Friday, December 3, 2010

You could learn a lot from my younger daughter.

My younger daughter is a freshman at an idyllic consortium of colleges about an hour east of LA. There, she has awakened to the wonders of pure intellectual pursuit. Specifically, she has fallen in love with John Milton (1608–1674) and his epic "Paradise Lost."

Her class decided to host a "Milton Marathon," in which they would read Paradise Lost aloud in its entirety. The subject line of my daughter's email to her entire college was "Are you into Epic shit?!" Her explanation for that assault was simple. "Kids get so many emails, you have to find a way to stand out."

So last night, by the light of the moon and an iPhone flashlight app, she and her friends read of Satan, battles between the fallen and the unfallen, heaven, hell, despair and cruel depravity.

It was heaven.

2 comments:

Dave Trott said...

"Kids get so many emails, you have to find a way to stand out."
Isn't that the way advertising's always been, from print, through to TV, to digital, to social media?
That doesn't change.
Your daughter gets it better than 90% of people doing it.

george tannenbaum said...

I know, Dave. My kids have taught me most everything I know.