Metaphysical Poets, choose from among the poets listed on our course syllabus any two poems which have not been explicated in our seminar time, and give a close reading of each in relation to Henry Vaughan’s translation of Boethius’ metrum IV,vi from The Consolation of Philosophy, as treated in our week two.

Betty Lambert Memorial Prize

The English Department requests submissions for the Betty Lambert Memorial Prize. The prize is awarded annually to the best unpublished play written by an undergraduate SFU student who is enrolled in at least 9 credit hours at SFU.

The prize will be equal in value to the interest accrued from the endowment fund established in Ms. Lambert's memory. Submissions will be adjudicated by a panel named by the English Department's Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. The closing date for this prize is March 1, 2006.

Address submissions to:

Betty Lambert Memorial Prize
c/o Department of English
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6

If there are further questions, please contact the English Department.

Satan with humour

Classfellow Sarah helpfully sends along this charateristically modern representation of Satan as a source of humour.

An observant woman died one day, and found herself waiting in the long line for judgment. As she stood there, she noticed that some souls were allowed to march right through the pearly gates into heaven. Others, though, were led over to Satan, who threw them into the burning pit.
But every so often, instead of hurling a poor soul into the fire, Satan would toss a soul into a small pile off to one side. After watching Satan do this several times, the woman's curiosity got the best of her. So she strolled over to find out what the devil he was doing.
"Excuse me, Prince of Darkness," she said. "I'm waiting my turn for judgment, but I couldn't help wondering, why are you tossing those people aside instead of flinging them into the fires of hell with the others?"
"Ah, those..." Satan said with a groan. "They're all from Vancouver,
they're too wet to burn!"

Engaging with the course

As you progress in the course, you might find that your personal interests and affinities are taking you toward a vector of engagement to seventeenth century literature that is different than the direction the lectures are taking. Should this be the case, come to an office hour and discuss it with me. English 314 is designated as course on seventeenth century literature; accodringly, so long as that is demonstrably what you are improving your knowledge in and understanding of, then your instructor can have no principled objection.
That being said, the course approach to the literature -- the dialectic between Hobbesean materialism and the transcendent Love that the poetry of Milton & the Metaphysicals argues for and delights in -- is a ready and effective means of comprehending the literature widely and in detail.

Group Project: Criteria & Detail

Here are the post-seminar details & criteria for our Group project.

You have now been assigned to a Group, & the Monday seminar has had a Blogger tutorial: Wednesday seminar this coming week.

The Group project is designed to be straightforward, enjoyable, and beneficial. Each group will create and maintain a Web Log that engages internally the dialectic that defined the seventeenth century literary mode. Specifically, each group member will take a position for either Love -- represented by Milton's Eve and any of the Metaphysical poets -- or Power -- represented by Hobbes Leviathan and Milton's Satan -- and throughout the term will add posts to your blog polemically in defense of your position and polemically against your opponents'. The blog, therefore, offers you an easy way to continue yourselves the dialectic which characterised the seventeenth century.

The manner of approach to, and treatment of, the course texts is entirely for your Group to decide. You need not be constrained in your engagement with the literary materials by the interpretation argued in lecture. This assignment offers you the opportunity to enhance, challenge or re-invent the specific focus of both the lectures and your seminar discussions.

The grading criteria are the scope, originality, inventiveness and literary insight of the accumulated blog entries. Technical proficiency will not be graded, but of course you are free to use any mechanical technique you wish. I will publish all the Groups' blog addesses on the Course blog and you are encouraged to solicit advice & criticism from the whole class throughout the course of the semester. Open collaboration is one great strength of blogging: some scholars, for instance, post parts of articles or even books in the blogosphere for criticism and correction before publication.

Of course, I am available for expert consultation: in person during Office Hours, and online most times.

Because this is a Group project, you will find that synergy will soon animate and enlived the assignment. I offer the suggestion that each Group assign responsibilities to members based on individual proficiencies and preferences. For instance, in principle, only one member need do the mechanics of posting the collaborative entries. There will be one group grade for all members.

I will take a snapshot of your blog on the day of the last seminar of the term and use that for grading: however I will look in regularly throughout the term as a means to, shall we say, encourage you not to leave the whole enterprise until the last minute. The experience of blogging regularly for a couple of months will, I believe, be its own benefit to you down the years.

Here is a link or three to some blogging of mine on How to Blog Effectively.