Paradise Lost in popular culture

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Paradise Lost has had a profound impact on writers, artists and illustrators, and, in the twentieth century, filmmakers.

Contents 1 In Music 2 In Literature 3 In Film 4 Elsewhere

[edit] In Music

• In the late 1970s, the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki wrote an opera based on Paradise Lost.

• The American composer Derek Strykowski used Paradise Lost as the basis for his Symphony No. 1: His Dark Materials.

• The Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave has quoted from Paradise Lost many times in his lyrics.

• The British metal band Cradle of Filth was inspired by Paradise Lost and wrote the concept album Damnation and a Day which takes place over the fall and eventual rise of Lucifer.

• Another British metal band, Paradise Lost, takes its name directly from the poem's title.

• Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir quote Paradise Lost in the song "Architecture of a Genocidal Nature" in their album Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, released in 2001.

• Milton's Paradise Lost was, apart from straight quotations of biblical texts, the basis on which the libretto for Joseph Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) was built, by, among others, Baron van Swieten.

• A musical adaptation of Paradise Lost was written by Ben Birney and Rob Seitelman and was performed in New York City in March 2006. This sung-through musical augmented the main story of Paradise Lost with the addition of the character 'Sophia' who represented the feminine divine. It explored her relationship to the events of the Milton poem and offered explanation as to her virtual elimination from Canonic text.

• Glenn Danzig's 1992 album Black Aria drew inspiration from Paradise Lost.

• 'Apostasy Canticle', on gothic doom band Draconian's album 'Arcane Rain Fell', features a quote from lines 249-253 of Book I.

• North American progressive metal band Symphony X have an upcoming album with the name of Paradise Lost, which is rumoured to contain a epic song based on the poem.

• The Swedish metal band Morgana Lefay's song "Paradise Lost" from their album The Secret Doctrine is based upon the poem.

[edit] In Literature

• Much of the mystic poetry of William Blake is a direct response to or rewriting of Paradise Lost. Blake emphasized the rebellious, satanic elements of the epic; the repressive character Urizen in the Four Zoas is a tyrannical version of Milton's God. In addition to his famous quip in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell about Milton belonging to the devil's party, Blake wrote Milton: a Poem which has Milton, like Satan, rejecting a life in Heaven.

• Paradise Lost influenced Mary Shelley when she wrote her novel Frankenstein, in the 1810s; she included a quotation from book X on the title page, and it is one of three books Dr. Frankenstein's monster finds which influences his psychological growth.

• In his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie adapts major motifs and plot elements from Paradise Lost, such as a "fall" and subsequent transformation.

• The epic was also one of the prime inspirations for Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials (itself a quotation from Book II of Paradise Lost). In Pullman's introduction, he adapts Blake's line to quip that he himself "is of the Devil's party and does know it."

• In graphic novelist Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, a Lucifer who bears a strong resemblance to Milton's is a prominent character. At one point the line "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" is mentioned, and Lucifer notes, "I didn't say it. Milton said it, and he was blind." The story involves Lucifer's abdication from the reign of Hell, which is eventually turned over to the care of two angels. This Lucifer was later given an eponymous 75-issue series, written by Mike Carey.

• Paradise Lost has also found a place in the manga culture. The book served as an inspiration and the basis of the plot for the successful manga series Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki that was published in 20 volumes from 1995 to 2001. One of the many storylines included in the graphic novel is centered around the rebellion of the angel of light Lucifer against his creator, portrayed as a brutal and insensitive God.

[edit] In Film

• In the 1977 movie The Sentinel, there are direct references to the book
• In the 1978 movie Animal House, Donald Sutherland portrays an English Literature professor (Dave Jennings) who futilely attempts to lead a discussion regarding Milton's Paradise Lost.
• In the 1994 movie The Crow, a line from Book IV of Paradise Lost (line 846) plays an important role in the death of one of the film's villains, T-Bird; "Abasht the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is."
• In the 1995 movie Se7en, the first message left by the serial killer was a quotation from Paradise Lost: "Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light."
• In the 1997 movie The Devil's Advocate, the senior board member of the New York based law firm is Lucifer and aptly uses the name "John Milton".
• In the 2005 movie Constantine, there are several references to Paradise Lost.
• A direct adaptation of Paradise Lost is currently in pre-production, with Scott Derrickson schedule to direct the film with a budget around $100 million. The script for the film will concentrate on the actual war of archangels - the battle between God's and Satan's army - instead of the Adam/Eve storyline.

[edit] Elsewhere

• In the 2000 Futuristic action-roleplaying-game Deus Ex, one of the three possible endings contains a quote from Book I of Paradise Lost (line 263): "It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." 2003's Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne also features a quote of the famous line near the end of the story.

• In the videogame Max Payne, Paradise Lost is one of the books found by Max in the Ragna Rock nightclub.

• In the original Star Trek television series, a 1966 episode called "Space Seed" (synopsis here) alluded to the same quote; a 2006 Star Trek novel written as a sequel to the "Space Seed" episode is titled To Reign in Hell.

• The Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode 'Paradise Lost' derives its name from the poem.
• "Paradise Lost" is the subtitle of Capcom's Mega Man X8.

• The English trailer for the anime movie The End of Evangelion opened with a quote from Paradise Lost: "For who would lose, though full of pain, this intellectual being? Those thoughts that wander through eternity to perish rather, swallowed up and lost, in the wide womb of uncreated night." Although it was credited to Milton in the trailer, the quote did not appear in the movie.

• "Paradise Lost" is the name of a Stargate SG-1 TV series episode (season 6, episode 15).