Status Updates From Paradise Lost

✒"Which way I fly is hell - myself am hell -
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven."

“…what in me is dark
Illumine…” I, 22-3

“Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell” I, 45-7

“All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what else is to be overcome?” I, 106-9

Book 2. In giving Sin the key to Hell, God seems to implicitly encourage Satan’s escape and therefore the temptation and fall of humanity. This presents a paradigm - if God is all-powerful, then nothing can happen against his will, but many evil things do happen, so God must at least allow this evil or plan for it.
Hell is continuously presented as a mirror to heaven, complete with Satan's authoritative rule.

I've just finished book 1 (of 12). I'm unabashedly excited to see where this goes - the setup, structure, and prose are emulating the Aeneid wherever/whenever possible. The two points Milton has really strived to make are 1. It's better to reign in hell than serve in heaven (bars) 2. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. More on that later ;)