10 Years After

God Save The Queen

No post yesterday. Tuesday night I dropped my British Novel class and added the Writing in Profession class. Yesterday I spent the time reading through various biographies of Milton. There was a semi-optional writing assignment for my Milton class, a journal entry :"Pick out a striking passage from one of the early lives. What does it tell you about Milton's personality at that stage of his life? How is his distinctive poetic voice related to his personality?" All well and good, but nothing in the biographies really stood out to me.

Well, mostly nothing.
Two things did, but I wasn't sure how to relate them to his "distinctive poetic voice" or his personality. The first didn't really have anything to do with a stage of Milton's life. It was the fact that Milton's father was disinherited for reading an English Bible. What struck me about this was the fact that Milton then goes on to rewrite in English a pivotal story of the bible, the downfall of man. Of course I mean Paradise Lost. It is interesting, I think, that he actually does what opponents of translating the Bible into various vernaculars were afraid of - changing the story (and common perceptions). I viewed this project in keeping with his thrist for knowledge. Also, I thought of an odd connection. It struck me that his thirst was similar to a chief component in the Hacker's Code ("all information should be free") .
The second thing was the regicide/antimonarchist angle. Again, I could only tie this into Paradise Lost. It's generally recognized that Satan is reinvented by Milton. I wondered if this had anything to do with some feeling of empathy with the character. I don't have my book with me today, but several of these pieces we read came from the same notes so they had near identical passages. I'll include the exact text later, but there is a particular passage that comments on Milton's attitude toward Royalty and Tyranny, an issue of accountability. It struck me that a similar argument toward God being a sort of tyrant was used by some in my Philosophy class last semester. (Basically, God could have created a perfectly working world. Instead, however, he created an imperfect world and allows suffering to continue. This seems to some to call into question whether God is good or not.)

Today has been a nice day. Intro to Ling was interesting. We finished a worksheet which was designed to impress upon us that we had a tacit understanding of English grammar. After that we spoke about Creoles. One student in the class inquired if Ebonics is a creole. Gross talked a little about the differing opinions as to whether it is a dialect or a creole. I was surprised by how "lite" the explanation was. Another inquired if only Africans make creole languages since the examples seemed to prodominantly involve slaves. (No, but they do seems to need oppression in order to evolve according to Gross). The last question asked if linguistic use of creole meant the creoles in Louisiana.

creole

n. [F. crèole, Sp. criollo, from an American negro word, perh. a corruption of a Sp. criadillo, dim. of criado servant, formerly also, child, fr. L. creatus, p. p. of creare to create. Cf. Create.] One born of European parents in the American colonies of France or Spain or in the States which were once such colonies, esp. a person of French or Spanish descent, who is a native inhabitant of Louisiana, or one of the States adjoining, bordering on the Gulf of of Mexico.

Note: ``The term creole negro is employed in the English West Indies to distinguish the negroes born there from the Africans imported during the time of the slave trade. The application of this term to the colored people has led to an idea common in some parts of the United States, though wholly unfounded, that it implies an admixture greater or less of African blood.'' --R. Hildreth.

Note: ``The title [Creole] did not first belong to the descendants of Spanish, but of French, settlers, But such a meaning implied a certain excellence of origin, and so came early to include any native of French or Spanish descent by either parent, whose nonalliance with the slave race entitled him to social rank. Later, the term was adopted by, not conceded to, the natives of mixed blood, and is still so used among themselves. . . . Besides French and Spanish, there are even, for convenience of speech, 'colored' Creoles; but there are no Italian, or Sicilian, nor any English, Scotch, Irish, or 'Yankee' Creoles, unless of parentage married into, and themselves thoroughly proselyted in, Creole society.'' --G. W. Cable.

Note: In New Orleans the word Creole is applied to any product, or variety of manufacture, peculiar to Louisiana; as, Creole ponies, chickens, cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, etc. - Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

[taken from the Dictionary.com entry on creole.]