Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Because we all know that Milton = Satan

Did anyone else hear the story on NPR about the guy in the Midwest who has been sending (as yet unactivated) pipe bombs to financial services companies along with threatening messages? He's calling himself "The Bishop" and demanding that certain stock prices be increased to $6.66 (the trading price, apparently, of The Beast).

I was listening with only moderate interest until the correspondent mentioned that, in at least one letter, The Bishop had quoted John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Then the story ended--of course without supplying the quotation!--but in rooting around on the internet I discovered that it was, boringly (and slightly inaccurately), "IT IS BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL, THAN SERVE IN HEAVEN."

Too bad. For a brief moment, I was interested. How cool would it have been if the quotation had turned out to be, "[the] two-handed engine at the door/Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more"? Or maybe, "New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large." Or even, "Help us to save free conscience from the paw/Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw."*

Bummer. The best I can hope for, now, is that the dude turns out to be this Bishop.


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*No, none of those are from PL, but at least they're (more or less) about bishops.

6 comments:

Bardiac said...

Ooo, nice bishop link!

It's hard to think of much better evil vaunting about hellish stuff than Milton's Satan. It's not like Orgoglio gets a lot of great lines or anything.

Sfrajett said...

I love your two-handed engine one. Hilarious! It made me guffaw at my desk. In my fantasy he'd be quoting ELIZABETH Bishop, perhaps "One Art." Then he could be a two-handed engine telling the government (perhaps George Bush) that the art of losing isn't hard to master. But if that were true, it would be, as Dorian Corey says in Paris Is Burning, "a fun world, wouldn't it?" A funner world than we have. Jeez Louise. Could he have picked a more Cliff's Notes quote?

Thanks for making me laugh today.

Oso Raro said...

God, you are SUCH a nerd! I love it! By my lights, any quote by Milton anywhere nowadays is rarer than a true strand of Britney's hair! But noooooo... not for Mi Lady! Haha, excellent! Also, following Bardiac, nice link for The Bishop!

Courtney said...

I was really hoping for this bishop.

dhawhee said...

how about this one: "it's better to burn out than fade away."

heh

Anonymous said...

nice bishop! I like it.