Terrance Lindall and the Upcoming Milton Bash

John Milton (Engraving, 1741)

Jacobus Houbraken

(Image Courtesy of Terrance Lindall, WAHCenter)

I seem to be receiving a lot of Milton-related emails these days. Yesterday saw the actor and performance artist John Basinger contacting me about my blog on his Milton recitation, and today sees the surrealist artist and WAHCenter director Terrance Lindall contacting me about his upcoming Milton celebration.

Hi Jeffery:

Yes, I follow your blogs and Matthew is a very interesting artist.

That would be the artist Mattthew Skenandore, whose Paradise Lost work I noted a few blogdays ago.

Things are going well for the Paradise Lost event. Everything is together. Now if I can only sell tickets!

This, of course, refers to the upcoming Milton celebration at the WAHCenter, which I've previously blogged about.

I did exchange emails with Prof. Fallon. He may be able to come next year to my annual PL event and talk. I appreciate his thesis, "Milton is NOT a religious writer." He is expounding at the University of Queensland in August 2008. If you are in the USA in May 2009, get in touch. I expect to have a few scholars on hand for the program.

I notice that Prof. Rumrich is lecturing "down under" too.

Professors Fallon and Rumrich are two of the three scholars (the third being William Kerrigan) who have edited a recently published book, The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, that has an illustration from Lindall's Paradise Lost series on its cover. Fallon and Rumrich are, apparently, lecturing in Australia this month. The annual Paradise Lost event that Lindall refers to is a yearly gathering at the WAHCenter of Milton experts and others who give talks on themes related to Milton. Lindall is graciously extending me an invitation because he's under the illusion that I actually have some expertise on Milton. I suspect that he'd be exceedingly disappointed if I actually did show up, for I'd likely manage to reveal little more about Milton than my own stark ineptitude as a putative Milton expert.

Attached is my 6 X 9 postcard which has just been printed. I credited you along with other scholars and institutions who have endorsed my work on bringing Milton into contemporary public life. When I get a chance I have to do my own writing on Milton. If the Midwestern College that expressed interest in my project takes up the cause, I will do so.

Lindall -- for those new to these posts on him and his work -- is not only an artist and art director but also an intellectual who has done doctoral work in philosophy. I'm not sure if he's considering finishing a doctoral thesis or simply pursuing some research interests on Milton.

The postcard referred to is a PDF attachment, so I cannot post it here, but the portrait referred to next is reproduced above:

I just acquired a beautiful portrait of Milton: Collection of the Right Honorable Arthur Onslow. Speaker of the House of Commonses. Impensis I.& P. Knapton Londini. 1741. Engraved in Amsterdam, 1741 Houbraken.

After which, Lindall closes:

All Hail Milton!!!

Yours Truly,

Terrance Lindall

I can honestly say that when I started this little blog -- and it remains a minor one in the blogosphere -- I never expected my posts to get attention from such interesting and prominent people as Terrance Lindall or John Basinger.

Blogging does have its rewards.

John Basinger's Paradise Lost Performance: Preliminary Remarks

John Basinger

"Paradise Lost Performance"

(Image from paradiselostperformances)

Nearly three years ago, a new semester had begun, and I was teaching a graduate course on Paradise Lost at Korea University but lamenting my students' lack of enthusiasm for reading the entire, long, complex, slow-moving epic, so I searched for innovative approaches and came across John Basinger's website, which reassured me that students would find the results worth their time, and I wrote:

The good new is that Milton takes his time because he's got a great story to tell.

Actor John Basinger knows this and has taken the effort not just to read the poem but to memorize and perform it.In December 2001, he gave a 3-day, one-man performance of all twelve books at Three Rivers Community College. He plans to give another performance of all twelve books on December 9, 2008, the 400th anniversary of Milton's birth. Meanwhile, anyone interested in tapes or discs of his 2001 performance can contact him by email:

johnbasinger@paradiselostperformances.org

I would bet that his performance justifies the effort.

Recently, that performance from 2001 was made available on DVD, so I ordered it and began listening. Unfortunately, technical flaws in the third disk interrupted my viewing pleasure, so I couldn't watch Basinger's performance of books 10 through 12.

I reported the problem and have since received a replacement, and I intend to blog about the entire performance once I've had the opportunity to finish watching it. That might not happen for a couple of weeks, for the Olympics are on this week -- taking up my television time as Sun-Ae and the kids watch South Korea's athletic efforts -- and we take a short vacation next week.

Meanwhile, Mr. Basinger has discovered my blog entry, and he sent me an email:

Dear Jeffery,

I just found your Sep 7, 2005 reference to my PL efforts. I hope your kind hopes have been born out by your viewing.

Yours,

J. Basinger

At first, I wasn't sure if he meant my blog . . . or if he were referring to having just discovered the email that I'd sent three years ago when I made my original inquiry about his project and had asked him about possible tapes or disks, so I inquired:

Dear John,

Are you referring to one of my Gypsy Scholar blog entries? Or -- more likely -- to an email that I sent earlier?

Either way, the answer is yes, I am quite happy with what I've seen so far. The replacement for the flawed third DVD has arrived, so I should be able to view Books 10 through 12 soon.

It's an impressive achievement -- not just the commitment to memory but also the performance. I hope that you're getting the attention that you deserve this four-hundred-year anniversary of Milton's birth. Do you have something big planned for the actual birthday?

Anyway, I intend to blog on the DVDs after I've seen the entire performance.

Best Regards,

Jeffery Hodges

Mr. Basinger replied:

Dear Jeffery,

To a Gypsy Scholar blog. Sep 7, '05. My first visit to a great site. While aware of your specialty, I love the breadth of your interests. I have a good friend who washed up here in Middletown, CT a decade or so ago who also qualifies as a polymath, Roy Lisker. He would repay a google glance. His main web-effort is his magazine, Ferment. I hope the new DVD works okay.

One other tangential point of interest. My wife and her two sisters were born in Arkansas, in a very little town called Ravenden. The family removed to Brookings, SD when she was 5. But whenever the sisters get together, the years fall away and the accent delightfully reasserts itself.
Yours,

John

You see, there's always an Arkansas connection! I've been through Ravenden countless times, for it's situated in the Ozarks on the highway between Hardy and Black Rock (and I even attended church camp at the nearby Ravenden Springs). In fact, my brother drove me and my family through Ravenden on our way to Memphis last February at the end of our Ozark vacation.

As for Roy Lisker and his Ferment Magazine, I've taken a look, and Dr. Lisker certainly does appear to qualify as a polymath . . . unlike me, despite Mr. Basinger's impression.

Anyway, take the time to vist Mr. Basinger's website, Paradise Lost Performances, where you can get a foretaste of the entire Paradise Lost feast.