This isn’t for any essay, assignment or homework. It’s probably my favorite quote of anything because I love to read and I’m just curious to see how others interpret it.
"A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
-John Milton, Areopagitica A work on licensing and censorship (also heads the doorway toward the main reading room in the NY public library).
Personally, I think it means that a quality book is the heart and soul of the author and will survive long after the author’s death with lasting impact on humans (life beyond life).
I once asked a fellow artist why he painted. He replied that he wanted to be remembered after he was dead.
Personally speaking, I draw and paint (mainly caricatures and portraits) because I enjoy creating stuff and interacting with clients, not because I want to be immortalised by my art.
I don’t really disagree with your interpretation, but I think “precious life-blood of a master spirit” would be too egotistical for someone to say of himself (herself). Therefore it seems to be something along the lines of a zeitgeist or ideas or attitudes of the time of the writing that are being preserved.
Either way it’s an acknowledgment that the writing will outlast the writer.
Once, while discussing creativity tools and writer’s block here on the boards, I explained that I often find myself reluctant to finish writing something, even when I’m perfectly capable of doing so. This is what I said then:
"A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” A Note On The Type
The text of this book was set in a typeface called Infyrnael designed by Azrael DeHades (1264 - 1516). It is famed for its use of human blood to trap spirits, thus enabling DeHades’ mummified corpse to achieve a kind of half-life beyond life. The font has been featured in such notable publications as The Necromicon (2nd edition) and Highlights magazine.
It’s possible, though, that the “master spirit” is an avid reader, who is kept “alive” by good books. If that’s the case, it might mean that reading great books makes for a master spirit.
I want to add to and explain my earlier post. It was flippant for a reason, but I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea. Although I understand and love the intent that is "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” the word choice is purple prose. And it’s dark purple. I know it’s Milton, and I know it’s poetry, but still. It sounds like Anne Rice.
I pretty much agree with your interpretation - whenever you write something, you take your deepest emotions and bottle them, preserving them to exist long after you die.
You obviously haven’t met many writers.
(Kidding, kidding . . . well, with a few exceptions. coughcoughHarlanEllisoncoughcough
To me it suggests that the essence of a good book comes from a place “beyond”.
All goods books are evidence of a great artistic “master” and as blood they both come from him and sustain him. To read them is to experience that “other” and once written they become everlasting and immortal for others to come.
Not sure I’d go that far and it doesn’t grab me as a great line but, context is everything and ymmv of course.
Could it mean that the artist is just the pen or the brush? That the the spirit of the atrt flowed through the artist to be trapped and treasured for its purpose for all to see beyond the artist’s life?
I’m not implying that they feel that it is for the artist to be remembered after they are dead… but that it is the art that is important. That it will live on to be read and appreciated long after the blood that created it dries to dust?
I can see these words being inspirational to an artist and can only hope that the OP is one.
