Classics Club August Meme: Favourite Classic

This is a meme held by The Classics Club, an awesome club dedicated to classic literature. As you may see from my blog, I love detective stories, adventure, and poetic works. “To love only one would be cruel to others,” for me, as Don Giovanni says in Mozart's opera. Difference is, he talks about women, I about authors. So let's see what I can do.

Favourite Adventure:

Look at my authors list, and you will see Dumas triumphs over others. Why? Simply because I love The Count of Monte Cristo so much. I read the simplified version first, when I was in Senior High, but because I love Faria so much I dashed to my computer and downloaded the ebook. I read it during my holiday and cried. I re-read it and re-read it again, just because I love how Monte Cristo speaks. Definitely my favourite this far.

Favourite Detective Story:

My favourite is the one and only Sherlock Holmes. As I have stated somewhere, he's my first contact with the past, I mean, with classics. His personality is so unique, or perhaps, annoying, that I can't help laughing everytime he mocks other people's stupidity. Among SH's novels, my favourite is perhaps The Valley of Fear, not only because it's thrilling, but perhaps because Sherlock finds himself a worthy collegue, Mr Douglas.

Favourite Children Story:

Does Christmas Carol counts as children story? If it is, then it is my favourite. It moves me to tears. I like to travel with Scrooge and observe as he remembers his past, reflects upon his present, and thinks about his future. The change that comes into his personality reminds us that somewhere inside everybody, there's good, that sometimes slumbers. We only need to shake the soul to wake it up.

Favourite Fantasy Story:

Lord of the Rings, of course. I can't find the right word to express how I feel about it. The details, the legends inside legends, the complexity of the story, the appendix, the languages, each with its own characteristics and alphabeth. I am almost convinced that the Middle-Earth really does exist somewhere here on earth. Once I even studied Sindarin just because I want to appreciate the effort Tolkien exerted to make it.

Favourite Romance:

Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. It's a beautiful story that makes me cry. I watched the movie first, and lately read the novel for the Classics Club Challenge. I forget whether I cried or not the first time I watched the movie, but I cried the first time I read the novel, and then cried like a baby when I watched the musical. I know it doesn't end happily, but I love it.

Favourite Poem:

I am torn between Shakespeare's Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Neruda's 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair. But I think I will take Shakespeare. His sonnets inspire the Muse in my heart, and only after reading his I was able to write my own sonnets. His vocabulary is unmatched. Perhaps his motto in writing is, “If you can't find the word, make it.”

Favourite non-Fiction Prose:

Milton's Areopagitica. You can find me babbling passionately about this work in the related review. Beautiful and strong language that expresses his thoughts precisely. I always envy those who can write in charming way, because I can't, naturally.

So, instead of choosing one, I have seven favourites here. Haha. Can't wait to read yours. 

Weekend Quote #5

“A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.”

John Milton wrote this in his Areopagitica. He was talking about the chance that books classified as 'heretics' couldn't be published under the decree issued by the English government at that time.Thus he said what he thought about heresy. Perhaps later I will discuss about this, I mean, in another post, but for now I'd like to note how he stressed the importance of reason in men, based mainly on that quote.

A man's heresy – in this case his failure to have true faith or conviction– does not depend only on what he believes in, but why he believes it. If somebody believes in something just because 'his pastor says so', therefore based on what people say to be true, then the basis of his believe is wrong, regardless the veracity of what he believes in.

By this statement he stressed that men must use their reason to determine the right or wrong, instead of blindly believe in what they are taught to be right. In Areopagitica, he also quoted the Bible itself, that says:

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

It is not wrong to question what someone believes in. It is not a sin to doubt your religion. On the contrary, when you have proved “all things”, you will have stronger conviction on what you believe in.

Milton's Areopagitica: A Work for Freedom and Trust of Truth

Areopagitica is one of Milton's non-fiction works, and the second Milton's non-fiction that I read. I am interested in Milton because, since I first read Paradise Lost, I have felt that he's a special being with interesting things in his mind. Another reason is the way he delivers his thoughts. Maybe it's just me, but I feel fire in his writings. Sometimes I feel rage, zeal, such a spirit that for him words could hardly serve his purpose. That, plus the boldness in his writings, make me love his works.

So let's continue to the book: Areopagitica. The copy that I got started with the edict that was issued at the time of Milton's life regarding the regulation and printing of books. Then it continues with Milton quoting Euripid, and then his treatise begins. First, I'd like to give a brief summary of the book, and then while doing so, I'll write what makes me think it's so interesting.

Firstly Milton stated that book licensing was first issued by the Catholic Inquisition (Milton himself was not a Catholic). The Greeks and Romans, fathers of philosophy, didn't know such idea. One sentence touched my heart more than the others.

“But that a book, in worse condition than a peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it be born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness the judgment of Radamanth and his colleagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into light, was never heard before.”

If a sinful man can freely be born into the world, why can't a book be freely born to it as well? If God does not judge a man based on what he might do, why should men judge a book based on what it may produce?

And on this Milton couldn't resist being so sarcastic. (How I love the man).

“Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together dialogue-wise in the piazza of one title-page, complimenting and ducking each to other with their shaven reverences, whether the author, who stands by in perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the press or to the sponge.”

Next he stated that just because a book is bad, it doesn't mean that the book must necessarily be harmful. Even Moses, Daniel and Paul were educated in Egyptian, Chaldean, and Roman wisdom but it didn't automatically make them heretics or something alike. In fact, Paul quoted Greek literatures when he was in Athens, and by doing so helped the people there accepting the Bible.

He also wrote that even God himself never condemns reading of materials as sinful. He quoted the book of Thessalonians that says, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.” He argued that since God has given men wisdom and freewill, they should choose for themselves whether to read or not to read, and further whether to agree or disagree with what they read. Hence if anyone would burn a book out of hatred, let it be of his own voluntary act, not a forced act by government instituted decree.

On the statement that a bad book might harm less-educated men, Milton wrote:

“And again, if it be true that a wise man, like a good refiner, can gather gold out of the drossiest volume, and that a fool will be a fool with the best book, yea or without book; there is no reason that we should deprive a wise man of any advantage to his wisdom, while we seek to restrain from a fool, that which being restrained will be no hindrance to his folly.”

His next argument was that if the government wants to prevent corruption to the people by their decree, simply licensing books wouldn't be enough. There would still be music, dancing, and many other things that the law cannot regulate. And even if the law were to regulate them all, it would be nothing but folly, because, please, how could it?

“They are not skilful considerers of human things, who imagine to remove sin by removing the matter of sin”

The other thing that I really like is his argument that licensing would only hinder the Truth from coming to light. Then his former argument that licences would not prevent corruption of the mind and this argument proved to be a double blow for his readers. The government would not only fail to cast away darkness, it would also block the emerging light of Truth and science.

“For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious... Give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps.”

Milton also stated that the Truth might take “more shape than one”, and quoting Paul, he also showed that he appreciated the voice of conscience, when people who eat and who don't, who regard a day and who don't may do either for the Lord. The idea of respecting people's conscience I also find beautiful.

I know that I have already written so much. In fact, this might be my longest blog post so far. But let me ask a few more lines. After reading, I thought, why did he write this in such zeal and spirit? I don't doubt his good intention, but is there anything more than that? I found out that he had his own idea of things, some of them were not in line with either the government or the church. Was he afraid that his ideas couldn't be published, and thus covering the 'Truth' he believed in? Only Milton knew.