As for Milton's angels, with the exception of that one rebel guy, whatsisname, they're not good at being protagonists, either. Gabriel exists largely to screw up at his remarkably easy job. Uriel gets a good sweeping journey, but then disappears. Sweet Raphael, that sociable spirit, might be a good story-teller, but he's not exactly an action man. And Michael? An excellent and (if you ask me) far too patient teacher, but there's a reason no one (except, apparently, me) likes the last two books of Paradise Lost. (C. S. Lewis: 'an untransmuted lump of futurity.' The books where Michael does some nice lesson-planning and a good bit of complicated exegesis happens are not, by Lewis's standard, anything like 'epic' at all.)
As for corporeality, one of my favorite Miltonic moments is Raphael's description of angel-sex at the end of Book 8. Angel-sex: not corporeal. Yet he can still blush about it... Man, I really love Raphael.
And now you've got me thinking about DS9's prophets in terms of Fake Dennis. What a way to start my Monday.
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As for Milton's angels, with the exception of that one rebel guy, whatsisname, they're not good at being protagonists, either. Gabriel exists largely to screw up at his remarkably easy job. Uriel gets a good sweeping journey, but then disappears. Sweet Raphael, that sociable spirit, might be a good story-teller, but he's not exactly an action man. And Michael? An excellent and (if you ask me) far too patient teacher, but there's a reason no one (except, apparently, me) likes the last two books of Paradise Lost. (C. S. Lewis: 'an untransmuted lump of futurity.' The books where Michael does some nice lesson-planning and a good bit of complicated exegesis happens are not, by Lewis's standard, anything like 'epic' at all.)
As for corporeality, one of my favorite Miltonic moments is Raphael's description of angel-sex at the end of Book 8. Angel-sex: not corporeal. Yet he can still blush about it... Man, I really love Raphael.
And now you've got me thinking about DS9's prophets in terms of Fake Dennis. What a way to start my Monday.