With a Thousand Various Mouths
If forced to choose the most interesting "theme" in Book II, I would have to say the concern with locating, mapping, regaining, and mixing boundaries. This concern is witnessed both in relation to physical boundaries (seeking that which "border[s] on light" (II.959) as well as in "spiritual" or elemental boundaries: when we learn that the demons wish "earth with hell / To mingle and involve" (383-384), there is, I think, a wonderful ambiguity as to what is being mingled here, physical limits or characteristics. Or, of course, both.
I have mentioned my interest in how space and land are sometimes written of as influencing bodily structure, physiognomy, and character makeup, and we see a great deal of this in Book II. Belial's speech mentions the hope of adaptation to hell's elements, a mingling of heavenly and hellish influence in the transformation--Belial would, I think, call this process a refinement--from angel of heaven to citizen of hell. Form would reflect belonging, would advertise identity and confine one to "home." This transformation not only involves the adaptation to new boundaries, but the inscription of them onto the "flesh" and "bones" of these ethereal beings. Though the spirits can manipulate their shapes, there is a definite sense of falsity, of "[i]mitat[ion" (270) in their attempting to retain certain elements of their former selves.
When Satan is poised on what I imagine to be the edge of Chaos he sees the "dark materials" in their "pregnant causes mixed / Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight" (II.913.914). But though there is mixing, there is never a true coming together, never an unholy mixing resulting in hybridity. Indeed, this mixing seems only to strength boundaries that separate the elements, and "they around the flag / Of each his faction" (900-901) rally. What does this say about the essentials of nature in Book II, I wonder, about the mingling that really is no mingling? Also, is the mixing of elements, the transformation from one into another itself a torture? We learn that one of the divine punishments involves the feeling "by turns the bitter change / Of fierce extremes" (598-599). Of course the going from immense hot to immense cold would be hideous and the change would serve only to emphasize the pains inherent in these extremes. But is there also a disorienting sense to this feeling of transformation, a horrible and painful confusion produced by the simultaneous blending and strengthed separation of extreme elements?
More to come.
I have mentioned my interest in how space and land are sometimes written of as influencing bodily structure, physiognomy, and character makeup, and we see a great deal of this in Book II. Belial's speech mentions the hope of adaptation to hell's elements, a mingling of heavenly and hellish influence in the transformation--Belial would, I think, call this process a refinement--from angel of heaven to citizen of hell. Form would reflect belonging, would advertise identity and confine one to "home." This transformation not only involves the adaptation to new boundaries, but the inscription of them onto the "flesh" and "bones" of these ethereal beings. Though the spirits can manipulate their shapes, there is a definite sense of falsity, of "[i]mitat[ion" (270) in their attempting to retain certain elements of their former selves.
When Satan is poised on what I imagine to be the edge of Chaos he sees the "dark materials" in their "pregnant causes mixed / Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight" (II.913.914). But though there is mixing, there is never a true coming together, never an unholy mixing resulting in hybridity. Indeed, this mixing seems only to strength boundaries that separate the elements, and "they around the flag / Of each his faction" (900-901) rally. What does this say about the essentials of nature in Book II, I wonder, about the mingling that really is no mingling? Also, is the mixing of elements, the transformation from one into another itself a torture? We learn that one of the divine punishments involves the feeling "by turns the bitter change / Of fierce extremes" (598-599). Of course the going from immense hot to immense cold would be hideous and the change would serve only to emphasize the pains inherent in these extremes. But is there also a disorienting sense to this feeling of transformation, a horrible and painful confusion produced by the simultaneous blending and strengthed separation of extreme elements?
More to come.
posted by alh at 7:17 AM
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