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.
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[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 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.
- British dark rock 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.
- North American progressive metal band Symphony X's newest album (and track #5 within) is named Paradise Lost and is themed after it.
- The Swedish metal band Morgana Lefay's song "Paradise Lost" from their album The Secret Doctrine is based upon the poem.
- The Austrian/French gothic band Elend's "Officium Tenebrarum" trilogy is based upon Paradise Lost.
- The American choral and orchestral composer Eric Whitacre composed an "Electronica Opera" entitled Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings inspired by this text.
- Australian underground progressive metal band Saeturnum wrote their song 'Eruption' based around the fall of Lucifer and the temptation of man, heavily inspired by Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.
[edit] In art
- UC San Diego's famous "snake path" (part of the Stuart Art Collection) was inspired by Paradise Lost. Leading from the university's library, the path symbolizes the conflict between innocence and knowledge.[1]
[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."
- Libba Bray uses a quote from Paradise Lost to name the second book of her trilogy, Rebel Angels quoting from it "To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n."
- In his epic Sandman comics/graphic novels series, Neil Gaiman uses Lucifer as a a character, most notably in the Season of Mists arc/collection, and makes reference to the poem, even having Lucifer openly quote Milton.
[edit] In Film
- The plot of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is greatly inspired by Paradise Lost. Anakin Skywalker's rebelliousness and eventual fall to the Dark side is representative of Lucifer's rebellion against God and his fall from grace.original research?
- A line within the comedy/horror film Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, refers to Paradise Lost. The main character Vernon states while in a library "Paradise Lost? Found it." and pulls a copy from the bookshelf.
- The film The Devil's Advocate makes references to the poem and its author. For example, the main antigonist, John Milton is named after the author, and in the finale of the film the main protagonist, Kevin Lomax makes a quotation : "It's better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven".
- The first book of the Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials, Northern Lights has been made into a film. But most of the Christian symbols of the books have been stripped, thus the inspiration from Paradise Lost has become less pronounced
