don@allegra.UUCP (D. Mitchell) (08/03/84)
OK, I was rude to Chuq. Sorry. I was about to start reading Paradise Lost. I know people who enjoyed it. There are books that have depth; books that you can think about and study. Some people like that, other people just want to have fun with a book. I think both are perfectly fine things to do, like Mozart or rock music. I certainly couldn't take a steady diet of "heavy" books. I have found it amusing to read the foundational classics in chronological order. One easily understands the allusions to earlier work then. These books are not beyond reach after all. They just assume that you have read a few books that everyone at the time (who was educated) had read, like Homer and Virgil. (Ahem) I am not worried too much about bad translations, Chuq. Milton wrote in English. He is no more difficult to read than Shakespeare, who is even older.