Carnal Rhetoric: Milton's Iconoclasm and the Poetics of Desire.

Carnal Rhetoric: Milton's Iconoclasm and the Poetics of Desire. Lana Cable's Carnal carnaladjectiveReferring to the flesh, to baser instincts, often referring to sexual “knowledge” Rhetoric begins by promising torevolutionize the way we read metaphor. Cable draws attention to whatshe calls "the semantic fallacy," which, she argues, governsmuch of our (mis)interpretation of metaphoric language. As Cable rightlyobserves,when John Milton compares moderate Episcopal ministers to coolingstewpots whose rising lukewarm scum "gives a vomit to Godhimself," we accomplish little by asserting that what Milton reallymeans is that the Almighty prefers ministers of strong religiousconviction. Such a reading seeks metaphor's "meaning"everywhere but in our experience of the image itself - the reading turnsaway from the metaphor (in this instance, with apparent embarrassment)rather than dealing with it. . . . Metaphor is not about"meaning." If we consider how metaphor is used and what itdoes, we find that its proper milieu is not meaning but affectiveresonance. (9)But despite this promising beginning, Cable herself turns away frommetaphor ("rather than dealing with it") and discusses insteadher sense of Milton's evolving understanding of the relationshipbetween truth and image, between "the idea" and "thatwhich is fixed, canonic, and binding." Although many of hersubsequent observations are provocative, they are inevitablydisappointing - roughly on the scale of the annoyance one feels over aninstance of "bait and switch A deceptive sales technique that involves advertising a low-priced item to attract customers to a store, then persuading them to buy more expensive goods by failing to have a sufficient supply of the advertised item on hand or by disparaging its quality. " at the supermarket.Cable herself seems almost apologetic about "the longtheoretical chapter that opens this study" (3). As long theoreticalchapters go, it is not necessarily bad, but its relation to the rest ofthe book is problematical. Its description and emendation e��men��da��tion?n.1. The act of emending.2. An alteration intended to improve: textual emendations made by the editor.Noun 1. of metaphortheory serve less as a basis for the book's methodology indiscussing Milton's metaphors than as a backdrop for tracing the"discernible stages in Milton's thinking about . . .metaphoric language" (4). After establishing the notion of thesemantic fallacy, Cable turns to the fallacy that interests her more -"the iconological fallacy" or "image anxiety" thatmakes us fear "the disturbing possibility - to many impermissible im��per��mis��si��ble?adj.Not permitted; not permissible: impermissible behavior.im -that ideas may themselves be nothing more than projected images"(19). According to Cable, the latter possibility should not be fearedbut rather embraced in "perfect freedom" (22). Iconoclastic i��con��o��clast?n.1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.2. One who destroys sacred religious images. metaphor thrives on the tension between idea and image, between truthand the imperfect representation of that truth. As Cable writes,"Metaphoric juxtaposition can arouse us to tensive ten��sive?adj.1. Of or causing tension.2. Physiology Giving or causing the sensation of stretching or tension. new awareness;but it cannot repay us for what that new awareness costs" (31). Wesee the world differently, even better, because of an apt metaphor, butthat metaphor, apt or not, draws attention to its own limitations as arepresentation of truth - by not being literal, by not reaffirming theprimacy of semantic content, by relying on the "simultaneousaffirmation and destruction of reference" (20). Metaphor thereforebecomes an iconoclastic rupture in communication that renews our"transformative desire" in the eternal quest for truth. It ispart of "a campaign of striving toward right by constantly changingways of being wrong" (17), and to be effective, it must continually"liberate the idea from what would otherwise be canonic andbinding" (125).Cable sees precisely this kind of liberating iconoclasm iconoclasm(īkŏn`ōklăzəm)[Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian at work inMilton's thought as it develops from the antiprelatical tractsthrough Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes. In the antiprelatical tracts,Cable argues, Milton drives a wedge between rational argument and moralfeeling. As Cable observes, "in the antiprelatical tracts theimagery-driven affective argument overwhelmed or walked away from therational argument" (90). The metaphors are more memorable, moreexciting, and more alive than the tracts' logical exposition ofMilton's stance in the historical controversy. Indeed, in thetracts, "Milton actually draws us away from a rational argumentwhich has no apparent moral dimension, only to involve us in asupposedly moral world which has no perceivable rationalfoundation" (64). But according to Cable, Milton goes too far andis not yet comfortable with this breach between the moral and rationalworlds, between image and idea. He is not yet ready to cast away thereification re��i��fy?tr.v. re��i��fied, re��i��fy��ing, re��i��fiesTo regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence.[Latin r of ideas or to strive for perfect freedom: "In its mostdramatic manifestation in Animadversions, fear that the idea . . . maybe only a projected human image threatens to destroy the idea itself.But threat of destruction creates instead an affective vacuum which theimpetus toward new reification of the idea seeks to fill" (88).In the divorce tracts, Cable sees every aspect subjugated to image:"the affective dimensions of the image actively determineratiocinative ra��ti��oc��i��na��tive?adj.Of, relating to, marked by, or skilled in methodical and logical reasoning. See Synonyms at logical.Adj. 1. procedure. Carnal rhetoric itself becomes the idol whichother argumentative Controversial; subject to argument.Pleading in which a point relied upon is not set out, but merely implied, is often labeled argumentative. Pleading that contains arguments that should be saved for trial, in addition to allegations establishing a Cause of Action or elements are made to serve" (90-91). Only inAreopagitica does Milton revise his idolatrous i��dol��a��trous?adj.1. Of or having to do with idolatry.2. Given to blind or excessive devotion to something: "The religiosity of the "wish to subsume sub��sume?tr.v. sub��sumed, sub��sum��ing, sub��sumesTo classify, include, or incorporate in a more comprehensive category or under a general principle: himself and his entire universe into an icon of perfect union"(116). According to Cable, in Areopagitica he comes to understand that"human beings serve the interests of truth only when a desire fortruth leads them unceasingly to search beyond whatever they think theyhave learned of it" (118). Cable comes to this conclusion becauseAreopagitica's images refuse to let us forget that they areillusions; they resist the pressure to convert them into truths bydemonstrating their ephemerality. . . . For in contrast with the imagesof either the divorce tracts or the antiprelatical tracts, the images inAreopagitica subvert our carnal propensity for grasping at and acceptingas true the externals, the incidental appearances, the forms an idea maytake, instead of exercising our reason toward a lively comprehension.(119)In this way, Areopagitica "supports an imaginative andindependent self-authorship that is capable of aspiring to perfectionwithout necessitating the idolatrous and, more important, theunimaginative pretense that one might actually achieve it"(142-143).Milton "extends his affective polemic in Eikonoklastes to attack. . . the idolatrous abdication of self-authorship that he finds at workboth in the composition of Eikon Basilike and in the testimony renderedby its astounding popular reception" (149). In Samson Agonistes, byCable's reckoning, we meet the full embodiment of Milton'sunderstanding of "transformative desire" in a hero who, bystripping himself of every icon, is able "to author himself finallyas an autonomous, imaginative individual whose appalling perfect freedomlies beyond the capacity of any to interpret" (170). Milton in thissense is essentially "Nietzschean" (as Cable herselfcharacterizes him), more progressive and more libertarian even than Mill(119, 129-132). All that matters "is that the servant of truthliberate himself from the idols by means of which he substitutes thesecurity of carnal conviction for the imaginative restlessness oftransformative desire" (188). Cable's book concludes byalluding - without substantiation - to "the existential alarmsexperienced by every European who was being confronted with thechallenges to conviction produced by the increasingly decentered worldof the early modern period" (196).I am made a little nervous by the easy anachronism of Cable'slibertarian, Nietzschean, existentialist ex��is��ten��tial��ism?n.A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the Milton and by Cable's"whitewashing" of Milton's political reputation.According to Cable, from Areopagitica on, Milton advocates "perfectfreedom" and only censures "the operation of any ideology or'open superstition' that would 'extirpat' thoseguarantors of individual freedom on which imaginativeself-transformation would actually depend" (133). One wonders ifCable is familiar with The Ready and Easy Way, a tract in which, 16years after Areopagitica, Milton advocates the use of force by the fewto maintain a free commonwealth even in the face of opposition from themajority. In The Ready and Easy Way, the commonwealth is quite clearly areified image (or "open superstition") that Milton posits asthe only thinkable social order. In its defense, moreover, Milton arguesthat we should "extirpat" the right to vote for those who failto support "freedom" against its royalist roy��al��ist?n.1. A supporter of government by a monarch.2. Royalista. See cavalier.b. An American loyal to British rule during the American Revolution; a Tory. enemies. Such anapproach to the political and social problems of England in 1660 doesnot seem consonant with Cable's claims for a free-thinking,iconoclastic Milton or a Milton who ever seeks to liberate us fromimages that have become canonic and binding.To Cable's credit, she is very adept at close readings ofselected passages. Her readings of the passage on "Episcopalldignity" and the church fathers in Of Reformation (especially55-62) and of Samson's encounters with Dalila and Harapha in SamsonAgonistes (especially 177-186) are particularly memorable. But I wouldhave wished that she had spent more time exploring how her image of aNietzschean, libertarian Milton engages and enhances the criticaldialogue on Milton's role as an historical and literary figure.Reading Cable's book, I get the impression that no one has everbefore addressed the issue of Milton's understanding of the conceptof freedom, that no one has ever before discussed Milton's visionof how one ought to exercise one's freedom in the pursuit of truth.Although Cable is certainly familiar with the work of a wide range ofscholars, she does not situate sit��u��ate?tr.v. sit��u��at��ed, sit��u��at��ing, sit��u��ates1. To place in a certain spot or position; locate.2. To place under particular circumstances or in a given condition.adj. her understanding of Milton'siconoclasm in the context of what others have said about Milton'sconceptualization of truth and freedom. Cable has written a book thatoffers some provocative questions about Milton's understanding ofmetaphor, but she has not written a book that successfullyrevolutionizes our ways of reading metaphor, nor has she written a bookthat deals comprehensively and convincingly with Milton's sense ofthe relationship between truth and freedom.