In our world, we exist after a great tragedy, an event that changed humans forever and how we see ourselves, according to the classic biblical tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost takes us back to before the fall of the human race, and even to before Satan’s fall from heaven and fills all the gaps that Genesis had left for us.

 

Feel the fall on Nov. 12, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. as the entire epic is read in the biennial Milton Marathon! This year, the event will take place in the new Academic Building in room 106. Come to hear the classic epic and to see an amazing art exhibit made by ETSU students present and past. Attendants can enter into a raffle for an $100 Barnes & Noble giftcard! 

 

Milton’s masterpiece is considered to be the last great epic, with over 10,500 lines and 12 books in total. This piece is resurrected here at ETSU every two years and its amazing and innovative characters have added so much to culture without even reading it. For example, Milton’s heroic Satan is the first representation of Satan ever being written and characterized. This archetype of Satan has shown up in modern paintings and television shows like Lucifer, which features an attractive and charming devil, unlike past archetypes of the red-horned dragon. 

 

This epic has even inspired classic literature, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The piece is even alluded to in the novel as it is one of the first books the creature reads. Frankenstein’s creature finds himself relating to Milton’s Satan as he too has tension between himself and his creator. 

 

The marathon is centered around the class, “Milton and His Age,”  directed by Dr. Josh Reid. Students present are incredibly excited for this event and have created special things to promote and contribute to the art exhibit. For example, student Polaris Storm created an interactive video game for attendants to play. Additionally, Milton-ist students even ran a marathon to represent all 12 books of the epic.

 

The Milton Marathon aims to connect the community through this public literary event. 

Dr. Reid spoke on the importance of the event and why it has been such a distinct event in the past: “We have kind of lost, in our culture, the appreciation for spoken poetry…thats how our culture started–is listening around a fire to someone telling a story long ago… Milton is a way to re-experience that.” The story was written by a blind man and composed orally, so getting to hear it out loud exudes all the magic and ethereal moments the epic writer created. 

 

All attendants have the chance to join in on the reading by sitting in the reading pit and picking up where the last reader stopped. 

 

Come to the Milton Marathon and hear, read, participate in the tale “Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit/ Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste/ Brought death into the world, and all our woe” (Milton, 1667/2005, 1.1-3)

 

Milton, J. (2005). Paradise Lost (G. Teskey, Ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

 

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