Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost — Milton's epic poem on the Fall of Man — was, for me, an exercise in trying to see both sides. I went in firmly against its central figure, yet I believe that in everything worth understanding, you have to hear the opposing argument in its own voice. The poem has accumulated strange afterlives in certain circles over the centuries — interpretations and appropriations that would surprise most casual readers — which only adds to its peculiar gravity. Whatever you think of the protagonist, the work remains a study in how conviction, when unchallenged, curdles into ruin.