![]() With effort, Satan is able to free himself from his chains and rise from the fire. Still he adds that it is his intention to continue the struggle against God, saying, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (263). Satan comments on how Beelzebub has been transformed for the worse by the punishment of God. Next to Satan lies Beelzebub, Satan's second in command. Lying on the lake, Satan is described as gigantic he is compared to a Titan or the Leviathan. ![]() They were defeated and cast from Heaven into the fires of Hell. Satan, who had been Lucifer, the greatest angel, and his compatriots warred against God. ![]() The poem thus commences in the middle of the story, as epics traditionally do. He concludes the prologue by saying he will attempt to justify God's ways to men.įollowing the prologue and invocation, Milton begins the epic with a description of Satan, lying on his back with the other rebellious angels, chained on a lake of fire. He also says that the poem will deal with man's disobedience toward God and the results of that disobedience. He invokes the classical Muse, Urania, but also refers to her as the "Heav'nly Muse," implying the Christian nature of this work. Perhaps next time, I’ll whisper a few of these words and light a candle for my inconsistent muse.Book I of Paradise Lost begins with a prologue in which Milton performs the traditional epic task of invoking the Muse and stating his purpose. Maybe I should try to invoke the Muse…my Muse, the whirl of history, imagination, power and language. Here’s Dante’s invocation. I wish that it would happen every time I sit down but alas, some days it’s more of a slog than a slide through the words. Who wouldn’t want the Muse to strike? It’s an amazing feeling, when the “muse” takes over and the story unfolds, seemingly on its own. That tradition was carried through the ages to Dante, Milton and Shakespeare. Homer, Virgil and Ovid all open their poems with an invocation asking them to help them tell their tale. I can understand why the ancients used to purposely invoke the Muse when they wrote, asking them for divine guidance. It made me think very seriously about the idea of a Muse, one that inspires and infuses the artist with ideas, and in this case, the Muse definitely guided my fingers across the keyboard. I had no idea I was going to take the direction with the characters that I did. Writing the chapter in that way meant that I had changed a massive plotline for the book. After I wrote that scene I recall being truly stunned. Popilla is an entirely fictional character, one without any real restrictions on what she could say or do, and boy, did my mind run wild with her. It wasn’t on my chapter timeline and it wasn’t something I had ever imagined happening in any way at any point of my plotting. I’m not going to give you any spoilers on this, but know that it’s an intense chapter, one with high emotions for all the characters in the book, and one that I absolutely did not expect to write. One of the most powerful moments in FEAST OF SORROW when the characters ran the show is a major scene with Popilla, the mother of my protagonist, Apicius, the famous ancient Roman gourmand. But all the stuff in between? That’s completely fair game. I consider many historical facts to be set in stone and somewhat immovable. While I write fiction, I do want to stay as close as I can to the known facts of the periods in which I write. I have several timelines that I work from: one that looks at the events of history during the time frame that I’m writing, one that covers the timeline of each character, and a timeline that shows me exactly what happens from chapter to chapter. I had no idea that was going to happen.” New characters have been born, others brutally killed, others thwarted or rewarded.Īs a historical fiction author, I have to be a plotter. I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped writing after a few hours and sat back to re-read the words and thought, “Huh. One of the most wonderful things about writing is how the mind seems to unravel the story from a place hidden deep inside. This week the Debs are talking about how they torture their characters, make choices for them, or how their characters lead the way.
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