Preface To THE PACIFYING MILTON

PREFACE
to

THE PACIFYING MILTON

by Greg Bauder

I have this Milton inspired Psychological/Memoir
work called "THE PACIFYING MILTON", an almost
entirely literary work, loosely based on my early college
years at The University Of British Columbia and my
fascination and seemingly endless pursuit of wisdom
studying Canadian poets and English ones, especially
Milton. It is sort of a critical study of the works I read
and how they shaped my intellectual views and helped
me through my darkest hours.
This piece, though, leans as heavily on The Who or
The Sex Pistols as it does T.S.Eliot or Ezra Pound, or
in actuality more on the great repressed blues singers
who had the soul Wordsworth looked to in Milton in
"LONDON 1802" for example. But, "we still haven't
found what we're looking for" as Bono, too, cried out,
alluding to many great writers' ideas and profundity of
feeling that often keep people going against "a sea of
troubles" as The Bard put it succinctly. I know that's
how I survived for the last 32 years with schizoaffective
disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar,
triggered by my mother's nightmarish death and my
earlier drug abuse and love of popular culture.
But the style and content progress into a more
mature and serious outlook naturally as the Jagger/
Townshend "wasted" Wasteland ( Guess Who? -No,
the fucking Who! ) me-teen who goes through terrifying
experiences and reemerges "Pacified" after self and social
analysis through literature and recognizing that it is the
Blues that are universal truth, existentially and spiritually,
"Pure And Easy" making darkness visible, even after
billions of voices crying together alone in the wilderness
of even Milton's "God-foresaken mess ( Like the "men
who lie in their "Purple Dress "). But, only after bizarre
chapters like the "Mini-Mouse Trap" play within this non-
fiction novella. The final "enlightenment" ( one of Milton's
630 record - no pun intended - word coinages ) is when
the graduation of the student is not about finding the
degree on the wall but the humanitarian writing on the
wall. The young grad ( is it me ?) would be interested in
knowing how much you read because the writing becomes
a bit more sophisticated and coherent.
I have a BA in English from UBC and I have had seven
books published and my first novel, "The Temptress Ariel"
will be a feature film this year. I have published in many
literary magazines and I have written newspaper articles and
have done many readings around Greater Vancouver. But,
enough of that B.S., just put down what you're doing and
read my Kool Acid trip into popular intellectual Illuminati
and flight from the nest of cuckoos advertising Koka-cola
and Kobain.

Greg Bauder ( All I am saying is give this piece a chance ).